Hi Peter and all
I spoke to someone at NPWS last week about the Little Terns at
Penrhyn and they explained that the reason there was a delay in
getting the fence up in the first place was due to a little red tape.
The property is not owned by NPWS and for this reason a few extra
hoops had to be jumped through. Otherwise, they were moving on it
pretty quickly.
By the way, is the Fairy Tern still present?
Happy birding
Ricki Coughlan
Sydney
On 15/01/2007, at 9:15 AM, Crispin Marsh wrote:
Dear Birders
Following on from a number of recent postings regarding the little
terns breeding at Penrhyn Estuary on Botany Bay, Sydney I visited
the site yesterday. The NPWS have now erected a very substantial
fence surrounding the whole breeding site which will at least deter
humans from walking over the chicks and eggs. The NPWS are
monitoring the site each day and we met a ranger (John) at the site
yesterday at around 11:00 am.
There were around 19 adults present and I saw 4 chicks - sandy
coloured little bundles of fluff which alternated between hiding
behind or beneath various bits of rubbish on the site and dashing
about with their little bills agape. Adults were regularly flying
over with small fish in their beaks and calling. I saw one chick
return a call and the adult quickly dropped down and stuffed a fish
down the chicks throat before rapidly departing. I also saw on a
number of occasions an adult landing with a fish in its beak and
sitting on the sand for a minute or so calling without ever
connecting with a chick, the adult would then fly off.
John said that he had seen 5 chicks and IU suspect that there were
more as a couple of adults dropped down into bitou bush at the
eastern end of the site with food but we were unable to see the
chick. John also had noted 3 eggs unhatched.
There were a number of the usual other regular species around. It
was quite noticeable that there were no people on the sand spit at
all. This might have been chance or it might have been a result of
the very prominent notices put up by NPWS. A great birding
experience and we can only hope that this breeding exercise is
successful.
Regards
Peter Marsh
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