Research sheds new light on 'adorable fluffballs'

With volunteers gearing up for the imminent start of the local Western Hooded Plover breeding season, it’s worth having a look at how things went last season.

It turned out to be a relatively successful one, with six chicks confirmed as successfully making it to fledgling (flying) stage, and possibly one or two more.

This is a superb effort given that we only have about 16 breeding pairs in the Capes Region.

The number of official Western Hooded Plover reports logged by trained volunteers increasing to an impressive 594 for the season, with 372 threats assessed.

This was by far the biggest effort for any region in WA, but still a long way behind states like Victoria and SA.

Volunteer monitors have reported a noticeable shift in public awareness and attitudes, with more beach-goers taking a keen interest in breeding activity and wanting to limit their impact on nests and chicks.

A good example of this was the successful fledging of a Red-capped Plover chick which hatched on Gnarabup beach on New Year’s Eve, right in the middle of school holidays, its nest sandwiched between the super-busy swimming beach and the dog beach.

Informative signage, dedicated volunteers, and an impressive level of compliance by beach-goers provided a clear example of how multiple beach uses can coexist if people make some minor adjustments to behaviours.

Another highlight was a visit in November by a team of scientists from Birdlife Australia who tagged 16 of our Hooded Plovers.

These tags are helping to enhance the depth and quality of recorded data, enabling researchers to better understand bird movements, breeding behaviours, possible migrations, and more.

In February one tagged bird flew more than 50km in a day, from Redgate Beach to Sarge Bay near Augusta. Without tags, this kind of critical information is impossible to gather.

The 2024-25 breeding season has already kicked off, with the legendary Margaret Rivermouth pair laying down three eggs about two weeks ago.

They almost claimed the prize of first Hoodie nest in Australia, but were narrowly beaten by a pair in SA. A few seasons ago they almost beat the record of most nests in a season (five), but missed out to a Victorian pair by one nest.

There are some great new things happening this season, including the installation of user-friendly signage that can be regularly updated with the latest info on nests and chicks, deployment of motion-sensor cameras at sites with high failure rates, and a continuation of PhD candidate Kirrily Hasting’s excellent in-depth research investigating possible reasons why the Western Hooded Plover has stopped breeding on some beaches in the region.

New monitors are always welcome, and every extra volunteer helps improve the quality and coverage of data. Training is straightforward and volunteers can monitor birds wherever and whenever they want, making it a very flexible volunteering option.

There will be opportunities for new volunteers to get a taste of this rewarding and fascinating work during the upcoming biennial Hooded Plover count in November.

Hopefully the recent upswing in momentum regarding respectful beach-going behaviours will continue and all of our local beach-nesting birds, not just Hoodies, can successfully raise some more adorable fluffballs.

Andrew Green is part of a group of volunteers who regularly monitor and record nesting activities for our most vulnerable beach-nesting birds.