# Mutton Bird Attrition



## mudpat (Feb 21, 2011)

We noticed that this years migration of mutton birds appear to have suffered a higher attrition rate than previous years. On the weekend I did a count of 800 metres of one of the beaches here and counted 347 dead birds and 2 injured beyond help. These are not an overnight kill and have accumulated since early October and there are more that would have been covered by sand. 
A beach north of us was closed for a while due to the number of dead birds.
Has anybody heard of any discussion that may indicate that the numbers are unusually high or is it just weather conditions that have conspired to wash them all up here?
I am a little concerned that a lack of their normal food supplies may be a contributor.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

I saw a lot floating dead last week.
If I has bait I'd feed it to the hungry ones before I left.

I saw it like this several years ago at Cave beach in JB but I think that was from a storm and this is from starvation.
I hope plastic isn't a contributing factor but it seems to be increasingly.
Maybe coke could sponsor the research.


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## captaincoochin (Nov 11, 2012)

I bet the dingoes on Fraser are fat at the moment.


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

keza said:


> If I has bait I'd feed it to the hungry ones before I left.


Intentionally?
Do trevally count as bait?

I'm sensing a theme here


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## avayak (May 23, 2007)

There seemed to be a high number of live birds this year too. Maybe last year was a good breeding season.
They must be running on a tight energy budget. Small bird flying long distances, they would have to count on a reliable food supply all along their migration path. If the bait fish aren't there or a storm exhausts them that would be enough to knock out the weaker ones. If the timing of their migration got out of sync with the bait supply they would find it really hard. The birds we had experiences with off Sydney acted like they were pretty desperate for a feed.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Seems pretty normal down this way, about 10-20 birds per beach whixh is similar to most years. Maybe most of them didn't make it this far.


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## paulb (Nov 12, 2006)

There's a suggestion that warmer water currents have pushed the bait into deeper water out of reach of the birds.

http://www.sott.net/article/262060-Thou ... -seek-food

Hopefully it's not as a result of harvesting Krill and now Calamari as a health supplement ( Calamari oil seems to be the new thing..... which is weird as I never figured Calamari to be oily....)


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## richo23 (May 17, 2009)

It's the same over on Fraser Island at the moment. 
Had a talk to the Rangers and they said not to touch or help them as they had flown in from Asia and could be carrying any disease.
The Dingos wont even touch them as they know something is wrong with them.
Kinda sad to see them suffering but I guess it is a natural thing.
Thousands on the Eastern beach and not all dead but close to it.
Richo.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

The ones I have seen haven't been diseased, they are just starving to death.


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## actionsurf (Jul 8, 2010)

Saw hundreds of them on Fraser a few weeks back - either dead or dying. We pulled up at one spot to fish and a kind lady was nursing one on a towel and intended to feed and nurture it back to good health. I told here there were another few thousand that needed the same thing just up the beach  I think she thought I was being sarcastic. lol.

Natural attrition unfortunately. Only the strongest survive in the animal world.


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## actionsurf (Jul 8, 2010)

From the WIRES website;

"In some years very large numbers of short-tailed shearwaters are found dead or dying on NSW beaches. As alarming as this may appear, *it is natural mortality - the gruelling migration is perhaps nature's way of sorting the weak from the strong to ensure a healthy breeding population. *


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

kraley said:


> keza said:
> 
> 
> > The ones I have seen haven't been diseased, they are just starving to death.
> ...


Plenty of fisherman are getting scratched by them at the moment, trying to get them off hooks.
Probably not good then but I haven't heard of anyone getting infected


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## murd (Jan 27, 2008)

The birds were so hungry today off Sydney Northside I couldn't get a bait down at times. Managed to scoop half a dozen into the landing net (to thin them out a bit) but they were replaced by another half dozen. When I let the net of birds go they went back to chasing my bait to the ocean floor. Chopped up a sweep for them and fed them a few fillets before throwing the frame into the flock. Fair dinkum, it was scary watching them tear into it in a frenzied state. Pretty sad actually.


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Went for a walk along the beach today and after last nights drenching there were quite a few washed up here in Tas too


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## Stealthfisha (Jul 21, 2009)

Buckets of birds washed up here on goolwa beach...more than normal


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

This is utterly depressing.

Mutton Birds are special and deserve our support.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

I saw a pile of maybe hundreds that looked like it had been bulldozed up & dumped behind Mona Vale basin. I wasn't tempted to touch them, but they looked well past mouth to mouth.


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## cruiser (Dec 19, 2007)

Almost two weeks ago this little bird lobbed on my door step without any invitation,fed him some fresh couta and I had a mate for life ,just shows how desperate it can get for these guys


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

kraley said:


> The event we are witnessing is called a _wreck_ - it happens when they encounter bad winds on their amazing migration. They travel 10's of thousands of kilometers, eating almost nothing. It is completely normal thst a large part of the population dies when a wreck occurs.
> 
> It is a normal part of nature - there is nothing anyone can do about it.


That's actually very helpful, Ken. What is weird is people I know have played with the Short Tailed Shearwater out on the reef for over 30 years and no-one can remember something like this before. Yep, it is possible that we have been unobservant.

Have you got (can you get) data on other events like this?


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

I'm out on one of the great locations of mutton bird "nesting" over the Christmas holidays. I'm honestly concerned. Hoping that where I'm heading they have been able to feed up.

God I hope so. I'm not sure I can cope with mutton bird piles on the GBR. These are the sort of conditions where I might think, this year, this is not the holiday for me.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Apparently the population is about 20 million.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... outheastsa

About 10 years ago I saw Cave Beach in JB totally covered in dead and dying birds but I think that was from a storm at sea.


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## MoJoe (Mar 17, 2012)

quite a few washing up on the beaches here in bundaberg as well, which is a little unusual for us.

http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/hundre ... y/2081949/


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Have just returned from a talk and walk held by Tasmania's foremost shorebird expert. This was a stakeholders meeting, not a public event - I got an invite as a member of the local bird observers group. It was primarily about the Little Tern, 20% of the world population nests on a few hundred square metres of the sandbar at the mouth of the Scamander River. I asked him about the muttonbird deaths and he confirmed that it is a "wreck" and although it may be a bit larger this year it is not an unusual event and not anything to be worried about. The Little Terns on the other hand are something to be very worried about, as well as several other seabirds.


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