Stop Speedboats in Bushells Lagoon!

The Hawkesbury Environment Network asks for your support in protecting Bushells Lagoon from Speedboats:

Bushells lagoon (6 km North of Windsor, NSW) is a sanctuary for internationally threatened bird species. Almost 140 species of birds have been recorded on this lagoon at various times including 17 species of shorebirds protected by international treaties. The habitat itself is protected under Bilateral Migratory Bird Agreements between Australia & Japan and Australia & China.

The lagoon also contains important habitat vegetation and marine life such as the Red Crowned Toadlet also listed under the TSCA. Finally, the human residents of the Bushells Lagoon area also suffer from the effects of speedboats, especially the noise.

It’s almost impossible to imagine speedboats on this sanctuary for Birds and people, yet the Maritime Services Board has issued a licence to a water ski club to ski on this lagoon. The club even built a slalom course down the centre of the lagoon already! These activities put in danger species that Australia is obliged to protect through international agreements.

The controversial decision to breach of Australia’s international obligations and grant speedboats access to this pristine sanctuary, therefore needs to be reversed!

Please act as a matter of urgency and e-mail a short request reminding our government of it’s obligation under the JAMBA and CAMBA agreements and requesting intervention to overturn granting of the license issued by the NSW Marine Services Board.

Send your submission to:

Hon. Tony Burke MP

Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

Tony.Burke.MP@aph.gov.au

COPY TO

The Hon. Eric Roozendaal BA LLB MLC

Minister for Ports and Waterways

enquiries@treasurer.nsw.gov.au

Hawkesbury City Council

council@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au

Please also consider forwarding a separate letter to letters@smh.com.au and get it in the main media! (Sydney Morning Herald)

Shorebird Art – Memories of Flight by Kate Gorringe-Smith

For Melbournite shorebirders and Art Lovers the Red Gallery (157 St Georges rd  North Fitzroy) currently has a treat on display. Beautiful artwork (such as the one below) by KATE GORRINGE-SMITH exploring actual and figurative journeys and migration will be on show until the 5th of March 2011. For people that want to see these beautiful images for longer: prints can also be purchased from the artist. For more details see the red gallery webpage: www.redgallery.com.au/2011Shows/2011Show_01.htm

Beach-Stone-Curlew Chick hopes for a happy end!

Adult Beach-Stone-Curlew (Photo D. Ingwersen)

Birds Australia 2020 Shorebird Scheme would like to thank National Park ranger Lori Cameron for her outstanding contribution in protecting a Beach-Stone Curlew chick!

When Lori discovered that a pair of this critically endangered bird species (only 10 nesting pairs exist in NSW) was nesting in her area, she immediately devised a strategy to protect this single chick. It hatched in early December, only one of five in Northern NSW. Lori organized her department to fence in the nesting site and to erect additional road barricades. She then engaged the help of members from local bird watching groups and prepared a roster for volunteers to assist her in keeping watch of the protected site, which is located in a Nature Reserve right in a popular beach and river front area for holiday makers. So far rangers and volunteers have already spent many hundreds of hours to protect this single chick. Foxes have been eradicated in a 1080 poison program. But the biggest single threat to the chick now are dogs. A number of signs positioned prominently at the Nature Reserve entry, prohibit dogs. Yet daily a number of people bring their dogs, some even unleashed. It would only take one uncontrolled dog to kill this helpless chick!

A big thank you also to the editors and reporters of the Northern Star and the Advocate for so accurately reporting this dog issue. In a number of articles the danger of uncontrolled dogs to shorebirds in general and to Beach-Stone-Curlews in particular is explained. These articles not only help in educating the public but also warn irresponsible dog owners that heavy on the spot fines apply.

We are not out of the woods yet. There are still 4 more weeks to go before the chick can fly. Many thanks again to all the volunteers who have already given so much of their time (and money), but especially to Lori for her selfless dedication to ensure this special chick will survive.

At Shorebirds 2020 we are all keeping fingers crossed that this chick (and of course its chicks and grand-chicks) will benefit from understanding dog owners and tireless volunteers and we can keep this species as a breeding bird in NSW.

RUDDY HELL: TURNSTONE FLIES 27,000 KMS – TWICE!!

Researchers from the Victorian Wader Study Group have just recaptured a Ruddy Turnstone which has completed a 27,000 km round trip migration for the second time.

This is the first time a wader has been tracked with a geolocator on its complete migration in successive years.

The bird had a one gram light sensor data logger (geolocator) attached to its leg. This device recorded where the bird was each morning and evening. In each year the device was attached to the bird in mid April on a beach at Flinders, Victoria, in southeast Australia.

Ruddy Turnstones are a small wader weighing less than 100 grams and spend the (austral) summer months on many of the beaches around Australia. They are one of the family of waders that migrate huge distances to Siberia in Russia to breed.

Researchers have used these data logging devices over the last two years to find out the key stopover locations which are so important for the birds to refuel on their long journey.

Members of the study group include Dr Clive Minton, Ken Gosbell, Penny Johns and Prof Marcel Klaassen (of Deakin University).

“The data retrieved so far shows that the birds generally start their northward migration with an initial nonstop flight of around 7,600km in six days to Taiwan or adjacent regions” Dr Minton said.

“There they refuel on the tidal flats before moving north to the Yellow Sea and northern China. They then make a flight of over 5,000kms to the breeding grounds in northern Siberia, arriving in the first week of June.

“One of the interesting findings is that after breeding, the return journey shows considerable variation, no two birds following the same route. Some return through Asia while an amazing alternate route has been demonstrated by these new results.

“This is a trans-Pacific route where the bird moves east to the Aleutian Islands off southwest Alaska before making the huge journey across the Pacific, stopping only once or twice before reaching Australia in early December.”

The first record of this flight was in 2009 when the bird spent nearly two months in the Aleutians before setting off southward over the Pacific Ocean and making a nonstop flight of 7,800kms to Kirabati before making the 5,000km trip back to Flinders, Victoria. In 2010 the same bird undertook a similar incredible journey, this time stopping off in the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu in the Pacific before returning to Australia.

Turnstones live up to 20 years and such a bird following this 27,000 km trans-Pacific route would have flown over 500,000 kilometres in its lifetime.

Scientists from the Australasian Wader Studies Group of Birds Australia and Deakin University are still puzzling over why individual Ruddy Turnstones use such widely differing routes for their annual migrations. The study highlights the importance of key regions within the flyway. Scientists are concerned about the ability of these and similar birds to cope with the massive habitat changes occurring as a result of large reclamation and urban development projects.

For us at Birds Australia’s Shorebirds 2020 programme these discoveries are big news as such a journey is big evidence of how critically important Australian wetlands are for healthy bird populations all around the Pacific.”

“Keeping these birds and their wetlands going is a task that Australia has taken on by signing the Ramsar Convention 40 years ago, and we are working hard to remind and help the government to fulfil this task.”

A celebration of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Ramsar Convention is taking place on Wednesday 2 February as part of World Wetlands Day and Birds Australia is joining in with a free shorebird workshop in Bicentennial Park http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=369&extmode=view&extid=1202

Media Contacts of Victorian Wader Study Group members

Dr Clive Minton                                (03) 9589 4901                   Mobile 0427 83108

Ken Gosbell                                           (03) 9729 5524                   Mobile 0429 804524

Penny Johns                                                                      Mobile 0419 366 507

Prof Marcel Klaassen                                                     Mobile 0488 255 992

Brush up on your wader ID skills at Werribee!

The last few weeks saw a shorebird bonanza at the Western Treatment Plant near Werribee. While shorebird numbers have generally been low so far this year, probably due to abundant rain creating ephemeral wetlands further north, an amazing array (27 species) of wader species has been sighted recently.  The small numbers of waders allow observers to focus more easily on individual birds and really get into the intricacies of adult versus juvenile plumages or pick out some national rarities such as the Stilt Sandpiper in our photo (by Chris Tzaros).

Workshop on Sea Level Rise effects on shorebird habitat

Counting shorebirds in a staging and wintering area of NW Australia.  Photo: Rob Clemens.

On the 13th and 14th of January the Australian Wader Study Group and the Spatial Ecology Lab of the University of Queensland held a workshop at Birds Australia’s Headquarters to determine, which shorebird staging and wintering areas  are important to secure migratory routes when sea levels rise due to climate change. The workshop drew on the expertise of some of our most experienced activists to identify which areas exactly are of critical importance for shorebirds using the East Asian Australian Flyway. This knowledge will now be used to develop species-specific network models that can determine which resting and wintering areas are the most future-proof. Such information is extremely valuable for organisations like Birds Australia as it helps us to target our conservation efforts on areas that persist on the face of climate change effects.

Shorebirds Events in Western Australia 2011

Learn how to identify Shorebirds for FREE in the City of Mandurah throughout January 2011. Once your skills are up to scratch you can join hundreds of volunteers in the annual Shorebirds 2020 summer count. Download the flyer for all the information you need.

Help Conserve our Shorebirds Forum, Seminar & Workshops being held 17 –20 February 2011 in Denmark,Western Australia. Click here for the full details.