Diary day 8: Nesting birds, duck!

This is very obviously borrowed from a northern European oystercatcher nesting site that has breeding pairs. So very different to us with their green fields rather than sand. This clip shows just what we were able to see on many different occasions today. Fantastic aerial displays, and if you see a single minded, chasing oystercatcher coming at you, duck, or you may end up with one stuck in the side of your head.

Our volunteers had a really exciting day on the beach today for so many different reasons.

First up, solo oystercatcher turned up. It was causing havoc coming in, loudly announcing its arrival and then having to deal with being chased off. I would love to be able to find a reason why this solo oystercatcher persists trying to insert itself into an established pair's nesting. Four times it tried with each effort being more ferociously dealt with.

At one point we had the solo oystercatcher and a raven and the oystercatchers could not decide which one to concentrate on, so was going ballistic between the two. Truly amazing effort to get both away without being hurt itself.

Wonderful day with many interested people spilling out of the campgrounds. The fence line is pretty obvious and with a few of us standing around with our fluro Sutherland Shire Council bushcare jackets it is a draw card for questions. So many questions, so wonderful. People were very appreciative of the efforts we are undertaking to take care of our superhero birds. Not just our oystercatchers, the newest pioneers willing to test out a busy Sydney beach again for nesting, but also hearing the trials of the migratory curlews and godwits to get to the top of the globe and back.

An overall great day out for the campers in the Royal National Park. Escaping from everyday life to enjoy some natural surroundings and be totally surprised to hear there is endangered wildlife right there beside them that they don't have to do anything different to what they had planned to actually make a difference for the shorebirds.