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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/29/fairy-terns-returning-to-port-phillip-bay-floating-nests-decoys>
"It’s an attractive piece of real estate – coastal living in a safe
neighbourhood with waterfront views, 55km south-west of Melbourne. The floating
island, installed at the Avalon coastal reserve on the western side of Port
Phillip Bay, features sand and shell grit floorings, and twigs and branches for
cozy nooks.
It has been specially designed for Australian fairy terns by BirdLife’s
waterbird program manager, Chris Purnell, who has deployed some unusual tactics
to charm them.
He says fairy terns were already foraging in the shallow waters of the reserve,
located on the site of disused saltworks, and in recent years the birds have
even tried to nest on the disused levees. But when water levels dropped, foxes
got in, rendering the breeding attempt “a complete failure”.
“What would have been a significant event – 18 nesting birds in Port Phillip
Bay, something that hasn’t happened for over a decade – was sabotaged. So we
thought we’d give them a floating habitat.”
These small seabirds – just shy of a ruler’s length – are listed as vulnerable
under Australia’s environment laws. There are up to 7,500 spread across the
southern states. Ornithologist Dr Claire Greenwell – whom Purnell calls “the
fairy godmother of fairy terns” – says the “lion’s share” of the birds are in
Western Australia.
Fairy terns are faring less well in the east, mainly due to higher populations
of people along the coast.
As a beach-nesting bird, fairy terns often lay their eggs on wide sandy beaches
next to clear blue water – exactly the sort of places people enjoy for
recreation, Greenwell says. The overlap puts the birds and their offspring at
risk from people, cars, foxes and other predators, as well as weather events
like storm surges.
They lay their eggs directly on to the ground, she says, and the eggs take 21
days to hatch.
In Victoria, there are only about 150 birds left, Purnell says, a situation
made worse by the few reliable nesting sites. The floating nest site at Avalon
is intended as a safe haven.
But attracting the birds to the purpose-built pontoon requires an element of
subterfuge. Fairy terns usually rely on the presence of other fairy terns to
see if a site is any good.
“If they’re flying over, they see one of their buddies or a pair of buddies
already sitting there, they’re likely to jump on it,” Purnell says.
Using cadmium yellow for the legs and bill, surf mist for their backs and black
for their hoods, Purnell has painted a set of 3D-printed fairy tern decoys,
randomly placing them in pairs to create the illusion of birds already using
the site."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
