It takes a village to raise a bird — and a single set of tyre tracks to kill one

Published in On The Record, 23 Jun 2025

BirdLife Australia is advocating for extended breeding site protections on the Coorong’s Younghusband Peninsula after a car hit and killed an endangered Fairy Tern juvenile near the Murray Mouth. 

BirdLife Australia sharing our shores with coastal wildlife coordinator, Kerri Bartley, found the bird in March — a “devastating loss” for her team and the rangers and volunteers who had protected the site since October.

“We were walking along and there it was, right in the middle of a tyre track,” Bartley said.

“It was heartbreaking [for this to happen] after all this effort we’d put in from months of monitoring, fencing, signage, workshops, creating awareness.”

Bartley said that “it takes a village to try to raise these birds and protect them,” as the October to April breeding season clashes with peak on-beach driving times.

“We rely heavily on our partners, like National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers.”

Bartley said rangers, who operated through the Department of Environment and Water (DEW), worked with BirdLife Australia and volunteers to erect a 1.2-kilometre fence around the Fairy Tern breeding area.

“We also have fantastic ecotourism groups like Spirit of the Coorong, who raise awareness about the birds on their boat tours and call out people that are inside the exclusion zone.

“There’s a lot of eyes on these birds and lots of support.”

Bartley said despite community efforts, the juvenile Fairy Tern was killed after wandering beyond fencing.

While monitoring teams counted a record number of 83 fledglings at the site this breeding season, Bartley said that “every bird mattered” with Fairy Terns being endangered in South Australia.

“There are few breeding sites for Fairy Terns in South Australia and this is one of the most significant sites,” Bartley says.

“With the population so small and in decline in the east, every bird does indeed matter.”

“We requested that the state government make that section of beach a vehicle exclusion zone while the birds were breeding but unfortunately, they perceived this as too logistically challenging to be implemented.

“BirdLife Australia was disappointed that the exclusion zone could not be created, because while fencing protects nests, once these nests hatch, the chicks move around and aren’t restricted to inside the fence.”

A DEW spokesperson said that “an additional fence was later constructed to accommodate birds that were breeding outside the fenced-off enclosure”.

BirdLife Australia has since submitted a proposal for their Coorong Shorebirds and Wetland Habitat Project, which aims to reduce preventable deaths by furthering infrastructure and monitoring.

Bartley said if approved, the project would be funded by the federal government as part of their $17 million commitment to improving shorebird habitats across South Australia’s Coorong, Lower Lakes, Murray Mouth and South-East regions.

“We’d extent temporary fencing infrastructure, as well as deliver educational workshops.”

Bartley said BirdLife Australia was also continuing to work with DEW to introduce seasonal beach closures for vehicles at the Murray Mouth and other key breeding sites across South Australia.

“The Younghusband Peninsula is a high priority area where we know there’s several endangered resident species breeding, and migratory shorebirds who come back from the northern hemisphere after their breeding to forage.

“We often see [resident] Pied Oystercatchers and Hooded Plovers nesting close to Fairy Terns.

“That peninsula could potentially support up to 50 pairs of Hooded Plovers, but we’ve only got about 20 individuals,” she says.

“[This is] because there are some highly impactful threats present that aren’t being addressed, including the fact that four-wheel drives need to travel on the upper beach and close to the dune base to keep from being inundated — but this is the primary location for where nests and chicks will be.”

The DEW spokesperson said that further along the Younghusband Peninsula, “the Ocean Beach track north of Tea Tree Crossing is closed to vehicles from 24 October to 24 December every year”.

However, Bartley said BirdLife Australia wanted this closure extended from September through to March to cover the breeding season for Hooded Plovers, Pied Oystercatchers and Fairy Terns, as well as the peak migratory shorebird season.

“Two months is not enough time, because it’s nine weeks from the day they lay their eggs to when the chicks can fly out of the path of cars.

“And unless they lay their first eggs right at the start of the season, which they don’t, then if those eggs fail, the next clutch won’t have time to hatch and fledge before the beach reopens to vehicles.”

In addition to closures, monitoring and fencing, Bartley said raising awareness and working to change user behaviours through workshops and signage would remain essential.

University of South Australia ecologist Craig Styan, who led a project on local beach perceptions, said while vehicle traffic was relatively low on the Younghusband Peninsula, it caused more harm than drivers realised.

“It’s less easy to access than Goolwa Beach and difficult to drive on, but the real four-wheel drivers, I think, enjoy the challenge and can push up into the sand near where the nests are.

“Cars can have impacts like running over birds and nests, but the other part is that people don’t credit how easily disturbed these birds are.

“They get disturbed from really large distances, like 100 metres or closer.”

Styan said adult birds often flew away from nests when vehicles or people approached to distract the “threat”, leaving eggs and chicks unguarded on the sand.

“Human disturbance leaves birds more vulnerable to other threats like weeds, changing beach formations, climate change, and then predators like predatory birds, feral foxes and cats.”

Bartley emphasised that BirdLife Australia’s goal was not to ban beach access entirely but promote more sustainable use of the coastline.

“We want to ensure the most vulnerable time of year for the birds is when we limit access to major threats like vehicles,” she said.

“Our messaging is all about sharing the beach; it’s not about excluding areas and keeping people out.

“It’s more about, when the birds are there, having some sections of minimal disturbance and other sections where people can recreate.

“Ensuring our coastline is protected in the future means finding a balance between visitor enjoyment and the need to protect our precious shorebirds and seabirds,” she said.

“These birds have no alternative — the coast is their home.”