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Help Save Fraser Island’s Unique Marine Environment! |
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ourgreatsandy.com Celebrating and Defending the Great Sandy Strait
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PROPOSED MARY RIVER DAM
IMPACTS ON THE GREAT SANDY
ABOUT THE GREAT SANDY |
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Website created by Elisabeth Berry for 2Berries Communications. Copyright © 2008 ourgreatsandy.com. All rights reserved. |
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Between September and March of each year at least twenty species of birds migrate from as far as Siberia to rest and feed on the Great Sandy Strait’s mangrove-lined flats.
Migratory waders fly an annual round trip migration of 25,000 kilometres from their northern hemisphere Arctic breeding grounds to the wetlands of the southern hemisphere continents. They need to feed and rest undisturbed before their marathon return journey. Repeated disturbances use up the energy reserves they need for their flight onwards.
Surface hunters and substrate probers
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Shorebirds in Focus |
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Shorebird feeding and roosting cycles are linked to the tides rather than day or night, with birds feeding at low tide and roosting at high tide. Keen eyesight and quick movements help some shorebirds capture prey and locate burrow openings. Others probe the soil, mud or water, detecting food with their sensitive bill tips (like our fingertips).
Visitors from afar …
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Eastern Curlew 53-66cm Breeds in eastern Siberia and northern Mongolia. The eastern curlew is Australia’s largest shorebird but is rare in Queensland. The Great Sandy is ranked first in national importance for this species.
Whimbrel 38-46cm Breeds in north-eastern Siberia. Similar to the eastern curlew but has a shorter bill and legs.
Bar-tailed godwit 38-45cm Breeds in eastern Siberia and Alaska. Bar-tailed godwits are abundant in the Great Sandy Strait.
Double-banded plover 17-19cm A visitor from New Zealand, this species is brown and white and has two distinctive breast bars displayed when in breeding plumage (seen on arrival February—April, and before departing July—August.)
Red-necked stint 13-16cm Breeds in northern Siberia and Alaska. This active surface-feeder is Australia’s smallest migratory shorebird.
Pied oystercatcher 48cm Locally nomadic, this familiar sturdy, black and white bird is easily recognised by its red bill and legs.
Beach stone-curlew (formerly ‘beach thick-knee’) 55cm This large shorebird is recognised as vulnerable in Queensland. It prefers undisturbed mangrove-lined shores and is sensitive to human disturbance and predation by cats, dogs and feral pigs. Active individually or in pairs, mainly at night and dusk, the stone-curlew is distinctive with a broad black eye-stripe and a robust black and yellow bill.
Information courtesy of Queensland Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
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Illustrations courtesy Lynda Litz-Tyne and Ian Venables |
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Local Residents |