One last stand for an endangered species

So many wildlife stories these days are about species rapidly disappearing. We have a story about to play out in Port Hacking, part of the Sutherland Shire in Sydney, which shows a species can attempt a fight back.

Deeban Spit, in Port Hacking, is host to a number of critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable bird species. Some of these are migratory shorebirds travel from Sydney all the way to the Arctic Circle, and northern countries in between, to breed over our winter.

That journey, being so long, is as you’d expect, extremely perilous. We do, however, have a resident shorebird that is now on the point of extinction in NSW, without having to leave home.

There are no accessible records showing pied oystercatchers breeding in Port Hacking. You have to talk to long term locals that can think of booklets in the past they have read as to when the oystercatchers last used the Deeban Spit to lay eggs, which was around 20 years ago.

The NSW Department of Environment and Heritage (National Parks) has a bird reserve, called Towra Point Nature Reserve in Botany Bay, that is starting to see some breeding success on behalf of the whole Sydney region.

The Towra success stories, the new bird couples forming lifelong partnerships, are now spreading their wings to become the new explorers. If you were truly into trekking you’d say “boldly going where no bird has gone before”. These birds were actually here well before the Sydney property expansion and are just trying to claim some space back.

We have a pied oystercatcher pair that will be using Port Hacking to breed in this Spring. It is only the start of winter but already the pair are exhibiting territorial behaviour, chasing off any stray oystercatchers trying to land on the beach and also engaging in “bonding behaviour”. Being outside breeding season that is all you can call it.

I’ve been working with National Parks and Birdlife Australia and they can’t find any records to show that any other beach between Newcastle and Wollongong, excluding the National Parks reserve at Towra, hosts the pied oystercatcher for breeding.

Sydney has been presented with a unique opportunity!

We are so fortunate to be able to call on groups like South Coast Shorebird Recovery (part of National Parks) and Birdlife Australia to guide us on how to help Sydney’s newest intrepid bird explorers.

We have a dedicated group of volunteers swinging into gear.

The volunteer group will be helping with the letterbox drops, fence line and sign set up and “on beach” education that might finally see a return of breeding success to a Sydney beach.

This could finally be a win for at least one of our regular shorebird species not having to disappear into the extinct category.

Funding opportunities are being explored to help us give the beach nesting birds, like the Pied Oystercatcher, a chance to come back from the point of extinction and share the spaces we so enjoy.