Sooty Oystercatcher

My Aim is to view the current protection scheme for the Sooty Oystercatcher, See the current Status of the Sooty Oystercatcher and attempt to change or improve methods of protecting the Bird in Bellambi Lagoon.

I hope to achieve a clearer understanding of the methods used and precautions taken to prevent the extinction of this beautiful bird.

Method of Research:

1. I shall find information via the internet, National park wildlife services, books etc and find information about the bird’s status and methods of protecting the bird and its habitat.

2. I will conduct interviews with local bird watchers, biologists (if I’m able to reach them) and National Park Rangers to find out information on the Current protection methods used.

3. I’m going to survey 10 people at random who live locally or who I find near the lagoon and ask if they think Bellambi lagoon should have better protection.

4. I will find Topographic maps, charts, tourist maps etc of Bellambi and take pictures of the estuary in Bellambi Lagoon.

5. Attempt to track down and find the Sooty Oystercatcher and take Pictures of the Bird to verify what the bird looks like.

6. Draw a Picture of the Sooty Oystercatcher as a sketch, Painting etc7. Analyse the Info collected and put it into either a PowerPoint

Presentation or a word Document.8. Complete an Overall Survey of my findings and describe the responses

from the interviews and surveys.9. Add a bibliography recording Who, What, When, Where and why. Allow

one page or more for the Bibliography.

Minimum Size: 48cm

Maximum Size: 51cm

Average Size: 50cm

Breeding Season: October to January

Incubation Period: 150 days

Scientific Name: Haematopus fuliginosus

Type of bird: Coastal Bird

Appearance: Jet black bird with a long red bill, red eyes and pink legs

Habitat: Found in most coastal areas usually within 50m of the Ocean. It does prefer rocky shores and can be found on coral reefs, sand beaches and also near mudflats

Feeding Habits: Feeds on molluscs, crabs, crustaceans, worms, starfish, urchins and small fish. Its bill is like a spear and it impales prey with its sharp beak. The Sooty Oystercatcher also drinks seawater.

Picture: Bellambi Lagoon taken on a Stormy day.

Date of Picture Taken: 23rd July 2010

This is where the Sooty Oystercatcher can be found. Many other birds can be found in this area including ducks, seagulls, herons, cranes and even the rare occasional Sea eagle. The hill has tracks which leads up to the top and many people unfortunately ride bikes, walk dogs and even have campfires up there. This destroys the bird’s habitat which will mean that the Sooty Oystercatcher won’t come and nest at Bellambi Lagoon.

Status of the bird:

The Sooty Oystercatcher can usually be found in small groups of 20-50 or in pairs. The main reason they’re found outside the nesting or roosting grounds is because their main food supply is in rock pools, seaweed or mudflats. These birds will forage for food in broad daylight or at night. These birds are shore birds; this means they’re birds that live near the sea that can fly. They tend to walk around while looking for food but they travel through flight. These birds fly to travel and also fly if pressured by other predators such as cats and dogs. This bird can also wade in the water if pressed to.

Population Status:

In the year 1990 the population of the Sooty Oystercatcher in the Coastal Parts of NSW was 577. Unfortunately more and more of these birds take to the sky and fly to different roosting and nesting grounds such as the Shoalhaven and The 5 Islands. As well as that they continue to leave Bellambi Lagoon due to lack of foraging space and offshore breeding sites being destroyed or being used as residence sites.

Sooty Catcher Offspring:

The Sooty Oystercatcher truly takes from its name because the chicks look like little piles of soot. The chicks after they hatch are fed by the parents for 3 to 5 months. They will eat the exact same food as the parents eat. Both the male and the female will incubate the egg and take care of the young chick/s.

For the first 3 months after the egg hatches the female spends 85% of its time taking care of the chicks. This means that the female will depend on the male to do the hunting for both the chick and her.

The Chick will stay with its parents for a time period of up to 9 months. There is usually only one chick a year and that chick has a very rough life expectancy due to all the threats around it. Some chicks will die within the first couple of days due to starvation if the male doesn’t return quick enough or from predators which find the chicks as a tasty little treat. These chicks are lucky to live a week let alone 30 years.

Life Expectancy:

The life expectancy of the Sooty Oystercatcher is roughly about 30 years which is a very long life span for a bird. However this bird is lucky to live for more than 5 years out in the wild. There are many threats to this bird and it’s up to us as a community to stop these things from happening. There were over 100 sooty oystercatchers recorded in the Illawarra in 1998, now there are only 22 pairs in the Illawarra. Most of them can be located at the 5 Islands Nature Reserve just offshore of Port Kembla. These 5 Islands are by far the most popular breeding grounds for the Sooty Oystercatcher because it’s isolated from all humans.

Current Threats:

Beach Combing has caused a disturbance to these birds such as disrupting the birds feeding, destroying nesting and roosting sites and scaring these birds away.

Fishing in or near estuaries can take away the food source of the sooty oystercatchers living nearby. This causes starvation for the chicks and the adults.

Dog walkers, people who let their dogs off the leash on the beach don’t realise that the dog might chase off the birds or kill them. Dogs pose a threat to the nest, the egg and the adults. This can narrow down the population of the Sooty Oystercatcher.

Horse riders who travel on beaches with their horse sometimes don’t realise how scary a horse would be for a bird. The horses can also trample nests and possibly crush nesting or roosting birds nearby. However Horse riding is banned on any beaches where the bird resides in the Illawarra

Those people who drive cars such as 4WD’s can plough through the beach with great ease. Unfortunately they can also drive through nesting grounds and destroy the Sooty Oystercatchers habitat. Again like horse riding, 4WD’s are not allowed to drive along the Illawarra beaches due to Councils recognising the impact of driving on beaches.

Predators kill and consume the bird, the eggs or both. These predators include; Dogs, foxes, rats, cats, large seabirds etc. This threatens the survival of the bird and its offspring.

Hydrological changes to estuaries (Bird Sanctuaries) may remove or wipe out important areas such as habitats or feeding grounds.

As you can see it takes the strongest to survive!

Whereabouts can the Sooty Oystercatcher be found?

The areas where the bird can be found are mainly around coastal areas. However in NSW these birds do have a few hotspots such as;

The Hawkesbury/Nepean Area The Hunter and the Central Rivers The Northern Rivers

The Southern Rivers The Sydney Metropolitan Area The Illawarra Area The Shoalhaven Area

Maps

Below Left: Hawkesbury/ Nepean Area below Right: The Hunter and Central River

Below Left: Northern River Area Below Right: Southern River Area

Below Left: Sydney Metropolitan Area Below Right: The Illawarra Area

All of the above areas have estuaries which are designed to preserve and protect these birds. Their numbers are declining rapidly and we as a community need to do something about it. These birds need to live nearby some form of seawater because they feed on mostly sea creatures and drink sea water.

Habitat Protection:

One of the methods that’s been used to protect the nesting sites from being trampled on is “People Fencing” This is effective in letting the sooty oystercatchers going in and out of the estuaries but keeping the people out. This minimizes trampling on nests or disturbances of breeding and roosting grounds. However these fences were very close to breeding sites and sometimes there was so

much publicity it started to look like a zoo. Usually during the breeding season the public would take photos of baby chicks or the eggs but to do that they would go over the fence and take a picture. This was a huge inconvenience to the sooty oystercatcher so they flew off and migrated to a more peaceful and quiet area.

The National Park Wildlife Service did fix this problem by moving the fences back a couple of hundred meters. They also erected signs warning people that they were near a nesting or roosting ground.

(Picture Below: Sign informing the public that there are Sooty Oystercatchers Nearby)

Signs like above can be found near many estuaries in the Illawarra but unfortunately so many people ignore these signs. Little do they realise they are potentially killing innocent birds because of their stubbornness. These birds fall prey to a variety of animals including

rats, cats, dogs and foxes. On one occasion in the Brush Islands a huge epidemic arose when there was a plague of black rats. These vermin ate everything in the path. They consumed eggs, chicks and even Adult Sooty Oystercatchers if they get the chance. The Sooty Oystercatcher suffered many casualties (over 100 killed). The NPWS (National Park Wildlife Service) undertook an extermination program to wipe out the infestation. It was successful and nothing like that has ever occurred elsewhere. No one has seen or heard of the Black Rat for over 30 years.

Methods of protecting this species:

We as a community need to help these birds! Every little bit counts towards saving these birds. We can assist in a variety of ways such as;

1. Undertaking Pest Control programs so we can wipe out feral cats, rats, foxes, wild dogs etc Doing this will prevent anymore killings of the Sooty Oystercatcher, the eggs and the offspring

2. Ensure that cats and dogs be fenced in to allow the birds to have safe passage when feeding

3. Develop and Manage more estuaries so that more sooty oystercatchers and other species of birds can come and roost and nest. This if successful can increase the bird’s population and prevent them from becoming extinct.

4. Install and erect more signs and fences to prevent people entering the estuaries. Put messages across to people that they are nearby a major nesting ground which will hopefully stop them from going any further.

5. Preserve known or potential habitats which are suitable for the Sooty Oystercatcher to live in.

6. Hire more Rangers so they can enforce people that they are close to nesting or Roosting Grounds to prevent hooliganism and destruction on the Estuaries.

The more we can do as a community to protect these beautiful birds the more chance the Sooty Oystercatcher has to survive and Increase in population.

Interviews:

I interviewed 10 people at random that I saw walking on the beach or near the lagoon and asked if they’d seen the Sooty Oystercatcher in the Area.

Here are the Results;

Day 1

Date: 18th April, 2009

Time: 10am

Sight of Bird: No sign of the bird today. This however may be due to the fact that it was a bright sunny day and many people are on the beach with their dogs.

Weather Forecast: Top of 22 degrees, sunny and calm. Not ideal weather to try and locate the Sooty Oystercatcher.

Interviewed People: 10, Out of the 10 people who I interviewed only 3 have seen the bird at Bellambi Lagoon. The other 7 have never seen the bird before.

People who havnt seen the bird

People who have seen the Bird

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Series 1

Day 2


Time: 11am

Weather Forecast: Raining, Cold, Windy and Cloudy

Temperature: 19 degrees

Interviewed People: Nobody was out on the beach today due to the very bad weather. I wasn’t able to find the bird but did find many sea creatures washed ashore. This could be perfect food for the sooty oystercatcher.

To the Left: Large Cuttlefish that was washed ashore in the storm. Perfect food for the Sooty Oystercatcher

Cuttlefish is one of the Sooty Oystercatchers favourite foods. They eat; Molluscs, crabs, cuttlefish, small fish and gungi. The Sooty Oystercatcher forages for food during and after storms because their predators such as foxes and cats won’t come out in the rain and wind. This means the birds can hunt without fear of predators.

Day 3


Time: 9am

Weather Forecast: Windy, Sunny and Fine. Occasional shower


Today is a great day except for the gale force winds which nearly blow me off my feet. There are enormous waves crashing on the beach which is packing a lot of seaweed on the shore. Spotted a pair of Sooty Oystercatchers on a pile of seaweed but as I went to take a picture a dog chased them off. The amount of people who ignore the signs set up around the Lagoon is disturbing. It is also frustrating to watch people let their dogs off the leash right in front of a sign which specifically tells them not to let dogs off the leash.

People Interviewed: 10

Out of the 10 people 8 of them have never seen the Sooty Oystercatcher before. 2 of them have seen the bird in Bellambi before. Every day I interview people it’s becoming obvious that this

bird is a critically endangered species.

Peole who havnt seen the bird

People who have seen the bird

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Series 1

Day 4

Date: 21st April, 2009

Time: 11am


Weather Forecast: Fine, Sunny, Raining and Cloudy

Area Conditions: Surf was very rough but it wasn’t very windy. Spotted the Bird foraging through the rock pools near Towradgi pool. I didn’t bring my camera (due to my forgetfulness) but it was feeding on the cuttlefish I had seen the previous day. These birds like eating the Sea Creatures that have been washed up on the beach by strong surf conditions.


Out of the 15 people I interviewed today none of them had ever seen the bird in Bellambi. This was by far the most shocking results I’ve collected.

Not Seen the Bird Have seen the Bird0

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Series 1

Day 5

Date: 22nd April, 2009


Time: 10am

Weather Forecast: Fine, Cloudy and Sunny

Area Conditions: Very Good conditions today at Bellambi.


Today was a 50/50. 8 out of the 15 people I interviewed said they’d seen the Sooty Oystercatcher at Bellambi. The other 7 said they’d never seen the Sooty Oystercatcher at Bellambi.

This was a good result today but I might start looking for the bird once in the morning and once in the afternoon. This will alternate my time frame a bit.

Have seen the Bird Havn't Seen the Bird6.4

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Series 2

A Report which I found on the Internet which was from a speech by Mr Organ (Member of Cunningham) explained the damage done to Bellambi Lagoon by Wollongong Council. Apparently They Bulldozed natural waste traps and special filter mechanisms and replaced them with unfiltered Concrete pipes. Mr Organ had a go at the Wollongong Council for their sheer incompetence and disregard of the Environment they were destroying. He was sticking up for the Community that was involved with the Regeneration of Bellambi Lagoon. Good on Him! He realised that what the council was doing was wrong and he stepped up into parliament and stated what he thought was wrong. He was helping the Environment and that includes the Sooty Oystercatchers. This must have scared the birds with huge bulldozers crushing their habitat without a thought. I for one think This MP was sticking up for the Birds; He was a speaker for the Sooty Oystercatcher.

Surveys:

After undergoing my interviews I also created and distributed surveys to random people in the community to compare results of the 2.

Overall I surveyed 15 people asking them 5 Questions each. The Questions I asked are as follows; is it very common to see the oystercatcher? Have you ever seen the Sooty Oystercatcher? Have you ever heard of the Sooty Oystercatcher? Rate the cleanliness of the Environment, 1 being very unclean and 5 being very clean and finally how many dogs do you see in the Sooty Oystercatchers environment, 1 for no dogs and 5 for lots of dogs.

I then tallied down all my results and placed them into Tables and graphs.

First set of results were as followed;

How Common is it to see the Sooty Oystercatcher

Amount of People

Never see it 3

Rarely see it 4

Sometimes see it 7

Normally see it 1

Always see it 0

Total= 15 people

Is it very common to see the bird?

NeverRarelySometimesNormallyAll The Time

Overall from the first question I’ve gathered that out of the 15 people;

45% of the people I surveyed said that they sometimes saw the Bird and 0% of the people I surveyed saw the bird all the time. Therefore it’s most likely that you can sometimes see the Sooty Oystercatcher.

Question 2 was a simple Yes and No response question it was as followed;

Have you ever seen the Sooty Oystercatcher? The answers are as followed;

Yes 8

No 7

People who have seen the Oystercatcher

YesNo

The Overall results of this question were that most people have not seen the Sooty Oystercatcher before. To me this is no overall surprise because this bird is listed as an endangered species.

Third question I asked in my survey was if anyone has ever heard of the Sooty Oystercatcher? This Question was a simple yes or no response. These are the results;

Have You heard of the Oystercatcher?

YesNo

Yes 5

No 10

These results are no surprise to me because seeing the bird is easier than hearing about it. Overall two thirds of the people I surveyed denied ever hearing about the Sooty Oystercatcher whereas the one third of those that I surveyed agreed that they heard about the Sooty Oystercatcher.

For my fourth question I asked the people I surveyed; Rate the cleanliness of the Sooty oystercatcher habitat in the Local Coastal region. To answer this you had to rate it between 1 and 5, 1 being very the lowest and 5 being the highest, those who were surveyed had to give there answer in number form and had to be between 1 and 5.

These are the results;

Terri

ble co

nditions

Filthy C

onditions

Standard

conditions

Good Conditions

Excel

lent c

onditions0

1

2

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5

6

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Number of People

Number of People

Conditions of Habitats Number of PeopleTerrible Conditions 0Filthy Conditions 6Standard conditions 7Good Conditions 1Excellent Conditions 0

Total= 15 people

My Final Question given to these 15 people was how many dogs did they see on the beaches? This question is relevant to the human impact on the Sooty Oystercatcher because dogs are single handily the biggest killer of the Bird. The results are as follow;

No Dogs A couple fo dogs

Average amount of

dogs

Large amounts of dogs

Lots of Dogs!!!0

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Number of Dogs seen on Beaches (Sooty Oystercatchers main environment)

Amount of people

Amount of Dogs seen on Beach Amount of PeopleNo Dogs 2A couple of dogs 5Average amount of dogs 6Large amount of dogs 2Lots of Dogs!!!! 0

Overall Summary of Results

Overall the results I received from my Interviews showed that 70% of the people I interviewed hadn’t seen the bird before. This meant that only 30% of the people I interviewed had seen the bird. According to my results from the Surveys I handed out its sometimes common to see the bird, That 55% of people I surveyed had seen the bird, Not many people have heard of the Sooty Oystercatcher, The habitats are clean and in good condition and finally there are an average amount of dogs found near the habitats of the bird.

Personally I wasn’t surprised as I’ve only seen the bird a couple of times. These results tell me that the Sooty Oystercatcher is a critically endangered species of bird which needs to be protected. If we don’t act soon the future generation will have never seen or heard about the bird. These birds have a chance to live a healthy lifestyle but they can’t do it alone! They Need Our Help!!! I stress to all those who read this that if nothing is done now we will never see this beautiful shore bird ever again.

Conclusion:

Many people don’t even know about the shore bird (stated above in Results) that’s why I hope this information I’ve gathered opens a few people’s eyes and sheds some light on the subject. There are a few people who would be trying to protect the Sooty Oystercatcher and there would be some who are against it.

The people for it would be;

1. National Park Rangers, The rangers would want to protect the Sooty Oystercatchers because this bird is a unique shore bird and they’ve helped by erecting warning signs and fences and also building Estuaries.

2. Local residents, Local residents love the local flora and fauna where they live and to see a bird disappear would be terrible for them. They’ve helped preserve the beaches, coastlines and habitats that the bird has or is living in

3. Bird Watchers will be devastated to lose the Sooty Oystercatcher because of their unique appearance and their strange foraging habits

Some people will however not like the Sooty Oystercatcher because of where they live.

These people include;

1. Land Developers; because the Sooty Oystercatcher can live on some very wealthy property near the coast and Land developers can’t get rid of the bird because it’s a protected species.

2. Land Owners; Some land owners might not be able to move or alter certain things on their land because it’s a roosting ground or a feeding area for the bird

My decision to protect the birds came from seeing a sign down at Bellambi Lagoon Saying that the Sooty Oystercatcher was an endangered species! I was convinced to do this assignment on the Sooty Oystercatcher after asking a few people, including my family if they’d heard of the Sooty Oystercatcher before. Their initial response was No! This was then something I had to look into, something that had me puzzled on why so many people know nothing about this bird.

They are like all animals quite fascinating to see and observe over a period of time. Don’t deny the future generations of seeing this magnificent specimen in its natural habitat just because we want to destroy its habitat for housing development or let our dogs off the leash because they’re too hard to handle. We must treat these birds the same we were to treat ourselves, with respect, dignity and Pride.

Bibliography:

Information such as Interviews, maps and pictures were taken from my Junior Geography Project done in Year 9

National Park Rangers in the local Area

Senior Science survey results on the Sooty Oystercatcher

Speech

The Sooty Oystercatcher or also known as Haematopus fuliginosus is a rare bird located in the Illawarra region, Nepean, Shoalhaven and the Sydney Metropolitan area.

What is a Sooty Oystercatcher?

Well the Sooty Oystercatcher is the rarest among all the Oystercatchers including the Pied Oystercatcher. This bird has jet black feathers, long spear like beak and pink fleshy

legs.

This bird is a shore bird which means they tend to live close to coastal areas. These birds can be found no

further than fifty metres away from the Sea because they’re main food source and water supply come from

the Sea.

That’s right the Sooty Oystercatcher does drink Seawater!!! This bird eats crustaceans, molluscs and small fish. They use their beak as a spear and impale their prey

whilst they’re unaware.

Unfortunately these birds are an endangered species due to their habitat being threatened, Dog threats and

Pollution. These birds only lay one egg a year and that egg has about a 30% chance of survival.

These birds are being threatened by Housing development, pollution and “Supposed” land care. Only a

handful of Organisations have tried to assist the welfare of these birds by building estuaries and roosting grounds

for the birds.

It’s good that people are doing something but it really isn’t much at all. These birds need us to help preserve

their species. We as a community must stand and fight for these birds, no matter what the costs!

Would you like it if someone a hundred times the size of you tore down your house with machines, threw rubbish

all around your house or even let their dog treat your children as a snack?

I certainly know I wouldn’t and nor would anybody else, these may be birds but they are beautiful birds. Just

remember they have been around longer than us and we’re in fact living on their land, not their living on ours.

We can stop the extinction of these birds if we want to but we need to in order to keep these beautiful birds.

I stand here for the Sooty Oystercatcher!

Sooty Oystercatcher

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Transcript of Sooty Oystercatcher