Water arrives in Lake Eyre - check your Pelicans.

Have you missed your local Pelicans yet? You may recall that I predicted two weeks ago that the Pelicans would arrive in Lake Eyre, with the flood-waters coming down from Queensland. I suggested that people, especially our Gippsland colleagues, ought observe their Pelicans, to see if they start to disappear. Well, today's press tells me that the waters have now arrived there - and so have the Pelicans.

(Photo: Weekend Australian 28.2.09)

Today, I was looking for Orchids on the side of Macquarie Pass, when I lay down to take a close-up shot of a little Ground Orchid. As I did so, I happened to glance skyward. From a gap between the branches of towering Eucalypts in a patch of wet schlerophyll forest, and rainforest understory, I briefly glimpsed a group of Pelicans flying overhead. A very unexpected sight, as I am sure you will understand - Pelicans flying over a rainforest.

These Pelicans were heading westwards. Now the most obvious explanation was that they were simply circling to gain height to cross over the towering sandstone cliffs of the Illawarra escarpment, in order to cross then glide down to the nearby Wingecarribee Reservoir. However, it is entirely possible that they were following an instinct which we know about, but barely begin to comprehend - to fly a vast distance to Lake Eyre, to breed while the famous dry salt Lake Eyre is in flood.How do the Pelicans of the east coast know when to fly west to Lake Eyre? Perhaps they had read the front page of the Weekend Australian today. "Waters give lift to nature's Eyre force" (pathetic pun, by the way, dearest Sub-Editor of the Australian).

• "Most of the water that began coursing into Lake Eyre this week is from the Georgina River, which rises near Mount Isa in north Queensland and is in fierce flood. The Diamantina, further to the east, is not flowing as heavily; a third river draining to the lake, the Cooper, has not run into it since 1990."
  

• "The birds are already in a feeding frenzy. Australian pelicans, silver gulls and gull-billed terns have flocked from up to 2000km away to dip into the teeming waters." (Source: "The Australian"28 February 2009 - story by Jamie Walker)
  

I don't know if Pelicans have a barometric sensor system, which tells them there has been a massive depression (Low Pressure System) in northern Queensland. Whatever it is, Pelicans are undoubtedly moving (from somewhere) to Lake Eyre, to feast on the burst of life which follows a flood there.

They feed, then they breed, as quickly as possible. They have to race against time, as the slow ones end up losing their chicks to starvation, if they are not fully fledged by the time the waters of Lake Eyre dry up again. It is a risky strategy, but then again, this is part of Australia's natural "boom and bust" or "flood and drought" cycle. It is all totally natural, and has been played out for millions of years.

Please let me know if you are suddenly not seeing Pelicans, where you would expect to see them.