Full moon madness! New nest at sunrise.

A huge thank you goes out to Sutherland Shire Council, with Kevin Seymour coordinating our nesting this year. The call that nesting has happened occurs first thing in the morning and he managed to find us council elves that can come that same day at 9am to start setting up or moving a fence.

For the future, we have a pattern that nesting occurs at the full moon. Both nests this year saw the first egg placed on the night of the full moon. So that might make it easier for us sending out a request to volunteers to help with fence set-up as well as coordinating council staff. If you have a minute, can you please send an email addressed to the General Manager of Sutherland Shire Council (ssc@ssc.nsw.gov.au) thanking the Bushcare Team for all the help they provide in our efforts to save our endangered pied oystercatchers. It is really important that the management at Council knows the work they do is appreciated by the community and is, little step by little step, gaining some traction.

In terms of this season once I heard that Bonnievale campgrounds were closed for the summer my hopes for a successful nesting soared. It is amazing how few people are using the beach. It was such a shame, and total surprise, that the first nest failed because we had birds competing for nesting space/partner. I did not have that on my threat radar and even if I had, that is one I cannot mitigate.

The threats to the nest have decreased significantly and our birds will get no better chance than this year. No fisher people using the beach at night because the campground is closed. During the day, there are usually some kayak renters that can find it all a bit challenging with wind and swell that end up dragging their kayak through the roped area just to find the shortest way back but with the campgrounds closed there are fewer kayak renters. The Deer Park Youthworks camp clients (they can arrive in two super tinnies with about 50 landing at once) not coming to Deeban Spit because they are unable camp. Given the weather conditions on top of the above, the Spit has been super quiet and let's hope that continues a little bit longer.

I am feeling our letterbox drop to local residents, each year now for 4 years, along with residents now being familiar with the fence as a sign that nesting is in progress, has seen a big drop in locals walking their dogs along the Spit. Our biggest threat on this front will come from the "weekenders" as the season for weekenders and holiday home owners is about to begin.

The new nest is in a position that I can view it from my lounge room chair! Not a plan for weekends, as I don't have enough view up and down the beach to be able to cut-off the approaching threats, but it is good enough on quiet days to do the recording we need to do on how the birds are behaving on nest in regards to people/wildlife passing by. On weekends our volunteers will be able to set up on the top floor in a comfy chair with refreshments, comfort stop facilities, can read as they will have an alarm to remind them to conduct the 5 minute reviews of boats, people/dogs approaching and alert me on beach. During the last nesting Tom and Bryce tested this out and found it quite acceptable. I don't think there is a site around Australia that offers such luxury for volunteers.

The birds did not spend a lot of time on nest today, which is usual for the first day of nesting. At the 5 pm mark, just like last night, the female arrived back at nest and started doing a great deal of sitting so I will not be surprised to see a second egg in the nest tomorrow. If this happens the birds will no longer be leaving the nest and will be doing coordinated changeovers. This is why Council being able to supply staff to help on the day the first egg appears is just so helpful for the birds. The disturbance setting up the fence around the nest is much less harmful for the eggs when done on day one.