Migratory Shorebird Factsheet November 2014

The state of Australia’s migratory shorebirds

Thirty-seven species of migratory shorebird visit Australia each year. These species carry out some of the most incredible migrations in the natural world. Each year, they journey many thousands of kilometres along the East Asian-Australasian flyway (Figure 1) between Australia and breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere.

Australia’s coastal and freshwater wetlands provide vital habitat for these birds during their non-breeding season. Migratory shorebirds must increase their body weight by up to 70 per cent to build sufficient energy reserves to travel the long distance back to their breeding grounds. During high tide they rest nearby at suitable roosting sites, such as on ocean beaches or in salt marshes bordering coastal wetlands.

Figure 1: Key sites on the East-Asian Australasian Flyway.

Despite legislative protection and several international conservation agreements, many of these shorebirds have suffered massive population declines in the last 30 years.

The population of the Curlew Sandpiper – once one of our most common migratory shorebirds – has declined by up to 80 per cent since the 1980s. Our largest shorebird, the Eastern Curlew, has seen a population crash of almost 50 per cent in the same period.

All along the flyway shorebird habitat is being subjected to a broad range of threats:

• Ports, industrial, and residential developments are destroying and degrading suitable shorebird habitat. Since European settlement approximately 50% of Australia's non-tidal wetlands have been converted to other uses.

• Disturbance from recreational activities such as off-road driving, fishing, jet boats, and off- leash dogs. Excessive disturbance can reduce the birds’ feeding time, or force them to move to less suitable habitat.

• Changes to hydrology including changes in flood frequency, salinity, acidity and nutrient levels.

• Pollution from agricultural, residential and catchment run-off e.g. excess nutrients, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and industrial waste.

• Invasive species - introduced plants (e.g. Water Hyacinth) and animals (e.g. Carp, Pigs)

• Extractive industries such as fishing, shellfish, seaweed and wrack harvesting

• Climate change – expected sea level rises, increased temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events will further squeeze coastal habitats for shorebirds.

While large-scale habitat loss in SE Asia is likely to be the biggest factor contributing to the decline of migratory shorebirds, the incremental loss of habitat in Australia is also likely to be having an impact as many of our resident shorebirds are also declining. Table 1 illustrates some of the threats operating at important shorebird sites around Australia.

Table 1: Threats to significant shorebird sites in Australia.

Site Threat Significant species Queensland Abbot Point • Approved coal port Supports at least 26 shorebird species, development including 17 migratory shorebird species: Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Australian Painted Snipe (1.6% of global population) Great Sandy Strait* • Residential developments Terek Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler, • Recreational users Common Greenshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Lesser Sand Plover, Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew Gold Coast Broadwater • Proposed cruise ship terminal Double-banded Plover, Eastern Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit Port of Gladstone • Port expansion Eastern Curlew, Lesser Sand Plover, Bar- tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Terek Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler and Australian Pied Oystercatcher Shoalwater Bay and • Large residential population - Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Eastern Broad Sound, Great high recreational use, vehicle Curlew, Great Knot, Terek Sandpiper, Grey- Barrier Reef Coastal impacts. tailed Tattler Zone New South Wales

Hunter Estuary • Proposed T4 coal loader Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit • History of port developments Curlew Sandpiper, Eastern Curlew, Terek Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone

Towra Point, Botany • Erosion of the shoreline Supports up to 34 species of migratory Bay • Pollution birds including Bar-tailed Godwit, • Inappropriate recreation Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Pacific Golden • Pests and weeds Plover and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper • Mangrove encroachment

South Australia

Arcoona Lakes • Grazing Can support more than 150,000 birds • Recreational impacts including significant numbers of Banded • One lake is covered by a Stilts, Red-capped Plover, Sharp-tailed minerals tenement. Sandpiper and Black-winged Stilt

The Coorong, Lake • Reduction of inflows Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Alexandrina & Lake • Salinity Sanderling, Red-necked Stint, Fairy Tern Albert • Acidity

Western Australia

McNeil Claypan, • Structural works, altered Australian Painted Snipe (regular breeding Carnarvon hydrology site). Most important site outside the Murray-Darling Basin.

Peel-Yalgorup System, • Altered hydrology, proposed Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Mandurah* marina (Point Grey) Curlew Sandpiper

Victoria Moolap Saltworks • Proposed residential Supports 29 shorebird species including 21 development migratory shorebird species: Curlew Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Double- banded Plover and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

Powling street • Proposed residential Most important known site for Latham's wetland, Port Fairy development Snipe in Australia

Western Port* • Proposed expansion of the Port Double-banded Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, of Hastings Red-necked Stint, Eastern Curlew, Common • Recreational users Greenshank, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

* Classified as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar convention.

Often, the loss of individual sites is not perceived to be significant because it is assumed that there’s ‘plenty of habitat elsewhere’. However, the cumulative impacts of these threats, including threats operating within Australia, are having a large impact on many shorebird species.

Time to take action! BirdLife Australia is deeply concerned by the ongoing decline of Australia’s shorebirds. We are calling on the Australian Government to take action to protect these birds and their habitat by developing:

• A strong national wetlands policy that takes the cumulative impacts of multiple threats to our shorebirds into account.

• A strategy to engage our international partners in the protection of habitat important to the survival of our shorebirds.

• A new Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds that makes a strong commitment to the protection of a network of important shorebird habitat in Australia and throughout the East-Asian–Australasian Flyway, with a commitment to no net loss of important habitat. The current Plan has failed to meet its objectives (see Background for more detail).

Fortunately – and partly in response to BirdLife Australia and our supporters – the Federal Government released a new draft Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds (WCP) in August 2014.

The new plan offers significant improvements on the current version - with threat prioritisation, stronger objectives, and recognition of the need for more international cooperation.

However, it has some major flaws:

• It does not commit Australia to no net loss of important habitat. This is unacceptable; it means that the Government will still allow important shorebird habit to be developed or degraded without adequate compensation (if and where this is even possible).

• It fails to take into account cumulative losses – i.e. the collective impacts of multiple threats to our shorebirds. We don’t even have a register of what is being lost.

• It ignores the urgent need for updated migratory population estimates and identification of important sites. Decisions are not based on accurate information.

• It will not sufficiently increase international cooperation to protect migratory shorebird habitat. Existing international efforts have been inadequate in addressing the rapid destruction of critical staging areas like the Yellow Sea.

Unless these flaws are addressed, the WCP will not be effective at addressing the impact of Australia’s development on migratory shorebirds when they visit our shores.

The WCP is open for public comment on the Department of the Environment website until 3 December 2014.

BirdLife Australia will be making a formal submission to the Department of the Environment and the Federal Environment Minister with our feedback on how the WCP must be strengthened. We strongly encourage you to comment on the plan.

Background Information Who are Australia’s shorebirds?

Australia regularly supports around 54 species of shorebirds. Of these, 18 shorebird species spend their entire lives within Australia (resident species), although they may make substantial movements within Australia. A further 36 species make regular international movements to Australia from their breeding grounds. Thirty-five of these migratory shorebirds travel thousands of kilometres each year from their northern hemisphere breeding grounds, whereas one species, the Double-banded Plover, migrates in modest numbers from New Zealand in winter. A further 24 species have only been recorded in Australia as irregular rarities and are classified as ‘vagrants’.

Residents Regular Migrants Vagrants

Bush Stone-curlew Pacific Golden Plover South Island Pied Oystercatcher Beach Stone-curlew Grey Plover American Golden Plover Australian Pied Oystercatcher Double-banded Plover Ringed Plover Sooty Oystercatcher Lesser Sand Plover Little Ringed Plover* Black-winged Stilt Greater Sand Plover Kentish Plover Red-necked Avocet Oriental Plover Caspian Plover Banded Stilt Latham’s Snipe Grey-headed Lapwing Red-capped Plover Pin-tailed Snipe* Pheasant-tailed Jacana Inland Dotterel Swinhoe’s Snipe Hudsonian Godwit Black-fronted Dotterel Black-tailed Godwit Eurasian Curlew Hooded Plover Bar-tailed Godwit Upland Sandpiper Red-kneed Dotterel Little Curlew Green Sandpiper Banded Lapwing Whimbrel Spotted Redshank Masked Lapwing Eastern Curlew Nordmann’s Greenshank Plains-wanderer Terek Sandpiper Lesser Yellowlegs Comb-crested Jacana Common Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Australian Painted Snipe Grey-tailed Tattler Little Stint* Wandering Tattler White-rumped Sandpiper Common Greenshank Baird’s Sandpiper Marsh Sandpiper Dunlin Common Redshank Stilt Sandpiper Wood Sandpiper Buff-breasted Sandpiper Ruddy Turnstone Wilson’s Phalarope Asian Dowitcher Grey Phalarope Red Knot Great Knot Sanderling Red-necked Stint Long-toed Stint Pectoral Sandpiper Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Curlew Sandpiper Broad-billed Sandpiper Ruff Red-necked Phalarope Oriental Pratincole *Australian Pratincole

*Some Australian Pratincoles migrate to islands north of Australia during the non-breeding season, while some remain year round.

Australia: an international leader in shorebird conservation?

Australia is a signatory or party to several international agreements that commit us to the protection of important shorebird habitat:

• Bilateral migratory bird agreements with Japan (JAMBA), China (CAMBA) and Korea (ROKAMBA) • The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance • The Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals • The Convention on Biological Diversity.

We are failing to meet our obligations under these agreements. As shown in Table 1, a number of major developments are planned for sites classified as Ramsar wetlands.

Migratory shorebirds are also protected as a matter of national environmental significance under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

This mandates the development and implementation of a Wildlife Conservation Plan to protect, conserve and manage listed migratory species and their habitats. Unfortunately, the current Wildlife Conservation Plan (from 2006) has failed to meet many of its objectives.