23 November, 2010 1:03PM ACST

Northern tourists take over Lee Point beach

Visitors from China and Russia have flocked together and are enjoying the Top End seafood much to the delight of locals.

  • Print Print page
  • Email Email this
  • Permalink Permalink
  • Share

As winter in the Northern hemisphere starts to take a hold, migratory birds in Siberia and North Eastern China start making their way south in a bid to stay warm and soak up a tropical lifestyle.

Thousands of them have gathered themselves at the Lee Point beach near Buffalo Creek in Casuarina's Coastal Reserve.

The migratory birds are a mix of wading species, feeding in the intertidal zone, building up their fat stores for the long flight back in March.

It's a long journey to reach our shores for these little birds with dangers along the way from predators, weather, exhaustion and starvation. Local bird watcher Sheryl Keats put some of the distance these guys fly in perspective.

"The Red Neck Stints, their bodies are only the size of a hen's egg and yet they fly all the way to Siberia.

"We've had one that is a bit more than 18 years old and we calculated that he had bred for 17 years. So it had flown backwards and forwards to Russia 17 times which is the same distance from here to the moon."

Sheryl and her husband Arthur are keen wader watchers with their lives governed by the tides, to work out the optimum bird watching times. Sheryl quips that it's lucky they share their wader watching passion "otherwise we would probably live separate lives".

Another local bird enthusiast is Peter Kyne who is Research Associate for Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) at Charles Darwin University.

He searches through the flocks trying to identify different species and also to look for birds with little coloured flags banded on their legs.

"We can look at the colour of those and it tells us where they were banded. So Sheryl the other day had a bird here from China and often we have birds that have been banded elsewhere in Australia and might be moving through on migration."

Lee Point is a popular spot to have a walk on the beach with or without the dog. While the birds are at Lee Point, Peter mentions some good etiquette for beach users.

"If you see a flock of birds on the beach sort of give them a wide berth and walk around.

"Up here in Casuarina Coastal Reserve it's this stretch of beach which is the most important roost area for the migratory birds, which are those birds that have flown from Siberia and Alaska.

"Between Buffalo Creek and Lee Point, that's a no dog area, so we just ask people to remember that and not bring their dogs along this section. Otherwise come and see them, just give them their space."

The birds will be in the area until March 2011, when they will begin their long flight back to their Northern breeding grounds.