White-bellied Sea Eagle

The White-bellied Sea Eagle is a welcome visitor to Raakajlim, generally in winter. Sadly, not the best photograph, but at least I have the leaves in exquisite focus!

Fish kill events in cold weather

We’ve seen the bird feeding on carrion and we suspect the visits (often around July) are correlated with fish kill events in the neighbour’s dam. When sudden cold weather hits, it can trigger a rapid turnover of dam water.

The warmer surface water rapidly cools and becomes heavier. As this surface water sinks, it forces the deep, anoxic (oxygen-depleted) water to the top. The mixing of oxygen-depleted bottom water with the surface water means fish like Bony Bream suffocate due to the reduced levels of dissolved oxygen.

This is an interesting site to watch live stream of Sea Eagles nesting in Sydney https://www.facebook.com/Sea.EagleCAM