MERIMBULA LAKE BLOG

A Blog of Merimbula Lake February 2008
How ephemeral are the creatures that live in Merimbula Lake. You can walk past hundreds of them and never see them or know who they are. A continual pandemonium of feeding, fighting and flirting is going on just at your feet whilst you nonchalantly stride along the meandering Merimbula Lake boardwalk. They are ephemeral to us because we only catch small glimpses of their wet world but their existence is as real and frantic as ours can be, sometimes even more so. The animals that use the lake are numerous - stingrays, soldier crabs, birds, fish, worms, eels, seahorses, shrimps, prawns and so on. The lake is such a diverse tidal ecosystem that the list of species animals found in the lake, which can be seen with the naked eye, would be in the hundreds.
This blog is about the lives of the animals and people that live and work and feed around and in the lake. Every week I discover a new aspect of the lake that entrances me and through this blog I am seeking to document it for others who have an interest in this intriguing world of a tidal lake. My experiences have already been thrilling such as when I witnessed the birth of a stingaree in a pool of water or watched the emergence of the glamorous bubble shells from the sand at dusk.

What is a stingaree and what is a stingray?
Commonly, people call all flat, round elasmobranchs with a tail, a ‘stingray’. However, there are several types of ‘stingrays’ found in the lake which will all puncture you with their barbed spine and others which don’t have spines. The more general and correct term for this group of animals is just ‘rays’.
Merimbula Lake is host to many rays because of its rich food source of crabs, worms and shelled invertebrates. When snorkelling, you will frequently come across rays buried in the sand with just their breathing holes showing .
The easiest way to spot a ray if you don’t wish to get wet, is to stand on the boardwalk at dusk or at night, or even on an overcast day, when the tide is high and there is little wind, and look into the water. Although they can be seen anywhere along the boardwalk, the first major bend in the boardwalk after starting from the Fisheries Office, where the ironbarks are hanging over the boardwalk, is a popular feeding place for the stingarees.
If you see a cloudy area in the water, it is probably a ray stirring up the bottom in search of a soldier crab or worm. And if you are particularly fortunate, you will see a fish such as a flounder or toadfish following the ray, patiently waiting for some leftovers. Saw a flounder doing just this last week; it was about 25cm long and was following a juvenile stingaree around which was only 30cm in length. They seemed to be enjoying each other’s company as the flounder would actually lay on the tail of the stingaree as it rustled up some food for both of them.
At Mitchies Jetty when the fishing charter boats come in and throw their fish offal into the water, you may see the gigantic Black Stingrays or the Eagle Rays come in for a feed. They seem to know when the boats are coming in and sail in through the channel to collect their morning tea. They seem to be fairly harmless when you are snorkelling around them and they will often approach snorkellers and divers to within a metre however, it does pay to be cautious. Stepping on a stingray or stingaree will result almost definitely result in a barb in the leg.
The types of rays in Merimbula are:
The Fiddler Ray- mottled body colouring and has a shark like tail with no venomous spine
Many species of stingarees - tail is rounded at the end with a serrated venomous spine found midway along the tail. The body is generally cream to brownish in colour. The Crossback or Banded Stingaree has a mottled pattern of dark brown/black on light brown.
The Eagle Rays which are probably the most gracious animal to watch in the lake. It’s streamlined body, its manta ray-like pointed wings and blue dappled markings which glow in the sunlight, give it an eerily majestic quality. And yes, it’s very thin whip-like tail does have a barbed spine on it.
The Black Stingrays are the larger stingrays found in the lake. The Black Stingray, which is common here, can grow up to 3.35m long and 1.8m wide. (They are not ‘Bullrays’ as they are sometimes called by locals.) These have a long tapering tail (ie not rounded at the end like a stingaree’s tail) and can have one or two venomous spines.
Skates and Fiddler Rays don’t have a barb and a fairly harmless however, the Numbfish also doesn’t have a barb but it is harmful. The Numbfish will give you a nasty electric shock causing temporary paralysis.

Birds of the boardwalk April 2nd 2008
As the boardwalk passes through many habitat environments, there are many species of birds ranging from water birds to forest birds to grass/scrub birds.
Today I counted over 30 black swans, approximately one hundred metres from the shore. They tend to frequent one area along the boardwalk, between the bridge and the end of the boards. This seems to be their favourite feasting place and they tear up the ‘eel grass’ with relish.
The other recent returned occupant of the lake is the Intermediate Egret. There were 10 roosting on one mangrove tree this morning at high tide, near the second seat on the boardwalk. They feed on mostly small fish but also frogs, insects and crustaceans. They are also known as the Plumed Egret which is not surprising as their plumage presents a magnificent silhouette in the sun.
The Royal Spoonbill is back in the lake and you will have no trouble spotting the lake’s regular visitor, the ‘Australian Ibis’. Of course, there are many pelicans and White-faced Herons about. The latter seem to have built a nest above the boardwalk. If you look above you at the beginning of the boardwalk you will see an anarchic nest built of twisted twigs. It is empty now but up until recently I had noticed a young bird present. A few days after this I did happen to see a kite fly from the direction of the nest with a small grey parcel. I clambered up the hill to gain a closer view of the nest and I noticed a broken blue egg, possible that of a small heron. The nest was empty and has been since.