Oystercatcher nests near new Coastal Creek aviary

10 May 2021

There’s lots of amazing water birds to see inside the new Coastal Creek aviary but one wader species is attracting attention on the little pond just outside.

The indomitable oystercatcher pair are back this year, nesting on the island opposite the new Pelican Cove exhibit. This nest site is a bonus for visitors to Arundel Wetland Centre this May who can see both new exhibits, the nesting oystercatchers plus wild greylag goslings and a coot family with chicks all in this small area.

Nested in construction zone last year

Last spring this resilient oystercatcher pair nested in the middle of the construction zone that was the unfinished Pelican Cove exhibit. Reserve Manager Suzi Lanaway said, “Last June construction had to wait until the oystercatcher chicks were old enough to follow their parents away from the diggers each day.”

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An oystercatcher silhouetted against the construction zone where the pair nested in May 2020.

Oystercatchers make a scrape nest in rocky, flat ground where they can see in all directions. The oystercatchers may have picked such ‘active’ spaces as the new exhibit and the construction zone as a strategy to keep predators away. At Arundel the oystercatchers often nest among the noisy black-headed gulls who act as an alarm, protecting their own nests when predators are near. A second pair oystercatchers are nesting at Arundel near the Sand Martin hide with the black-headed gull colony there.

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A pair of oystercatchers are also nesting at the Sand martin hide.

What happens next?

Will their strategy of picking a busy spot near the Coastal Creek Aviary help keep their chicks safe this year? Maybe not – the fresh fish that are fed to the Dalmatian Pelicans next door each day attract herring gulls. Unlike the smaller black-headed gulls, the herring gulls are voracious predators.

Will they nest on the little island next year? Likely not. The plants around this pond and on the island will grow in, eventually act as a filter for the water flowing out of the Coastal Creek aviary before it re-enters the site’s ecosystem.