Managing Our Mid-Coast Marvels

Small farms and lifestyle properties play an important role in managing the patchwork of natural environment across the landscape. As many large properties are divided into smaller farms and lifestyle holdings they remain a key piece in the puzzle to ensure large scale healthy environmental systems are maintained.

Many of these small properties have native vegetation, creeks and dams and other features which provide valuable habitat for native animals and important services to the natural environment.

The Every Bit Counts program has been developed to provide access to the best available knowledge, advice and peer-to-peer support networks in a manner that recognises the wide range of priorities and land uses that exist on small farms and lifestyle properties.

Every Bit Counts

Shorebirds, also known as waders, are the birds that inhabit the intertidal areas or fringes (shorelines) of our rivers, wetlands, oceans and lakes. They generally have long legs in relation to their body size, sleek design, specialised bills for feeding and expert hunting skills for small fish, crustaceans and worms. Shorebirds usually feed by wading in shallow water and probing in wet mud and sand; or flipping aside stones and shells on rocky foreshores.

Australia is home to 18 species of resident shorebirds. Every summer, a further 36 shorebird species regularly migrate to Australia from their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere.

The Hunter region is recognised as the most important area for threatened shorebirds in New South Wales. The Hunter River Estuary, Port Stephens Estuary, Myall Lakes, Manning River Estuary, as well as the ocean coastline in-between, all provide critical habitat for both resident and migratory shorebirds. These key marine and estuarine environments contain essential nesting sites, roosting sites, and food resources.

Of special significance are the large number of migratory shorebirds that travel from the Arctic and North-east Asia to the Hunter estuary every summer to feed. This is part of the migration known as the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and involves some shorebirds flying over 12,000 kilometres twice a year. When they arrive in early summer, the Hunter Region contains the perfect environment to allow them to rebuild their energy stores for their long flight back to the Arctic to breed.

Unfortunately, our shorebirds are very vulnerable to human disturbances. They are easily preyed upon by feral or domestic animals or disturbed by close activity. This has caused their numbers world-wide to plummet and many have been now classified as a threatened species.

Use the resources below to learn about the plight of our shorebirds and create your Enviro-Stories book. Your story should show aspects of why the shorebirds are precious; physical characteristics and behaviours; distribution; preferred habitat; and most importantly, what threats they are facing and the actions that are being taken to manage them, so they survive into the future. If your story involves migratory birds, then you should definitely also have information in your story about the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.

Shorebird fact sheets

• Australian pied oystercatcher
• Beach stone-curlew
• Eastern curlew
• Little tern
• Sharp-tailed sandpiper

Websites

• Birdlife Australia
• The Wing Thing – Shorebirds
• Hunter Region Landcare Network
• Midcoast to Tops Landcare Network
• ABC – The plight of migratory shorebirds