Wildlife: Oyster Catcher Alert

June-July 1999

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web

by Nina Raginsky

Dear paddlers, picnickers and paradise seekers. My name is Oscar, I am an oystercatcher, the black shorebird with the bright red long beak, red eyes, pink legs and a voice that sounds like a shrill "kree" "kree" "kree". You would definitely call us loud types. (Our voices are designed to call out to our partners over the roaring sea to warn them about approaching predators.)

My rare friends, Colette the cormorant, Harry the Harlequin and Hank the Heron urged me to chat with you about an increasing concern of ours - Marine Home Invasions! Did you know that you paddlers and picnickers are unknowingly entering our bedrooms and scaring the heck out of us? You are coming right into our dining rooms and frightening us away from the only good dinner we may get for the day.

You see, for thousands of years we oystercatchers have spent our summers on little rocky islets with shell beaches and on shell and gravel sandspits. We like these spots because cats, dogs, raccoons and people don't usually find us here. We also choose islets that have a good corner grocery that stocks tasty snails, clams, sea worms, crabs, cockles, mussels and oysters. This type of real estate is rare and finite. We cannot survive anywhere else.

So, every spring after we reach four or five years of age, we select a partner and an islet or spit and enjoy a month of hanky panky. In April we build our little home, right on the ground in the shells and gravel. We hardly take up any space on the planet. Our nest is the size of your cupped hand, just a little indent in the shells. If a predator scares us off our nests, the eggs blend right into the shells so that they are camouflaged and not easily spotted by ravens or eagles or you, dear Homo Sapiens. Because our little bedrooms are so well camouflaged, you have unintentionally been known to spread your picnic blanket right over our eggs, crushing them while you dine on potato salad and smoked salmon! Of course we know you don't mean to invade us but that it exactly what it happening! There are only 11,000 of us left worldwide.

We know you want to save us from going the way of the Dodo and here is how you can help:

• Please alight only at designated public marine parks during our breeding season from mid April to mid August. And please maintain a buffer of at least 100 meters between yourself and the shoreline where many rare species of birds are nesting.

• Please use binoculars to view us. In June, if you watch carefully, you may see our newly hatched oystercatcher chick, just little balls of black fluff with legs.

• Where areas are posted, please observe the restrictions imposed by the signs.

• Pick up a book from the library or your local bookstore and learn more about the wildlife species that you have seen while out paddling.

Thanks for caring!

Presented by The Salt Spring Island Waterbird Watch Collective. Call 250-5374515 for more information.