Hi Johannes and all,
Regarding the scarcity of Hooded Plovers and the effect our flying may or may not have upon them, I feel its time to share what has been obvious to me as someone with a tertiary education in farming and as someone who has protected nesting Brolgas for 17 seasons at our flight park.
On the land, when we wish to encourage offspring of any species to reach maturity we endeavour to eliminate or reduce all possible predators and loss-factors involved. Farming is about guiding and or controlling fertilisation, gestation and growing cycles of animals and plants, failure in any one of these areas determines productivity and ultimately the livelihood of the farmer.
Now whilst Hooded Plovers are not food, we all appreciate their survival and reproduction rate is of concern to many people for many reasons. If improving the numbers of Hooded Plovers is the actual goal here then eliminating predators should be of the highest priority as ringing hands and stringing bunting are obviously not effective enough.
Hawks, crows, pelicans and many gulls will eat chicks of any type but can be discouraged from predating by close human supervision in daylight hours. Silent soaring HGFA pilots can fulfil this scarecrow and supervision role and when not donating their time to this task there should be an invitation (via signage) for other beach-goers to supervise.
Night predators like foxes and cats are often more prevalent than humans in built-up areas, especially places with lots of cover like you find in the Victorian coastal areas. Looking at the footprints in the nesting areas its clear to see this is currently the main problem for the Hooded Plover, how many chicks were eaten last season? Foxes and cats can be kept from the Hoodies nest and growth areas with fox-proof fences, - chicken wire about 40cm below and 1.5 meters above the surface does nicely - chicken wire presents no barrier to chicks or their parents.
I've seen cases where solar powered outward-facing blinking lights are effective additions to a fox-proof fence - whilst good for lambing paddocks I am not aware of its affect on nocturnal-birds.
Trapping cats and foxes is also a cheap and effective way to solve this predator problem but I see no evidence of this occurring near the known nesting areas. It begs the question, why not?
Please feel free to share this with those involved the Plover nesting issues. If anyone requires the expert opinion of an excellent ornithologist I can seek out a past student who ran Healsville bird sanctuary and later Toronga Park Zoo and put them in contact.
Regards, Rohan.
Hi All,
for everyone going for coastal flying at the surfcoast, please
read info below, and be extra careful at 13th beach.
Cheers,
Joahnnes
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Hi Warren
Thanks for the
update
Our web man will
update ASAP (he is currently in NSW)
I will reiterate
our Hoodie rules in our monthly email to our members next week
I will also talk
to the regular 13th beach flyers ASAP
regards rob
From:
Warren Chapman <war...@barwoncoast.com.au>
Sent: Thursday, 25 January 2018 5:19 PM
To: rob van der klooster
Subject: Update location of hooded plover nest
scrapes
Rob, hello
Please find attached an updated map
of the location of three hooded plover breeding sites.
The two breeding sites on Thirteenth Beach, the eggs are
due to hatch.
Welcome an update on the
Associations site guide.
We had a recent observation of a
hang glider at the east end of 13th Beach
loosing air and needed to land just to the east of the
30W-31W breeding site, the incubating bird was observed
leaving the nest as the glider passed at that lower
level, the bird then short time later observed returning
to the nest.
As a brief update, this time we are
still progressing the coastal management plan
development program you participated in, a new
consultancy engaged to complete document writing, a
release date forecast for end of February of the draft.
We are aware of 5 breeding sites
for the hooded plover between Ocean Grove and Point
Lonsdale, all with eggs in the respective nest scrapes
at this time.
Thanks for support.
Cheers, Warren
Warren
Chapman
Manager
Natural Resource Planning
Barwon
Coast Committee of Management Inc
Postal;
C/- Post Office Barwon Heads
Phone;
5254 1118, 0418 506 151
war...@barwoncoast.com.au
www.barwoncoast.com.au
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