Facebook post to attract local help

Important, please do not repost. This post is strictly for the 2 closed group local pages it has been posted on.

Looking for something to do over the holidays not offered anywhere else between Newcastle and Wollongong that takes advantage of your beachside location?

Oystercatcher chick guardians needed.

After 5 years of trying, our endangered pied oystercatchers have been lucky enough to hatch a chick, on the beach, at Deeban Spit. This has not happened on any public Sydney beach in a quarter of a century.

The chick is now 25 days old, still flightless and needs your help.

Are you planning on being in Bundeena/Maianbar from 26 December to 6 January and can spare an hour or two at the beach to help the chick? It is expected that sometime during this period the chick may fledge, that is, have the ability to fly and therefore be able to get out the way of people and predators. This is the benchmark needed that determines you have successfully raised an endangered bird.

There is a four hour window around the top of the tide where the parent birds and chick travel from the mangroves to the beach, roost on the beach to digest food and grab a nap, then travel back to the mangroves for more feeding. The chick has to swim away and return to the beach across the Bonnievale lagoon with the parents walking it across. If the water is too deep, however, the parents fly backwards and forwards over the swimming chick, calling, to encourage the chick across (only chicks have the ability to swim, parents don’t have webbed feet). As the chick is in the open during this time it is vulnerable to avian predators.

The chick is small and hard to see when it is swimming as it is the same colour as the water. This means it could be accidentally skittled by the many type of water craft using the area, people walking through the lagoon or be forced to turn back due to disturbance so many times it doesn’t get to feed or rest. We have made it through 30 days with it sitting in the centre of the beach as an egg, and 25 days it running around. There are no words that could cover failing with only around two more weeks to go until the chick is able to look out for itself.

If you have an hour or so spare around the high tide why not come down to the beach and help the chick to cross safely or remain undisturbed while on the beach? Bookings are necessary. No cost. Training provided.

All that is involved is asking people to hold back from entrance points around the lagoon when the birds indicate they are getting ready to cross. You can enjoy a show (along with the people you are asking to hold) few Sydneysiders have ever seen. Once the crossing starts it takes around 10 minutes but the parent birds do a survey before swimming the chick. If they think there are too many people, too close, they’ll sit back and wait and do another survey before deeming everything safe for the chick before crossing so timings are not exact.

There will be a pre high tide crossing and a post high tide crossing involving a 1 and a half hour commitment for either one. Actual time each day depends on tide timetables.

The chick needs 3 other people plus me, each shift. If you would like to help, then PM me dates you are available and your phone number and I can let you know further details relating to tide times.

It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a community to raise an endangered chick.

I hope you enjoy the video of the first time the parents swam the chick across the lagoon when it was only 7 days old and the end footage when it is one week older. It is a bit grainy to start with. I was a long way away (so as to not disturb the family), with a long lens, a very strong north easterly wind and had a very small target to focus on. You can see when the chick first loses its footing and has to start swimming for the first time and then when it speeds up due to an unexpected guest.