Gumoo Woojabuddee Section Fact sheets: Shorebirds

Abstract

Recent surveys of the intertidal areas of the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area (SWBTA) indicate that Port Clinton is a highly significant feeding and roosting area for migratory shorebirds overwintering from their high latitude feeding grounds in the northern hemisphere. A survey conducted in December 1995, timed to coincide with the summer peak for populations of migratory species over-wintering in the area, recorded 6985 shorebirds in Port Clinton. These were made up of 16 species of migratory waders and four species of resident waders. Bar-tailed godwits, whimbrels and eastern curlews were the most numerous with over a thousand individuals recorded for each species.