Intertidal waders at Botany Bay - a fifty year retrospective

Abstract

In the fifty years since the end of World Was 2, major engineering works in Botany Bay have drastically changed its intertidal zone, particularly on the northern shore. Over this period the abundance of waders as documented by field ornithologists has also altered. Numbers of the smaller species that feed on or just below the substrate surface – the Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Double-banded Plover – have declined. The larger birds such as Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel and Pied Oystercatcher have increased in abundance. Bar-tailed Godwits increased between the1950s and 1978. The piecemeal destruction of intertidal wader habitats of Botany Bay has reduced the species diversity. Two important areas, Boat Harbour and Woolooware Bay, remain unprotected. The long term integrity of the Towra Point Nature Reserve for wader conservation remains doubtful whilst erosion of the Towra Beach persists. The further decline of Botany Bay from being one of the most important wader estuaries on the NSW coast seems likely.