Appendix D_Shorebird_survey_report_Final_Jul20_jans edits

Australia has long played a crucial role in protecting these shorebird species and habitat as a founding
signatory of the RAMSAR Convention in 1971 4 and numerous bilateral conservation agreements aligned
to the EAAF since. Australia is home to 65 Wetlands of International Importance under the RAMSAR
convention covering over 8.3 million hectares. Five of these sites are in Queensland including the Great
Sandy Straits (93,160ha, listed 2006) and Moreton Bay (113,314ha, listed 1996) located immediately to
the north and south of the Noosa River estuary. A further 65 sites in Australia are listed under the EAAF
Partnership Network 5, a regional initiative of RAMSAR.

Whilst the Noosa River system and separately, Lake Weyba, are recognised as DIWA Nationally Important
Wetlands 6, neither has met the thresholds established internationally by the RAMSAR Convention or
nationally by the Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds to warrant protected status as
important habitat for threatened shorebird species.

The Noosa River estuary is one of around 150 sites located through Australia that comprise the National
Shorebird Monitoring Program. The program is coordinated by Bird Life Australia (www.birdlife.org.au) in
association with the Australasian Wader Studies Group and includes adjacent monitoring sites at the
Maroochy River, Caloundra, Toorbul and Bribie Island. The aim of this program, initiated in 2007, is to
understand and detect national population trends and discover what is driving population changes in
Australia and elsewhere. Surveys and data collection are conducted by entirely by volunteers.

Results from the program are used to inform the Wildlife Conservation Plan for Migratory Shorebirds
coordinated by the Federal Government (www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/publications) and aligned
to similar initiatives elsewhere along the EAAF. This plan sets out national activities to support migratory
shorebird conservation initiatives and provides a strategic framework to ensure these activities plus future
research and management actions are integrated and remain focused on the long-term survival of
migratory shorebird populations and their habitats. The Plan will be reviewed every 5 years from 2020.

3.         Survey outcomes


A total of 151 surveys from October 2005 through October 2019 were conducted by the SSG in the Lower
Noosa River survey area and form the baseline for this report. Prior to this period, no known systematic
survey of shorebirds in the Noosa River had taken place. Surveys continue to this day.

Records were maintained for all species of birds observed within the survey area including shorebirds
(waders), water birds, gulls, terns and raptors, but excluding terrestrial species (so called “bush birds”).
Results of the surveys detailed herein highlight the unique biodiversity and high conservation value of the
Noosa River estuary despite its modest size and its location as a staging area to nearby RAMSAR sites.

A summary of the survey results to date include:

•          A total of 59 distinct bird species, including 27 shorebird species, were observed in the estuary;

•          Of the 27 shorebird species observed, 18 are considered migratory, whilst the remaining 9 are
           considered resident (or endemic to Australia). Together they represent around half of the known
           species of shorebirds that regularly visit or reside in Australia;

•          The 18 migratory shorebird species observed in the survey represent half of the 37 species of
           migratory shorebirds identified as following the trans-hemisphere EAAF and regularly visiting
           Australia. They also include the Double Banded Plover, the only specie known to migrate along
           an east-west axis;

•          Witness to the estuary’s critical conservation value, 8 shorebird species are listed as threatened
           under Australia’s EPBC legislation including 7 migrants 8. Of those, 3 are critically endangered
           (the Far Eastern Curlew, Curlew Sandpiper and Great Knot);

•          Survey counts across all species in the early years of the survey regularly exceeded 7,000
           individuals, though more recently, counts rarely exceeded 2,000 individuals, even during peak
           migration. This decline was largely attributable to declining migratory tern numbers;




4
  The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR, 1971)
5
  The Partnership for the Conservation of Migratory Waterbirds & Sustainable Use of their Habitats in the East Asian – Australasian Flyway (2006)
6
  Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (1993)
8
  The Indo-Pacific Little Tern, a migratory visitor to the Noosa River estuary is also EPBC listed (endangered).

Noosa River – Shorebird Survey Report 2019                                                                                          Page 4