Moreton Bay

From GJ Walter Park, just north of Toondah Harbour on the shores of Moreton Bay, Judith Hoyle gazes across the dappled water towards Cassim Island, a resilient stand of mangroves emerging from the mudflats several hundred metres offshore. Ferries from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) cruise past, barely causing a ripple.

From a spit of mud on the island’s southern end, a group of 100 or so Bar-tailed Godwits appear undisturbed. But the rising tide is rapidly consuming their roost. As the spit disappears beneath the waves, the godwits reluctantly move to higher ground, deeper into the mangroves. By high tide, they will be forced further inshore, where dogs are allowed off-leash.

Hoyle, a BirdLife Australia board member, watches the godwits with a mixture of awe and concern. The birds are emaciated and exhausted, having only just arrived back in Moreton Bay from their breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra, which stretches from north-eastern Siberia to Alaska. They have barely any energy left, moving only when forced.

“Every time I talk about the migration of shorebirds, I come out in goosebumps,” Hoyle says.

Bar-tailed Godwits are endurance beasts. Last year, a satellite-tracked bird, just five months old, broke the record for a single flight, winging it nonstop over 13,500km from the Yukon Peninsula in Alaska to Tasmania in 11 days.… Read more..