Bird Disturbance

Birds can perceive us and our canine friends as potential threats. If we get too close, they sense danger and might react by moving out of reach or flying away. ‘Buzzing’ birds for fun (travelling close to birds while moving at speed, including drones) isn’t fun for birds. Neither is being chased by dogs.

The wetlands of the Melville Bird Sanctuary are particularly attractive to shorebirds who live and feed here. With fishing regularly occurring on our wetlands, more so during the summer season, in the words of Birdlife Australia, this can spell disaster for these birds.  Ninety percent of injuries sustained by shorebirds are due to discarded fishing tackle and line according to Australian Seabird Rescue. (Check out the video below of 2 Pied Oystercatchers entangled in the same line at Point Walter.)

Our wetlands are precious habitat for trans equatorial migratory birds who fly amazing distances from the Northern Hemisphere to get here. These include Common Greenshanks, Grey Plovers, Great Knots, Red Knots, Curlew Sandpipers, Terack Sandpipers and others, several of these on the ‘Critically Endangered’ list. While they need food urgently when they get here exhausted and depleted in body weight, they will be scared off by nearby human and animal activity – dogs, picnickers, fishers. Time that should be spent feeding and building their energy reserves for the long return journey is instead spent looking for food elsewhere. 

We need to protect our precious trans-equatorial migratory birds.

For Beach-nesting birds (eg Fairy Terns), they face a range of threats during nesting season such as storm waves and very high tides. Predators such as foxes, ravens, gulls as well as dogs and cats pose significant threats. So can humans.

Disturbances can cause some nesting birds to take flight and leave their nests, threatening the survival of eggs and chicks. If disturbance happens regularly, birds may avoid areas completely.

It is our responsibility to ensure preservation of habitats and ecosytems that support birdlife, especially migratory birds, safeguarding them for our current and future generations.