Are more Oyks moving in?

These photos were taken around 3.45pm, just after high tide. I've seen 5 Pied Oystercatchers on the beach before but never with a camera available to take a photo and never with an outcome of our two residents (pictured in territorial mode in the middle) not winning and chasing the others off.

This afternoon have we seen a happy(?) truce. Our resident pair (seen bottom right) moved off to sit inside their fence line, where they sat and sulked while watching the new guys sitting together along beach front outside of the fence. Will be worth keeping an eye on to see if anything becomes of it. Interestingly, one of the new three has a noticeable limp.

Our oystercatchers will miss their fence. Even when they are not nesting, if the beach is busy, they retreat inside the fence line, knowing they'll have a space where they don't need to be constantly moving.

They've learnt, in only two years, that this is their safe space. The two to four hours either side of high tide (depends on tide height) is when they get most of their sleep, night or day. So giving them time to rest in between feeding is essential and the fence has done a great job doing that.

The research (through observation and then input into the Birdlife Australia research database by our volunteers) helps all beach nesting birds around Australia into the future. It has worked in Victoria and SA, no reason why it can't also happen in NSW.

One pair of birds, on a busy beach has been shown to be invaluable in terms of both research, and eventual success rates. Let's keep hoping our birds may one day be able to hatch some chicks, but at the very least keep supplying the research needed to help population success.

http://birdlife.org.au/projects/beach-nesting-birds/research-bnb

What has been interesting is a local, saying he has lived here for 40 years, claiming to know how it works. He stated that the oystercatcher site would be inundated because of tide height. When the tide levels were only 1.5 metres, 2 weeks ago, there was a wash over on the beach (not the nesting site however as the birds chose well) that saw sea swells of between 3 - 4 metres. He then tried to whip up community angst by posting that because we had 2 metre tides coming this week, that the beach nesting site was done. In the words of President Barack Obama, "come on, people".

To determine the impact of water on tidal erosion it isn't just tide height. You need to factor in swell height, direction, period forecast (time between waves) and wind. Not that we usually need to worry here, but additionally tsunami wave speed is another matter turning a 1 metre wave into a 60 km/hr killer for exposed people.

I didn't see a retraction when the 2 metre tides had no wash over as THERE WAS NO SWELL. The Donald Trump campaign showed you can say anything, no matter how wrong, and not be held accountable. What a world, not all that pleasant, we live in!