Chick now 8 days old

The chick has made it through 8 days and what a week it has been! The other egg did not hatch on the same day as the chick emerged so it was abandoned, unfortunately. But to have a chick, that is hugely exciting after 4 years of nesting attempts. We think it is well over a quarter of a century since an oystercatcher chick has successfully hatched on a public beach in Sydney.

It has been interesting learning the new calls of the parent for the chick. The sit and hide call. The come call. Both the chick and the parents are doing such a great job working together.

Day 2 saw the chick using the chick shelters that Council provided for the first time and they figure regularly now in their daily routine. At the end of day 2 I saw the parents leading the chick outside the fence for the first time. They did a 4 metre walk out, stayed out for 20 minutes and then the chick was led back inside the fence.

Day 3 was the first big walk. The parents first took them to the creek for a quick bathe and then they moved down the beach towards Bonnievale where they settled creek side.

Then there was day 4. The one in one hundred year rain event. It has been 34 years since a worse east coast low storm event occurred in November. East coast lows this time of year are unusual and had me thinking what wrong oystercatchers have done to have such bad luck. Apart from the driving rain there were gale force winds accompanying it. I did get to see an oystercatcher tucked head first into a really large clump of weed sitting on the side edge of their roosting site and presumably the little chick was tucked in under the breast. It was such a joy to get up the next day and find the chick scurrying around the tidal flats with the parents.

On day 6 we moved the old nesting fence to the Bonnievale end as a chick protection zone. This site is closer to the tidal feeding flats so is an obvious choice for the birds. Signage was repositioned and we had a first hand lesson as to why dogs are not permitted on Deeban Spit. A guy had his cocker spaniel with him on his jet ski and as fate would have it dropped it off on the beach right in front of the little family. I was in the process of asking him to get his dog back to the jet ski when one of the parent birds took off. The dog chased and the owner could not get his dog back, it was totally out of control. The owner had to ask his daughter to drive the jet ski down the beach, while he chased the dog, so they could pick up the dog when it decided the chase was over. Thank goodness it did not go for the chick.

What I think amazing is that the oystercatchers seem to recognise the fenced area as their patch. Council moved it a massive distance to the new protection zone and the birds spend the day feeding in the mangroves and return each evening to their protection fence.

I am hoping the family does not go back down the beach where the old nest site was as we have an every day beach runner who, now that the fence is down, insists on running through the centre of the beach. I tried to talk with her to ask her to stay close to the water but she does not even acknowledge your “hello” or “how are you?” or “please can you run close to the water”. All I got was “can’t stop” and her continuing to run creek side to beach side backwards and forwards through the centre of the beach.

Yesterday saw the birds spending the day in the mangroves that fringe the Bonnievale campground. I always thought that would happen as it has the food and lots of cover. By the end of the day the tide was coming in cutting off the roosting area and the mangrove area. I had heard oystercatcher chicks could swim and was stunned to see it in action. It was hard to watch, the poor chick going it alone. Looks like that is going to be a regular thing as they did the same again today but the swim looked more confident.

The truly heart stopping moment, however, was today when 20 ravens descended on the mangrove trees immediately opposite where the parents had stashed the chick, only metres away. The parents were in much distress with ravens flying past close to the chick. This went on for two hours. The raven group reduced to 6 and they stayed around delaying the family return to the roosting site giving the chick a very long swim. Watching the parents motivating the chick to swim, one in front, the other flying to the shore it is heading for and calling and then flying over again and calling back on the shore. I’ve not seen an adult oystercatcher swim before so I am learning a lot.