The current season seems to a tough one for PIPs. Many have delayed starting nesting, some early nests were abandoned and some flocks seemed to be relocating. However overall information is scanty and more observers are needed please!
Extra coast counts during November and January will be especially helpful. And it’s easy to do.
The coast count guidelines have been updated. Please see count details for the current season.
Important sites needing counters include Kurrimine (south, centre and north ends of the beach) and along the coast northwards including Cowley Beach, Mourilyan etc.
A PIP coast count is easy to do, and it only needs two hours of your time from 4PM to 6PM.
Click HERE to get details and PLEASE help help with this count!
A special call out to boat owners and friends: When the weather is good, can you consider doing a boat-based count in between the beaches where there is no land access?
Extra effort is particularly important now. PIPs appear to be short of food and their nesting has been delayed with some PIPs possibly relocating. We are trying to find out what’s going on. Helpful people are urgently needed to watch, count and report PLEASE!
BIG thanks to all who completed PIP Coast Counts in 2013.
You can read the 2013 report here.
PLEASE count again next November or December!
Hello all PIPwatchers! Have any PIPs arrived in YOUR area yet?
PIPs should be returning to Queensland soon, after their short winter break in PNG.
Please report the first PIPs you see this season – just click here to put in your observation reports.
A pair of PIPs have just raised their chick at Glenella State School in Mackay. The photo above was taken on 8 November. The chick left the nest about a week later. These PIPs built their nest surprisingly close to classrooms and play areas. The nest was located near the centre of the photo below.
Many thanks to Maree for nest reports and photos and for guiding the school class on their first PIP watching experience. So far this is the only nest report from Mackay but hopefully Maree and the children will spot more PIP nests.
It was great to receive two independent PIP reports from the Mackay area.
Fay reported seeing two PIPs at Blacks Beach on October 18. She had already heard the first pigeons of the season in early October, about the same time as she has done in previous years.
Ed observed 5 PIPs flying south, low over littoral rainforest to the near south of Hay Point on October 24. Later that day Ed discovered feathered remains of a PIP that he suspected might have been the result of a Goshawk kill.
Historic reports exist of PIP nesting in the Mackay-Whitsunday area but no recent information so all sightings are helpful. It will also most valuable if boating people can keep a lookout for PIPs flying to or from islands where they might be nesting.