Waders, raptors, and wrens – oh my

In the recently restored saltmarsh sites, one of our teams began to wonder if anything more than a handful of gulls would fly over during the 20-minute survey, despite seeing plenty of other birds around outside of our 2-hectare survey area. It was a good chance to talk about why repetition (e.g., surveying multiple areas) is important when trying to count mobile species like waterbirds – and why ongoing monitoring is vital to our understanding of how changes to vegetation (e.g., through restoration efforts) is having an impact.

In the end both survey areas were visited by quite a few birds – at least ten confirmed species (though the citizen scientists were quickly introduced to the concept of “little brown birds” in birdwatching!). Silver gulls, royal spoonbills and straw-necked ibis flew overhead in small flocks, and a nankeen kestrel did some surveying of its own. We also saw what looked to be several red-necked stints. These tiny migratory birds usually leave Australia by mid-April to head up to Siberia to breed, but young birds will sometimes remain here.

The oldest areas of saltmarsh recovery at Avalon have very dense coverage of samphire shrubs, and we saw more nondescript little brown birds as well as sparrows, scrub wrens, and fairy wrens flitting in and out of bushes. There was also a white-fronted chat, a striking native bird that lives in saltmarsh and other swampy areas. Other identifiable wetland birds at these survey sites included spoonbills, sacred ibis, black swans, and a white-faced heron. In all, at least 13 species were recorded at our 50+ year restored areas.

There were some birds to be found even in the control ponds– unsurprisingly these were mostly waterbirds like red-capped plovers, black-winged stilts, and cormorants. Some white-fronted chats flew through, and there were more sightings of red-necked stints, bringing the total to 5 species for the control area.