Combined effort by conservation agencies, councils, volunteers to protect hooded plovers along Adelaide beaches
A sign at Adelaide's southern Maslin Beach raising awareness of the hooded plover along the urban coastline. The South Australian government's Green Adelaide, the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board and BirdLife Australia work the volunteers and coastal councils to protect the threatened species on urban beaches.
Images at right courtesy Sue and Ash Read
The hooded plover programme along Adelaide’s urban beaches was rated an excellent example of conservation success. Strong partnerships, volunteers and community working together aimed to stop the decline of the threatened species and to ensure it thrived.
The hooded plover monitoring, site protection and community engagement is supported through the South Australian government’s Green Adelaide board’s Sharing our Shores with Coastal Wildlife project. Funding also came from the Australian dovernment’s National Landcare Program, administered by the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board.
BirdLife Australia’s national beach-nesting bird team and resources also assisted plus work by Adelaide metro and Fleurieu coastal councils and dedicated support from trained BirdLife Australia volunteers. During the 2022-23 season, 75 people entered data into the MyBeachBird data portal, with a record 5,310 data entries (compared to 78 people, 3,575 records in 2021-22; 64 people, 3,468 records in 2020-21). For the second year, there were 12 pairs, a rise from 10 in 2020/21 on Green Adelaide’s coastline, representing 33.3% of the population. The remaining 24 pairs (66.6%) were along the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board’s coastline.
Volunteers and volunteer regional coordinators contributed an impressive 6,375 hours over the 2022-23 season, with 60 sites visited and 52 sites monitored frequently throughout the season. Of these 52 sites 36 breeding pairs were confirmed on the Adelaide Metro and Fleurieu coast this season, 34 of these pairs actively nesting. (31 pairs in 2021/22, 31 pairs in 2020/21, and 28 pairs in 2019/20). There were 110 breeding attempts (266 eggs), with 57 chicks and 16 fledglings. This compared to 73 chicks and 19 fledglings in 2021/22.
Suspected fox depredation was widespread across the region, from Adelaide metro to the South Coast. This season Green Adelaide invested in research into the effectivef sound deterrents on foxes predating hooded plover nests. A conservation dog was used to detect fox dens, followed by fumigating the dens. Fox den searches were made across the Adelaide metro and Fleurieu region.
Storm surges and high tides also had a significant impact with 20 nests (18.18%) lost to tides. Dog disturbance and impacts on nesting activity were still of concern. Council teams invested considerable staff resources for compliance visits to hooded plover sites and most councils incorporated a bylaw requiring dogs-on-lead at hooded plover breeding sites. City of Onkaparinga's new dog bylaws, covering southern councils, came into effect in 2022.
