Waterbirds in Western Port Contents

Improving our understanding of Waterbirds in Western Port Contents

Acknowledgements The Western Port Welcomes Waterbirds project was Executive Summary 1 undertaken with funding from the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program. The Central Coastal Board 1 Introducing Western Port 2 would like to thank the many contributors to this project including: Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Port Phillip Region, Coastcare Victoria, DSE Arthur 2 About waterbirds 4 Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, DSE Future Coasts, Parks Victoria, Phillip Island Nature Parks, Port Phillip 3 Waterbird population trends 5 and Westernport Catchment Management Authority, Bird Observation and Conservation Australia, Birds Australia, 4 Sites of importance 5 Victorian Wader Study Group and the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation. 4.1 Breeding sites 8 This report is largely based on information from the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (ARI) 4.2 Feeding sites 8 technical report: 4.3 Roosting sites 8 Hansen B., Menkhorst P. and Loyn R. (2011) Western Port Welcomes Waterbirds: Waterbird usage of Western Port. Arthur 5 Threats 10 Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 222. 5.1 Disturbance 10 Front cover artwork by Jeff Davies. 5.2 Habitat loss 10

5.3 Direct threats 11

5.4 Climate change 11

6 Conclusions and management recommendations 12

7 References 13

Tables Table 1 Major roost sites, threats and climate change implications for shorebirds 6 -7

Figures Figure 1 Western Port locality map 3

Figure 2 The East Asian-Australasian Flyway 4

Figure 3 Some of the shorebirds in Western Port and their feeding depths in the sediment 8

Figure 4 Map of Western Port showing key roosting, feeding and breeding habitat 9 Published by the Central Coastal Board, Melbourne in August 2011 © The State of Victoria, Central Coastal Board 2011 This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Designed and produced by Scimitar Communications Authorised by the Central Coastal Board Level 10, 535 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000 ISBN 978-1-74287-187-5 (print) Disclaimer ISBN 978-1-74287-194-3 (online) This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate For more information contact the for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other Central Coastal Board (03) 8627 4724 consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Printed on 100% recycled paper. This document is also available in PDF format on the Internet at www.ccb.vic.gov.au Executive Summary

Western Port is recognised as a wetland of international significance. It is listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971) and is included in the East Asian-Australasian Shorebird Site Network. Western Port is a marine embayment with extensive intertidal flats, mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrass beds that support significant numbers of waterbirds and migratory shorebirds.

However, Western Port is also experiencing increasing urbanisation, coastal development and industrial use, so there is considerable pressure placed on its biodiversity and ecological functions.

The Western Port Welcomes Waterbirds project was funded by the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program. The project has consolidated our understanding of waterbird population dynamics and habitat use in Western Port. The main focus of the study was the intertidal and coastal habitats occurring within the Western Port Ramsar boundary.

The project also aimed to develop an effective, well targeted management program that worked with land managers and local communities to ameliorate the threats to waterbirds.

Fortunately, bird study groups have been collecting data about waterbirds in Western Port since the early 1970s which provides an important historical context for our understanding. Bird Observation and Conservation Australia (BOCA) has conducted surveys at 15 sites at least three times every year since 1973. The focus was generally on high-tide roosts.

Together with results from targeted field surveys, scientists from the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research (ARI) analysed all the data. Over the past 35 years, there has been a general decline in the abundance of waterbirds across Western Port. Of the 38 species analysed, only one, the Australian Pied Oystercatcher, has increased in number. The declines may be in response to various local factors (for example drought and changes in seagrass and/or fish populations) or, for migratory species, they may also be attributable to factors operating on migration routes through Asia.

Under a climate change scenario of 0.8 m rise in sea level by 2100 over 90% of the key water bird high-tide roosts around Western Port will be lost, particularly those located in small, low-lying islands and those where the hinterland has been cut off by the construction of levees.

The major threats to waterbirds in Western Port are: •• disturbance by people and their dogs (both from the land and from water craft) •• predation by introduced animals such as foxes and cats, and •• habitat modification through vegetation succession, changes to grazing regimes, erosion, storm surges and potentially climate change and sea level rise.

To adequately protect waterbirds in Western Port, the key recommendations from the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Arthur Rylah Institute report and the social research undertaken by Deakin University1 focus on improving the understanding amongst land managers and members of the public about the important sites for waterbirds in the area. Recommendations include implementing management actions that help to maintain habitat quality at those sites and provision of information that will help to reduce the frequency of disturbance to feeding and resting waterbirds.

In addition to the information from the Western Port Welcomes Waterbirds project, Melbourne Water has recently conducted a Scientific Review of Western Port2 that focuses on understanding the area as a whole. Implementing recommendations from this study should also help to improve the habitat quality for waterbirds in Western Port.

1 (Christie et al. 2010) 2 (Keough et al. 2011)

1 1 Introducing Western Port

Western Port is about 65 km south-east of Melbourne and is the second largest tidal embayment opening to Bass Strait. Western Port bay is 680 square kilometres in area with 263 km of coastline3, and encompasses four local government jurisdictions: Mornington Peninsula Shire, City of Casey, Cardinia Shire and Bass Coast Shire. The catchment of Western Port supports a population of 225,000 people4.

There are two large islands in the bay – French and Phillip – plus numerous small (usually rocky) islets. The tidal range in Western Port is the largest anywhere in Victoria – up to three metres.

Western Port is recognised as a wetland of international significance under the Ramsar Convention. The bay has considerable biodiversity values and is one of the three most important sites in Victoria for waterbirds. The area regularly supports more than 10,000 shorebirds from 37 species and at least 10,000 waterfowl5.

The extensive intertidal mud flats have a substantial cover of seagrass beds, deep channels in the west and north, fringing saltmarsh, mangrove and swamp paperbark vegetation communities (especially on French Island) plus many freshwater and saline swamps.

Western Port has three marine national parks •• Yaringa Marine National Park (c. 980 ha in the north-western corner of Western Port adjacent to Quail Island Nature Conservation Reserve) •• French Island Marine National Park (c. 2,800 ha extending 15 km along the northern shore of French Island) •• Churchill Island Marine National Park (c. 670 ha south of Rhyll on the eastern shore of Phillip Island)

and five marine special management areas •• Honeysuckle Reef Special Management Area (25 ha off Shoreham) •• Crawfish Rock Special Management Area (45 ha off the north-western tip of French Island) •• Rhyll Special Management Area (375 ha off Rhyll) •• San Remo Special Management Area (70 ha at San Remo) •• Bass River delta Special Management Area (635 ha off the Bass River mouth).

Western Port is also widely used for human recreation and industry so there is considerable pressure placed on the biodiversity resources and ecological functioning of the bay. This pressure is anticipated to increase as the population grows, planned industrial development proceeds and sea level rises occur.

Double-banded Plover Photograph by John Barkla

3 (Blake and Ball 2001) 4 (KBR 2010) 5 (Watkins 1993, Loyn et al. 2001)

2 Figure 1 Western Port locality map showing 12 key areas MELBOURNE used by shorebirds as high tide roost sites (See Table 1)

GEELONG

Ramsar site boundary

High importance

Medium importance City of Casey

KOO WEE RUP Low importance Warneet Creek TOORADIN Bunyip River Cardinia Shire Yallock Creek Tooradin Long Reef

Mornington LANG LANG Peninsula Shire

Barrallier Island Decoy Swamp Bullock Swamp

HASTINGS Long Island

Fairhaven French Island Stockyard Point

Pioneer Bay

Hanns Inlet

Sandy Point Tortoise Head CORINELLA Rams Island Bass Coast Shire Observation Point COWES Ghetto Rock

Reef Island Phillip Island Bass Bay

SAN REMO

N 1 8

KILOMETRES

3 2 About Waterbirds

The Western Port region supports at least 253 species of birds – 102 species of waterbird and 151 other species, including bush birds (passerines), raptors, cockatoos and parrots, pigeons, cuckoos and quail6.

The term waterbird refers to any bird species that depends upon aquatic (freshwater, estuarine or marine) resources for some or all of its life cycle.

Essentially, waterbirds that rely on the bay and the coast in Western Port fall into three categories: •• shorebirds – such as plovers, sandpipers, stints, curlew, knot, snipe, godwits and oystercatchers •• seabirds – such as penguins, shearwaters, cormorants, terns and gulls, and •• other waterbirds – such as swans, ducks, herons, ibis and spoonbills.

This report focuses on shorebirds. Shorebirds, sometimes called waders, feed in shallow water or on wet sandy or muddy flats on coastal and inland wetlands. They are a group of families of birds that belong to the Order Charadriiformes. Some species breed locally, others in New Zealand, Mongolia or in the Arctic. They travel on pathways called flyways and they ‘stop-off’ at intertidal wetlands sites throughout the East Asian Australasian flyway. Western Port is their home for the Austral summer while their breeding grounds are snow bound.

6 (BOCA 2003)

Figure 2 The East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Some sites of importance to waders during their non‑breeding season and for staging on migration are shown with numbers. 1

1 Moroshechnaya Estuary 2 Yatsu tidal flats 29 3 Yoshino Estuary 4 Shuangtaizi Estuary 4 24 5 Yellow River Delta 5 2 6 Mai PO – Inner Deep Bay 21 26 7 Olango Island 25 3 30 8 Wasur National Park 23 22 9 Kakadu National Park 10 Parry Lagoons 11 Thompsons Lakes 6 12 Moreton Bay 13 Kooragang National Park 14 Corner Inlet 7 15 The Coorong 16 Orielton Lagoon 17 Logan Lagoon 31 18 Firth of Thames 19 Farewell Spit 8 20 20 Tonda Wildlife Area 21 Tonggin Wildlife Area 9 22 Manko 10 23 Chongming Dongtan 24 Yalu Jiang 25 Yancheng 26 Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 12 27 Western Port 11 28 Port Phillip Bay 13 29 Dalihu 15 28 30 Kashima Shingomori 27 14 18 31 Sungei Buloh 17 16 19 (Source: Australasian Waders Studies Group) 4 3 Waterbird Population Trends

Collectively, waterbirds use Western Port habitats for all stages of their life cycle. Some species breed locally, while a significant proportion of Western Port’s shorebirds are long-distance migrants that breed in the Arctic during the brief summer and spend their non-breeding period at inter-tidal wetlands in Australia, such as Western Port. The migrations differ in distance depending on the species, but can be up to 12,000 km for many species.7

These trans-equatorial migratory shorebirds begin arriving in southern Australia from mid-July to late September and depart between March and May depending on species, although immature birds not yet able to breed often remain all year until they are three or four years old.

Most migratory shorebird species can be found in Western Port at any time of year, though numbers vary seasonally as they move between breeding and non-breeding habitat.

While most migratory shorebirds breed in the northern hemisphere the Double-banded Plover breeds in New Zealand in spring-summer and migrates to southern Australia for the winter. Other “resident” waterbirds such as the Red-necked Avocet, Black Swan and Australian Pelican move within Australia to breeding grounds such as inland swamps and lakes while Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers, Hooded Plover and Red-capped Plover breed on beaches around the bay.

4 Sites of importance

The researchers from ARI took the total abundance and number of species and plotted them to assess the pattern of importance among sites. This was repeated separately for each year of the BOCA survey in order to assess the change in importance of sites over time. This summed value was then averaged by the number of years.

From this it was possible to develop a site-by-site ‘ranking’ on the basis of abundance and species diversity.

The top 12 roosting sites have been identified and are listed in Table 1 (pages 6-7) together with the threats and climate change implications expected for these sites. Seven other sites were identified of lower importance, often because their quality has been reduced through proximity to human disturbance.

At many sites interpretive signage has been put in place as a way of educating people about the importance of not disturbing shorebirds.

Red-capped Plover Photograph by Annette Hatten

7 (Minton et al. 2000).

5 Table 1 Major roost sites, threats and climate change implications for shorebirds Detailed maps for all sites in ARI Technical Report Series No. 222 % inundated at Importance % inundated at high-tide + 0.8 m Order of ranking and site Land manager Current threats Climate change implication for shorebirds high-tide (current) sea level rise

1 Pioneer Dept. of Sustainability and Disturbance from beach users – fishers, walkers and dogs. HIGH Environment Fox predation. Sandy spit on main point may erode or shift but most of Stockyard Point Parks Victoria bay shoreline retreat restricted by levee banks. high 90% 100% CoM Erosion of sandy spit. Mangroves may facilitate sediment accumulation.

Parks Victoria Disturbance from boat and PWC users (mooring in close HIGH 2 Barrallier Island proximity and landing). Chicory Lane Reef Island will be mostly inundated. Risk of oil spill impacts. Small rocky island to east will be lost. high 92% 100% (North West French Island) Shoreline on NW French Island may retreat into farmland and National Park. 3 Bunyip River Parks Victoria (foreshore) Disturbance from increased use of Tooradin airport. LOW – MODERATE Private (hinterland) Changes to grazing regimes. Shoreline retreat through erosion into farmland possible. 75% 100% Yallock Creek Predation by foxes. Mangroves may facilitate sediment build-up. high

4 Reef Island Parks Victoria Disturbance by fishers and horse riders. MODERATE Black Rat and fox predation. Much of island will be inundated. 91% 99% Bass Bay Shoreline in Bass Bay may retreat into saltmarsh and onto high farmland behind marshes. 5 Fairhaven Parks Victoria Disturbance from walkers. MODERATE – HIGH Erosion of beach. Shoreline may retreat in some places into saltmarsh but 90% 99% (French Island) Risk of oil spill impacts. erosion may counteract migration. high

6 Tortoise Head Parks Victoria Disturbance from boat users (mooring in close proximity HIGH and landing). Rocky ridge behind. Risk of oil spill impacts. high 98% 100% Predation by cats. 7 Observation Point Phillip Island Nature Parks Disturbance from beach users – fishers, bait collectors, walkers, HIGH joggers and dogs. Most of point and The Nits will be lost, parts of Rhyll Inlet Ghetto Rocks Disturbance from boat and PWC users particularly jet skis will be lost. high 96% 100% Rhyll Inlet (mooring in close proximity and landing). Shoreline retreat restricted by urban development. Predation of breeding birds by cats and foxes. 8 Sandy Point Dept. of Defence Erosion of sandy spit. MODERATE Some shoreline retreat possible through erosion. 91% 99% Hanns Inlet Sediment build-up possible. medium

9 Warneet Channel Dept. of Sustainability and Disturbance from water users in transit. LOW – HIGH Environment Domestic dogs chasing birds (Warneet boat ramp). Some urban development restricting shoreline retreat Long Reef Parks Victoria at Warneet. CoM Risk of oil spill impacts. medium 100% 100% Potential disturbance from water users. Quail and Chinaman’s Islands likely to impacted. Long reef will be lost. Potential inundation risk. 10 Rams Island Parks Victoria Potential disturbance from boat users. HIGH Inundation and storm surge risk. Island sites which will be almost entirely inundated. 98% 100% (including Bird Island) Potential predation by cats. Weed invasion. medium

11 Tooradin Dept. of Sustainability and All except risk of oil spill impacts. MODERATE Environment Urban development restricting shoreline retreat. * Parks Victoria * Tooradin is of higher importance when all waterbirds low 10% NA CoM are considered

12 Long Island Dept. of Sustainability and Geomorphological change due to Port development. MODERATE Environment Erosion of sandy spit. Part of island will be inundated. Parks Victoria medium 99% 100% CoM Saltmarsh between island and mangrove may allow for shoreline migration.

6 Table 1 Major roost sites, threats and climate change implications for shorebirds Detailed maps for all sites in ARI Technical Report Series No. 222 % inundated at Importance % inundated at high-tide + 0.8 m Order of ranking and site Land manager Current threats Climate change implication for shorebirds high-tide (current) sea level rise

7 4.1 Breeding sites French Island is by far the most important area for waterbird breeding within Western Port. In particular, Australian Pied Oystercatcher successfully breed on the island. Rams Island is used regularly as a breeding site by Fairy and Caspian Terns. Hooded Plover, Red-capped Plover and Australian Pied Oystercatcher also breed on Observation Point, Silverleaves Beach and Churchill Island beaches as well as ocean beaches on Phillip Island.

Nearby wetlands such as Coolart and Rhyll Swamp are also used as breeding areas by waterbirds. A large colony of ibis, both Australian and Straw-necked, breed at Rhyll Swamp – up to 10,000 birds have been counted going into the wetland during the breeding season. Rhyll Swamp is also a breeding site for Royal Spoonbill and Pied Cormorant.8 Up to 500 pairs of Australian White Ibis breed at Coolart9.

4.2 Feeding sites Channels, saltmarsh, brine and freshwater swamps, and intertidal mud flats (with or without seagrass) provide a wide range of foraging habitat for all waterbirds. Tidal mud-flats are most important for shorebirds.

The bill shape of shorebirds reflects the type and location of the foods they consume. Birds may forage at the water’s edge or move out onto the tidal flats as they become exposed by the tidal cycle. Some species attempt to hold feeding territories on the exposed mud, others feed communally in flocks.

Eastern Curlew Pied Oystercatcher Bar-tailed Double-banded Godwit Whimbrel Plover Red-necked Stint

Sentinel Crab (Juvenile) various small gastropod molluscs

Sentinel Crab (Adult)

Marine Worm

Ghost Shrimp Figure 3 Some of the shorebirds in Western Port and their feeding depths in the sediment (Lane 1987).

4.3 Roosting sites Shorebirds roost at sites that have low levels of disturbance, provide a 360° view of potential predators whilst still providing some protection from wind, have ready escape routes and, preferably, are close to feeding areas. In Western Port roost sites are located on exposed high-tide areas such as islands, sandy spits, rocky reefs and beaches with low fringing vegetation. Prior to flying to their main roost which may be different during the day and night, birds may be seen sitting on the mud flats.

Only day time roosts were assessed during this study and sites with the most consistent concentrations of shorebirds were in the north and east of the bay. Shorebirds will choose their roost sites depending on the prevailing weather conditions and tide height so that some sites are less inviting during windy and rough conditions and others unsuitable when the tides are very high. It is important to maintain and protect sites in unison and not treat them individually. The roost sites are collectively valuable for the flocks of shorebirds.

High-tide roosts and important feeding areas have been mapped.

8 (17 pairs in 2011: PINP unpub. data) 9 Parks Victoria webpage

8 Figure 4 Map of Western Port showing key roosting, feeding and breeding habitat identified as part of the Western Port Welcomes Waterbird’s study

Roosting sites

Primary foraging habitat

Secondary foraging habitat

KOO WEE RUP PEARCEDALE TOORADIN

WARNEET

LANG LANG

HASTINGS

French Island

CORINELLA

COWES

Phillip Island

SAN REMO

N 1 8

KILOMETRES

9 5 Threats

The catchment and waters of Western Port are used for a variety of human activities. Unfortunately, many of these activities threaten or place pressure directly on birds or on their habitat.

5.1 Disturbance One of the most widespread threats to all types of waterbirds in Western Port is disturbance from human activity. This could be disturbance by people, their companion animals or water craft10. It affects both roosting and feeding birds, particularly shorebirds.

Specific causes of disturbance (direct or indirect) include: •• people – walkers and joggers, fishers and bait gatherers, campers, picnickers, horses and riders •• companion animals, especially dogs, accompanying walkers, boaters, fisherman and shellfish-harvesters •• motorbikes and off-road vehicles •• water craft (yachts, jet skis, canoes, surf skis, paddle boards) as they approach or pass roosting, feeding or breeding sites, or moor/land near roosting birds •• foxes and other predators disturbing birds or eating eggs or chicks.

Disturbance causes birds to be in the air longer than usual, thereby affecting their energy balance. This may be critical for shorebirds and have implications for successful migration.

5.2 Habitat loss Threats to habitat include: •• foreshore development •• introduced plant species (e.g. Spartina, Sea-spurge) •• high-intensity grazing or removal of grazing (case specific – when roosting, shorebirds prefer areas of very low and sparse vegetation best maintained by livestock grazing, but other waterbird species like ducks and swans use saltmarsh, which is damaged by livestock) •• revegetation works (tall plantings that obscure the birds’ view at high tide roost sites, reducing roost suitability) •• potential habitat loss due to predicted sea level rise (loss of roosting and feeding habitats, changes to patterns of sedimentation).

Pied Oystercatcher and chicks Photograph by Annette Hatten

10 (Dann et al. 1994, BOCA 2005, Antos et al. 2007, Williams et al. 2009)

10 5.3 Direct threats Direct threats to waterbirds in Western Port include: •• nest damage or loss by being trodden on, driven over or by fox and cat predation •• injury through vehicle collision or crushing (usually eggs and chicks) •• ingestion or entanglement in discarded fishing line and fishing nets •• foxes, dogs and cats attacking birds or eating eggs •• hunting (where applicable).

5.4 Climate change Climate change is expected to affect waterbird populations through loss of habitat because of rising sea levels, increasing storm surges and erosion of high-tide structures like sandy spits and beaches. Most roosts are close to sea level and are likely to be affected. Feeding areas will also be affected as mudflats are likely to decrease. Factors such as change in seagrass cover and sediment particle size may affect the availability of preferred food items.

As part of this project a rise in sea level of 0.8 m by 2100 was used to calculate the resultant loss of roosting area to inundation using a simplified ‘bath-tub’ approach which does not account for coastal processes.

The total area of each high-tide roost was calculated using a Geographic Information System (GIS) with elevation data from the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Future Coasts Program. This provided information on the proportion of each roost area likely to be inundated by sea level rise (see Table 1). Using this simplified method, over 90% of the total roosting area will be affected by a 0.8 m rise in sea level by 2100.

Bar-tailed Godwit Photographs by John Barkla (below) and Annette Hatten (right)

11 6 Conclusions and management recommendations

The research indicates that many waterbird species are declining in Western Port. There is high variability between sites, years and species, but overall, the number of species and the number of birds has declined significantly since BOCA began surveying in the early 1970s.

It appears that some declines are the result of various local factors, such as habitat degradation (for example, loss of seagrass and flow-on effects), decreased fish numbers, and lower fresh water inputs during the drought period. However, for many shorebirds species, factors affecting migration routes through Asia are also likely to be important.

The Western Port Welcomes Waterbirds project identifies the need for ongoing monitoring of shorebirds by continuing the current BOCA counts and initiation of long-term monitoring at several new areas. The need for targeted data collection on intertidal feeding areas with specific analyses of important factors for waterbirds, such as seagrass cover and wetland availability is also important.

Ranking of roost sites is a useful tool for identifying priorities and future management actions. The findings also point to disturbance and predation as the most widespread current threats to waterbirds in the bay.

Improving public communication and education about waterbirds, particularly shorebirds and their habitat is an important project objective. Signage placed at key roosting sites is a cost-effective communication and engagement method. Signs at major boat ramps around the bay will also be installed to help build awareness for shorebirds amongst bay users. Monitoring the effectiveness of this approach will be undertaken.

Key findings from Deakin University’s social research study11 into the human dimensions of waterbird conservation in Western Port include that users and residents considered that information available about waterbirds was poor. The communication strategies most preferred by the survey respondents were printed media, brochures, interpretative signs, school visits, field days and the production of a new Western Port Education Kit. All of these recommendations have been addressed as part of the Western Port Welcomes Waterbirds project (see CCB website).

Many sites appear potentially threatened by inundation or storm surges with climate change. The manner in which the coast will change with sea level rises is still largely unknown, so an adaptive management approach will be needed with measures such as the creation of artificial roosting sites.

The preliminary findings of Melbourne Water’s Scientific Review of Western Port12 proposes some management actions to mitigate threats to shorebirds. For example, to incorporate the most important feeding areas of shorebirds into marine protected areas and to enable saltmarsh and other shoreline habitats to extend inland with sea-level rise. The review also backs up the recommendation to protect primary roosting sites from high levels of human disturbance.

The Melbourne Water Scientific Review also identified some significant research priorities such as examining the trends of fish-eating birds in other areas of Victoria to determine whether the declines in Western Port were a local phenomenon. Other priorities were to determine the relative significance of shorebird and waterbird inter-tidal feeding areas and determine the factors involved in roost selection. It is also suggested that more scientific research should be conducted into investigating the effects of sea-level rise and to indicate where roosting sites will be lost and new ones may be created (including artificial ones). The effect on intertidal mudflats is equally important to predict the extent of foraging areas and their utility into the future.

This recent consolidation of research findings has provided a better picture of the needs of waterbirds in Western Port and the threats to their conservation. The challenge now is to use the conclusions and recommendations to improve conservation management for waterbirds in Western Port. For users of the bay, please comply with interpretative signs and help protect shorebirds.

11 (Christie et al. 2010) 12 (Keough et al. 2011)

12 7 References

Antos, M.J., Ehmke, G.C., Tzaros, C.L. and Weston, M.A. Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) (2010) Western Port Rasmar (2007) Unauthorised human use of an urban coastal Site: Ecological Character Description. Report to DEWHA, wetland sanctuary: Current and future patterns. Landscape in preparation. and Urban Planning 80, 173-183. Keough M.J., Boon P., Dann P., Dittmann S., Jenkins G., Blake, S. and Ball, D. (2001) Victorian Marine Habitat Lee R., Quinn G., Ross J., Walker D. and Wilson R. (2011) Database: Seagrass Mapping of Western Port. Geospatial Understanding the Western Port Environment: a summary of Systems Section, Marine and Freshwater Resources current knowledge and priorities for future research. A report Institute Report No. 29. Marine and Freshwater Resources for Melbourne Water and the Department of Sustainability Institute, Queenscliff. and Environment, Victoria.

BOCA (2003) Wings over Western Port: three decades of Lane, B.A. (1987) Shorebird in Australia. Nelson, Australia. surveying wetland birds 1973-2003. Bird Observers Club of Australia Report No. 10, Nunawading, Victoria. Loyn, R.H., Dann, P. and McCulloch, E. (2001) Important wader sites in the East Asian– Australasian Flyway: 1. BOCA (2005) Stockyard-Jam Jerrup: Shorebird Western Port, Victoria, Australia. Stilt 38, 39–53. Conservation Project 2004-2005. Minton, C., Jessop, R. and Hassell, C. (2000) 1999 Arctic Christie B., Miller K. and Weston M. (2010) Western Port breeding success from an Australian perspective. Arctic Welcomes Waterbirds: A study of the human dimensions of Birds 2, 19-20. waterbird conservation in Western Port Bay, Australia. Deakin University School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Parks Victoria, www.parkweb.vic.gov.au Victoria. Phillip Island Nature Park (PINP) (2011) unpub. Data. Dann, P., Loyn, R.H. and Bingham, P. (1994) Ten years of waterbird counts in Western Port, Victoria, 1973–83: II. Watkins, D. (1993) A National Plan for Shorebird Waders, Gulls and Terns. Australian Bird Watcher 15, 351-365. Conservation in Australia, RAOU Report No.90, Australasian Wader Studies Group and Royal Australasian Ornithologists Hansen B., Menkhorst P. and Loyn R. (2011) Western Union, Melbourne. Port Welcomes Waterbirds: Waterbird usage of Western Port. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Williams, K.J.H., Weston, M.A., Henry, S., and Maguire G.S. Technical Report Series No. 222. (2009). Birds and Beaches, Dogs and Leashes: Dog Owners’ Sense of Obligation to Leash Dogs on Beaches in Victoria, Australia. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 14, 89-101.

Red-necked Stint Photographs by Annette Hatten (left) and John Barkla (below)

13 © The State of Victoria, Central Coastal Board 2011 Authorised by the Central Coastal Board Level 10, 535 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000

For more information contact the Central Coastal Board (03) 8627 4724