vistiing Lake Ellesmere's "sister" lake in Sulawesi

[andrewcrossland]

Hi folks, I was in Sulawesi recently, looking mainly at wetland and river birds. I visited Danau (lake) Tempe in South Sulawesi province - an IBA site and candidate for Ramsar status. At 350 sq kms and located inland, its in many ways a bigger version of Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora (198 sq kms) as its wide and shallow and supports a remarkably similar avifauna. Some pics that might surprise folks:

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The Selwyn District in Canterbury has a sister city/district relation with the Tanah Toraja Regency in Central Sulawesi, not far from Lake Tempe. It would be pretty cool if the two lakes could be twinned in some way and maybe have a team of Cantabrians go over and help undertake the type of complete waterbird survey that we manage to achieve on Lake Ellesmere annually.

[andrewcrossland]

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[andrewcrossland]

and even some of Lake Ellesmere's famous rarities..

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Certainly you know you've crossed the Wallace line from the Asian to the Australasian side when you see so many familiar species, or closely related cousins (like Sunda Teal etc). cheers

[andrewcrossland]

At peak times, Lake Tempe supports upwards of 5000 Glossy Ibis, 10,000 Garganey and thousands of waders, terns, waterfowl and egrets, plus tens of thousands of reed-warblers.

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[Jan]

What a great place. Would be good to get a sister relationship with both being RAMSAR sites too.

[NoahF]

Very cool Andrew. I'd be keen in helping with a Lake Tempe survey if some sort of group effort goes ahead.

Cheers

[andrewcrossland]

I'll let you know. I'm working on it!!