Caring for country - Northern and Yorke Natural Resources ...

4many hands
Eye for the birds
Birds Australia – a national organisation working for the conservation and
protection of native birds and their habitats – recently received a Community
Grant from Northern and Yorke NRM Board to help conserve South Australia’s
migratory and beach-nesting shorebirds.
The funding will support the Shorebirds 2020
National Shorebird Monitoring Program and Beachnesting
Birds Project in the Northern and Yorke
NRM region.
The program started in 2007 in response to growing
concern over declining shorebird populations in
Australia and throughout the East Asian-Australasian
Flyway (the path used by shorebirds migrating from the
Northern Hemisphere).
It is designed to reinvigorate community efforts to
monitor Australia’s shorebirds; reliably determine
population trends; and support conservation and
management activities in important shorebird habitats.
A total of 48 shorebird sites are currently monitored in
South Australia by an established network of around
200 volunteers.
In the Northern and Yorke region, there are around
a dozen shorebird sites of particular importance to
migratory shorebirds.
Some birds breed in places like Siberia before migrating
to areas around Price (stretching along the coast to the
outskirts of Adelaide), Port Victoria and the Port Pirie
coast where they spend the summer.
The Beach-nesting Birds Project has been running
in Victoria and South Australia for five years,
focussing on community engagement and education,
threatened species monitoring and habitat
management.
“The Hooded plover, which is vulnerable in South
Australia, is a flagship species for engaging coastal
communities in beach-nesting shorebird conservation
and as an indicator of coastal health,” said Beachnesting
Birds project manager Grainne Maguire.
Shorebirds 2020 program manager, Jo Oldland, said
the monitoring and conservation efforts would be
coordinated with the NYNRM Board, the District
Council of Yorke Peninsula and local volunteers.
It will involve training and supporting volunteers
in monitoring and protection techniques, and
distributing community awareness and
education materials.
Above: Birds Australia’s Chris Purnell eyes resident
shorebirds at Black Point. With him are novice ‘twitchers’
Vaughan Rattley, Sue Leverton and Elizabeth Dau.Photo:
Jenny Oldland, YP Country Times.
Top: Hooded plovers are a flagship species for beachnesting
shorebird conservation. Photo: Glenn Ehmke
28 Northern and Yorke Natural Resources Management Board