Birds of Harbours, Estuaries and Open Beaches

Session topics currently being developed include:

• Birds and their prey – the seabirds, shorebirds and other coastal species found across these habitats, their ecology, and the prey and food resources they depend on.

• Surveys and monitoring – approaches to surveying coastal birds and establishing effective monitoring programmes.

• Photographing coastal birds – using photography to observe, document and build interest in the birds of our harbours, estuaries, beaches and wetlands.

• Living alongside coastal birds – exploring how people coexist with species such as penguins, shags, gulls, oystercatchers and grey-faced petrels, including where conflicts can arise and how they might be addressed. This could include novel approaches such as creating artificial nesting and roosting areas.

• Healthy coasts, healthy birds – looking at the health of estuaries, harbours and coastal wetlands, the pressures affecting these environments and their avifauna, and the importance of considering these habitats from a whole-of-catchment perspective.