Auteur: Henk Tennekes

The birds’ decline was a stark example of humanity’s lethal effect on wildlife and frightening capacity to exterminate animals, they said. ‘‘It’s terrible,’’ Hunter Bird Observers Club member Chris Herbert said. ‘‘You feel rather helpless that you’re monitoring the decline of a whole group of species in the estuary.’’The Hunter had the most important estuary along the NSW coast for the abundance and diversity of shorebirds, experts say. Birdlife Australia conservation partnerships manager Golo Maurer said the Hunter was ‘‘a key example’’ of threats shorebirds were facing worldwide. Mr Maurer said his organisation had continuously lobbied the federal government about the problem. Mr Herbert said more than 10,000 migratory shorebirds had come to the Hunter estuary every year in the 1970s. ‘‘We can now barely count more than 3000 of them,’’ he said. ‘‘If you project that decline into the future, they’re heading for local extinction in about 20 years.’’

The birds’ decline was a stark example of humanity’s lethal effect on wildlife and frightening capacity to exterminate animals, they said. ‘‘It’s terrible,’’ Hunter Bird Observers Club member Chris Herbert said. ‘‘You feel rather helpless that you’re monitoring the decline of a whole group of species in the estuary.’’The Hunter had the most important estuary along the NSW coast for the abundance and diversity of shorebirds, experts say. Birdlife Australia conservation partnerships manager Golo Maurer said the Hunter was ‘‘a key example’’ of threats shorebirds were facing worldwide. Mr Maurer said his organisation had continuously lobbied the federal government about the problem. Mr Herbert said more than 10,000 migratory shorebirds had come to the Hunter estuary every year in the 1970s. ‘‘We can now barely count more than 3000 of them,’’ he said. ‘‘If you project that decline into the future, they’re heading for local extinction in about 20 years.’’

Mr Herbert said all migratory shorebirds that use the estuary – up to 30 species – were facing ‘‘local extinction’’, including the bar-tailed godwit, eastern curlew, marsh sandpiper, common greenshank and red-necked stint.

‘‘This is an international problem and a problem of human population expansion along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway,’’ he said.

The flyway stretches from Russia and Alaska to Australia and New Zealand, covering China, Japan, Korea and south-east Asia.

Mr Herbert said the decline of shorebirds in the Hunter estuary was ‘‘to do with habitat loss, as it is for most species in the world, not just birds’’.

‘‘For instance, in the Hunter estuary we’ve taken away about 50per cent of the shoreline since the 1960s, which has reduced the feeding areas for the birds,’’ he said.

‘‘They’re doing this overseas too, particularly in the Yellow Sea between China and Korea where there’s vast tidal flats.’’

Migratory shorebirds stop in the area on their way north to breed in northern China, Japan, the northern Siberian tundra and Alaska.

‘‘They’re the most extensive tidal flats in that region where the birds can fatten up again and do the next hop up to their breeding grounds,’’ Mr Herbert said.

‘‘These tidal flats are disappearing at an alarming rate, as the Chinese and Koreans are filling them in for agricultural and industrial land and prawn and fish farms.

‘‘That’s probably the main reason now why we’re losing birds that come to Australia.’’

Mr Maurer said the Yellow Sea area was ‘‘critically important’’ and ‘‘featuring as the main issue’’ in discussions with governments.

Birdlife Australia said up to 150,000 shorebirds went missing in 2007, after ‘‘destruction of a single tidal ecosystem in the Yellow Sea’’.

Conservation of migratory shorebirds was not simple.

‘‘It requires international co-operation to maintain habitats from Siberia to Australia that they rely on to survive,’’ it said.

A spokesman for federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said ‘‘the issue of declining migratory shorebirds has been a major agenda item at various international forums for the past 10 years’’.

He said Australia had ‘‘played an important role in international co-operation to conserve migratory birds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway’’ for almost 30 years.

Since 2003, the government had funded projects to investigate the ecology of migratory shorebirds, determine the severity of population declines and help other countries tackle key threats to these species, he said.

Mr Maurer said Australia had agreements with China, Korea and Japan, dating back to the 1980s, for the protection of migratory shorebirds.

But more needed to be done and ‘‘we need to make it an issue for the politicians to worry about’’.

Mr Maurer said there was hope that shorebirds of the Hunter estuary and other areas would survive.

‘‘If a heavily developed country like the Netherlands can sustain shorebirds, other countries can too,’’ Mr Maurer said.

‘‘It takes thought like designing wetlands into projects like ports to accommodate shorebirds.

‘‘This has other benefits too, like habitat for shellfish and cleaner water.’’

Hunter Bird Observers Club member Liz Crawford said there was a ‘‘growing community of birdwatchers and conservationists in China’’.

Club president Mick Roderick said the Hunter had ‘‘done its bit’’ to restore shorebird habitat, with the opening of the floodgates at Hexham and Tomago, and birds were returning to this area.

Bird lovers began doing surveys of shorebirds in the Hunter Estuary in 1999.

Hunter Bird Observers Club member Liz Crawford said surveys began when a place called ‘‘Big Pond’’ on Kooragang Island was ‘‘still a viable site for shorebirds’’.

‘‘Gradually industrial development took over the site and it is now completely obliterated by Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group’s huge coal loader,’’ Ms Crawford said in a club newsletter.

‘‘Deep Pond, also on Kooragang Island, is facing a similar fate.

‘‘It is being cut in two by a new rail line to service the increasing appetite of the coal loader.

‘‘In addition to the destruction of these habitats, part of Swan Pond on Ash Island will be filled to support a new industrial rail line, servicing the coal loaders.’’

Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group said it had ‘‘avoided and mitigated impacts to shorebirds using Deep Pond to the extent possible’’.

Work was happening to offset effects on biodiversity, such as restoration of 16hectares of ‘‘previously viable shorebird habitat on Ash Island next to Swan Pond, which is now overrun with mangroves’’.

It was working with specialists and regulators ‘‘to develop the best outcome for migratory shorebirds using the estuary’’.

Ms Crawford said if the Port Waratah Coal Services’ Terminal 4 went ahead, ‘‘Deep Pond will be further developed’’.

A Port Waratah Coal Services statement said ‘‘much of the area for the proposed Terminal 4 is an industrial waste site’’.

It had proposed a 238-hectare addition to Hunter Wetlands National Park at Tomago for shorebirds, saltmarsh and other estuary wildlife as an offset for the terminal.

‘‘Shorebird habitat is already being regenerated at Tomago and these offsets will add further habitat,’’ it said.

Ms Crawford said the opening of floodgates on Hexham Swamp and Tomago Wetlands had led these areas to be ‘‘inundated by tidal waters on a regular basis and shorebird habitat is being regenerated’’.

SHOREBIRDS IN HUNTER ESTUARY

MIGRATORY

■ Black-tailed godwit■ Bar-tailed godwit■ Eastern curlew■ Marsh sandpiper■ Common greenshank■ Common sandpiper■ Great knot■ Red knot■ Red-necked stint■ Sharp-tailed sandpiper■ Curlew sandpiper

NON-MIGRATORY

■ Red-necked avocet■ Pied oystercatcher■ Straw-necked ibis■ Australian white ibis■ Cattle egret■ Chestnut teal■ Black-winged stilt■ Masked lapwing■ Great egret

Source: Newcastle Herald, 2 May 2014
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2255869/hunter-migratory-birds-in-danger/