|
Hi Birders,
The volunteers who manage the Little
Tern colony at Karagi Point, The Entrance, have had several issues of
unacceptable behaviour from locals this year. Our two main human problems are
people with dogs and and people who climb through the fence and walk
through the colony instead of going around the fence.
Many people insist on walking dogs
along the beach even though it is not classed as a "dog walking area" and there
are signs saying no dogs. Owners of dogs believe that they have a divine right
to take them anywhere! Even if the dogs don't get through the fence all the
birds will leave their eggs and young when a dog goes past, whereas they may sit
there when a person walks past. When the dog is off the lead and running
everywhere and even though does not actually go through the fence (our fences
are not electrified) the birds go beserk. Later on when the chicks are a bit
older and they wait on the beach for their parents to bring in the fish, the
dogs scatter the chicks and some fly off and ten their parents spend ages when
they come back with a fish looking for their chick, as they appear to return to
the spot where the chicks were last! This leads to endless confusion and
in the melee, the parents wander around offering their fish to chicks (obviously
not their own) who won't take it, and this draws the Slver Gulls attention to
the bird with the fish and to the chicks so that the gulls come swooping iin. I
have never seen anyone on our beach policing the dog laws.
The people who walk through the
colony are usually good ocker aussie surfers with boards, who paddle across
the inlet from the The Entrance and when they reach the spit, go through the
fence rather than walk around it (it is about 400m long). If you request the
surfers to go around the fence or to the dog owners to avoid taking their
dog on the beach, you get a mouthful and or the finger in the air.
Finally we also had problems with childen? who came
into the colony on one occasion and collected eggs from atleast 3 nests and put
them all in the one pile and then cleared the sand from around this large
composite nest! The birds had deserted by the time I found this
situation.
As wildlife carers/wardens we need better signs,
more support & sympathy from NPWS & the local council (Little terns nest
when there is the greatest risk from bushfires so invariably there are no NPWS
rangers available when needed, and when for councils, the visitor pressure is
highest), and more sympathy from the public and other birdwatchers. From some of
the comments that I saw on birding -aus, I felt that there was not much sympathy
for the problem from some of the subscribers and therefore one could not
expectmuch from the general public either.
Alan Morris
| 