The endangered Little Tern has experienced one of its best breeding seasons in the past 24 years with more than 900 nests recorded, 485 breeding pairs and more than 500 fledglings. Its sparked hope among conservationists who are continuing threat management to ensure the species keeps thriving.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00So little terns are a species that come from north in Asia down to Australia during the
00:12summer months.
00:13They come here in round about October and then they breed on our beaches and by the
00:19end of March they head back home.
00:25Some actually stay locally and they're this magnificent little bird that they nest on
00:32some of the most vulnerable places on our beaches in fact, Joe, and they're very selective
00:37about where they nest.
00:39They require shell grit and sand that matches the camouflage on their eggs and the camouflage
00:47on the chicks' bodies.
00:49So they're very selective about where they nest.
00:52Yeah, and like you say, as we're seeing these images of them and they look so vulnerable.
00:58They just fly down onto the beach.
01:00Do they kind of go up in the dunes a bit rather than down close to the water?
01:05Well, they can go up into the dunes, but they can also be very close to the water.
01:11And in fact, so much so during the East Coast lows, and we saw that with tropical cyclone
01:17Alfred, that Alfred's big seas up at Harrington overtopped some nests and some of the nests
01:24were lost due to the big waves.
01:26Okay, so what's happened with numbers over the recent decades?
01:30So we've got a steady increase, which is incredibly reassuring, Joe.
01:35We're not out of the woods yet though, because the birds are still endangered.
01:40They're listed as endangered in New South Wales and they've just been listed as vulnerable
01:45federally.
01:47We have to keep our eye on the threats for these little birds and some of the threats
01:50include accidentally stepping on them because they are so well camouflaged.
01:57So if there are fenced areas, please keep out of the fenced areas.
02:03Domestic dogs, you know, only walk your dogs on areas that are on-leash areas or authorised
02:11dog areas, unauthorised four-wheel driving.
02:16Some of the little turns can succumb to fishing line entanglements, which is quite common.
02:22So we've really got to be careful about our rubbish as well.
02:25What do you put the gradual increase down to?
02:29It's got to do with an increased effort.
02:32So for example, this year we've had over 5,000 observations.
02:36We've got volunteers, we've got local councils becoming involved.
02:42We've got national parks involved through the Saving Our Species program, providing funding
02:46to help with the management of these sites.
02:50And one of the top things in my view are volunteers.
02:54You know, we've got volunteers, for example, there's one site in The Hunter where some volunteers,
03:00they jump in their kayaks, paddle out to Corrie Island every week and count the little
03:05turns on our behalf.
03:07And the beauty about the counts is that the information they're collecting is very, very
03:13good information.
03:15And Joe, you can't make good decisions without good information.
03:18And the volunteers across the state and our staff are collecting that information to help
03:26good decision making.
03:27And so how heartened are you about this latest season?
03:30Oh, we're pretty happy.
03:32I mean, look, we're very buoyed and we're very happy for the volunteers as well.
03:39And we hope that we can continue this effort.
03:42And in fact, we need to.
03:44We need to continually manage the threat.
03:46And the thing about this year, we've got 24 sites across the state.
03:50Some of those sites had really good fledgling, like, for example, at Karagi Point at the entrance
03:57where 45% of the state, where other sites had only one fledgling.
04:02And that one fledgling is still important because these animals, these birds are still heading
04:07towards extinction unless we act to address those threats.