When I went to visit Kakadu beach on Bribie today I was confronted by a tractor racking the beach, bulldozing the beach/dune flat and collecting all seaweed and other vegetation, as well as weed spraying the wader area. I went up to ask the council workers as to why this was happening, as there were no birds there and it seemed like they were turning it into a desert and removing all potential nesting material and hiding spots for birds. The response was that it was a directive from council in consultation with birding groups, as apparently a rare nesting bird (the beach stone curlews probably) prefer to nest on bare sand…. I would think that such radical destruction of their environment and that of many other waders, would be unnecessary and that they have perfectly good feet to excavate a nesting area? And that the vegetation would give them protection from predators and the elements? I would think it would make the beach more prone to wind and water erosion also? Seems a very strange and a rather extreme measure? A few years ago a Beach-Stone curlew chick was killed there by hail stones during a fierce storm. The local environment group of Bribe Island BIEPA last year had the following in their newsletter: http://www.biepa.org/content/BIEPA%20News%20Feb%2014.pdf Bulldozing the bird roost BIEPA members were dismayed to find Council employees using a backhoe on the sand at the Kakadu Bird Roost recently. When questioned by residents, the workmen said they were ‘cleaning up the seaweed’. This is unnecessary work. More importantly, the use of heavy vehicles is damaging to the sand. Even more of a worry is that the use of such noisy vehicles was disturbing the shore birds. The migratory shore birds resident at Kakadu at this time of year have flown thousands of kilometres for food and rest here. If they are disturbed too often they flee, often resulting in their death due to exhaustion. If you see unnecessary works of this type, being carried out by Council please report your concerns as advised on page 1. Is anyone aware as to why this work is happening and who might have suggested it to Council? Or is this another case of a Sunshine Coast council destroying the environment of endangered waders and shore birds? Kind Regards, Esther Horton
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Hi Esther, Tony, The Kakadu Beach wader roost is being managed by Council in accordance with the maintenance manual, and they do a very good job. As always, before they groom the roost, they send an advice to key players. I received this advice on July 21 or thereabouts, as did Linda Cross, the count coordinator of the Qld Wader Study Group. Your photos show that they have done a good job. When we built the roost we had to knock down a forest of casuarinas. Without regular grooming the roost would revert to a casuarina forest. We were losing a really major roost because of a pre-existing approval for a development. We worked with the developer to create an artificial roost to compensate for the loss of the existing roost (which was also not natural, but accidentally created by clearing and tidal flooding of the site). Waders do not like vegetation, and prefer open roosts where they have full view in every direction. (Refer Wayne Lawler’s roost building manual.) We created just that, but also created a maintenance manual at the time, because we knew that without regular grooming the roost would revert to a casuarina forest or a mangrove forest, depending on the elevation. (Mangroves at tidal level, casuarinas above tidal level.) The problem that keeps rearing its head is that the roost was built for waders, and in particular migratory waders. It was not built for Pied Oystercatchers, Beach Stone-Curlew, and so on, to breed. The fact that these resident species have been attracted to the Kakadu Beach roost is a consequence of its creation, not the reason for it. The roost is not suitable for Beach Stone-Curlews to breed, though they keep trying. If we were to modify the roost to suit Beach Stone-Curlews, we would have to plant casuarinas, and then waders would not like it. We can’t have it both ways. As the roost currently operates, the regular grooming keeps it open so that on the highest tides there is somewhere for the waders to go. Over the years I have heard regular criticism from well-meaning birders, but truly, I assure you that Council is meticulous in following the maintenance manual, and I applaud their efforts. People are not allowed to walk on the roost, and so American and Japanese tourists don’t even come into the equation. Cheers, Jill On 28/07/2015 8:34 AM, Tony Russell wrote:
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Is anyone aware as to why this work is happening and who might have suggested it to Council? Or is this another case of a Sunshine Coast council destroying the environment of endangered waders and shore birds? Kind Regards, Esther Horton It’s so that the beach is nice and clean for the Japanese and American tourists. No nasty twigs to catch their feet and no bird poo to tread in. Tony.
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