Oystercatcher diary - 2015 Day 2.9

At the end of last night's posting I stepped out to enjoy the moon rise. Turned out to be anything but enjoyable.

The Oyks were making a terrible racket. Grabbed my spotter torch and ran for the end of the road to light up the nesting area to see if I could find out what was causing the trouble.

Turned on the torch and swept it over the nesting area and the all noise stopped. Couldn't see anything, including the birds, so turned the torch off. The noise started up again. Turned the torch back on, noise stops again. Still couldn't locate anything. Repeat the process with the torch, same results. It seemed like I was playing a game of "What's the time, Mr Wolf". Everything just freezes at a point in time. Hoped that 3 cycles with the torch was enough to perhaps sort the scene out.

It was with much trepidation that I rose out of bed this morning. I looked at the nest and couldn't see a bird sitting there.

You can come up with all manner of reasons why you can't see what should be there and so I figured it was probably because it is hard to see the bird nesting in the low morning light with all the debris lying on the beach. Stopped looking and decided it would be best to go make my coffee, drink it, and look again. Our bird was on nest. Checked back 10 minutes later and our bird was gone. Bird gone, bird there, bird gone, it all became clear later, but after hearing what was going on last night, I wasn't feeling good.

One more coffee. Bite the bullet, walk down to the nesting site to assess the situation. I get to the perimeter lines and the bird is back on the nest. Truly confusing. Therefore, a walk around the lines had to happen and I find the fox tracks.

This time our birds were the winners. ON THEIR OWN!

We are now one all, birds and fox. It was a merry chase though. You could see the fox tracks in and then see where they dissect a trail of bird prints. The birds ended up taking that fox for a very long and convoluted walk. Tomorrow our South Coast hair arrives and next week my flashing lights, no dogs signs, and the no entry signs so hoping we are now tipping things in favour of our birds.

Back to why the birds were off nest so much this morning.

Anne was paddling past at the high tide and with a bit of sign language told me there were two Oyks up opposite Constable's Point.

I knew definitely by then they weren't our usual two as I could finally see our two at the nesting site. Thought I should take a look with Anne and while watching the new Oyks , Curlews and bar-tailed Godwits on the opposite shore, just before midday a huge group of paddle boarders were returning from the Basin. They were congregating on the south western border of the nesting site so I thought I should go up and see how they were going and if the birds were happy with them being there.

The last two in the group had the answer as to why our nesting birds were absent first thing. They mentioned they had seen 4 Oyks up opposite Constables Point when they first started up. That would be the new two and our nesting two chasing them off from the nest site. The nesting two had decided they had chased the new two far enough away and decided it was therefore ok to return back to the nest.

The new two then spent the morning sitting on the beach where our nesting two had left them. Looks to be around where Bruce Roubin saw two sitting back in August last year and where I've seen four playing chasings back in December last year. Where do the new two normally live, are the Towra successful hatchings now looking for new breeding grounds because it is running out of nesting room? Wondering if there is a plan for Towra chicks to go to? Oystercatchers live 30 years, can breed up until 20 and have a serious intolerance for sharing with other Oystercatchers. The more experienced Oystercatchers get the prime positions and the younger ones need to find new grounds. Is our beach the new overflow and how do we deal with it?

Sutherland Council, Brenden, has done an outstanding job in making sure we have the supplies to protect our birds against 85% of the people, the volunteers keep the other 15% under control. Patsy, our parks ranger has also done a fantastic job in making sure the parks staff are aware of what is going on and thus having them pass on the information to our campers. She was also crucial in the link to getting our first nesting site set up because SouthCoast Shorebirds had to deliver signs to Patsy from Ulladulla to her home in Wollongong, on a Sunday, and Patsy then had get them up here for our original nesting. What our Parks staff does under such terrible funding conditions is amazing. So thankful to both Council and Parks in getting us to where we are now.

My most thanks goes to Jo Keohan. She has done her shoulder in because of the physical work involved in us setting up the site. She puts her hand up for just about every volunteer opportunity going in Parks and she never complains about the work involved. Keeps me going because my hip has slipped from all the beach walking but she is such an inspiration to push you through it all.

In terms of practical knowledge on managing a nesting Oystercatcher site on a busy beach, thanks so much to John Perkins of Durras. 20 years experience managing the Oystercatchers on their busy beach, he has so much to share and gives it freely.

All of you on this list has given time or materials that will hopefully make this nesting a success. Let's keep our fingers and toes crossed.

With all that you have shown me, I now understand why the word "teacher" appears in the Oystercatcher name.