WAMSI 2 - Kimberley Node - 1.2.6 - Evaluating the impacts of local and international pressures on migratory shorebirds in Roebuck Bay and Eighty-Mile Beach

The tidal flats of the Kimberley coast support the largest populations of migratory shorebirds in Australia. Eighty Mile Beach and Roebuck Bay are the most important shorebird sites in the region, regularly supporting more than 550,000 migratory shorebirds.

Shorebird numbers in north-western Australia have been monitored systematically since 2004, with the long-term objective of developing a dataset that can assess changes in shorebird diversity and numbers over time, and their response to environmental changes, such as local changes in coastal morphology, habitat loss (including that in staging areas), global population decline, climate change and sea-level rise. We seek to extend this monitoring program through the summer of 2012/2013. WAMSI funding was used to carry out two summer shorebird counts, 24-30 Nov 2012 and 9-14 Dec 2012, maintaining the continuity of a 14-year series of systematic counts from Eighty Mile Beach, Roebuck Bay and Bush Point.

The data obtained will be added to the existing database, and used in two analyses/publications:

(1) An assessment of whether dramatic declines in shorebird abundance in Korea following large-scale reclamation operations resulted in detectable effects in abundance and survival of shorebirds in northwestern Australia;

(2) An assessment of whether shorebirds have changed their pattern of high tide roost use since 2004.