The rain has resulted in birdlife flocking back to marshes and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for bird breeding events, according to the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) Senior Wetlands and Rivers Conservation Officer Tim Hosking.

“The Marshes were inundated by early Spring rainfall across the catchment and a number of waterbird colonies have started up, primarily straw-necked Ibis which have built an estimated 30,000 nests across a few sites,” Mr Hosking said.

“The skies are also filled with ducks, cormorants, magpie geese, egrets and herons. Recent monitoring indicates there are thousands of nests and newly hatched broods throughout the thriving wetland areas.

“We’ve not seen birdlife at the Marshes quite like this since 2012, so it is fantastic to see the birds return in such good numbers.”

Other wildlife including native frogs, such as the Barking Marsh Frog, were adding to the noise around the marshes while the wetland vegetation was flourishing and creating a sea all shades of green, Mr Hosking said.

Using environmental water allocations carried over from 2012, the Macquarie-Castlereagh Environmental Flows Reference Group’s targeted strategic areas within the Marshes that would prime the overall system making it ready to bounce back when more water became available.

“The Advisory Group is a community-government partnership and has a long history helping to shape decisions around environmental water,” Mr Hosking added.

“We often have to make hard choices as the seasons tighten, but informed by rapidly evolving scientific information, together we do the best we can.

“OEH and Commonwealth Environmental Water Office will be looking at the water flows in the Marshes over the next few months in case we need to intervene to extend the duration of inundation at key waterbird breeding and foraging sites.”

Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder David Papps said current conditions provided an opportunity to provide natural flow variation in response to rainfall events.

“By working together we can create the right conditions to improve the health of native plants, fish, waterbirds and other wildlife and restore the river, floodplains and wetlands of the Macquarie catchment,” Mr Papps said.