When Libby Hunt arrived with a team of bird counters on Eyre Island near Smoky Bay in South Australia, she was delighted to be greeted by a noisy chorus of 5,000 crested terns feeding and fossicking along the shoreline.
The birds are native to the area and congregate in a large colony on the isolated offshore island at this time of the year to breed.
There are normally a large number of birds, but this year was an exceptional year.
The count of the birds was part of BirdLife Australia's National Shorebird Monitoring program involving Landscape board staff and volunteers across islands and isolated beaches from SA's Elliston to Cactus Beach.
"That is definitely a bucket list item," Libby Hunt from Landscape Western Eyre Peninsula said.
"It's an incredible thing to see and quite a hard thing to count because there are so many birds moving and you've also got other species coming and going as well.
"We normally do see good numbers out there but that was a really high result."
The tally was part of the annual Western Eyre Peninsula shorebird count that includes numbers of both local species and up to 21 of 38 international migratory species.
The count areas, ranging from rocky platforms to offshore islands, marshy samphires, and sandy beaches are critical habitats for resident and migratory birds to feed, roost, and rest.
This year has been a bumper year for the enthusiastic twitchers.
Ms Hunt said there were more birds recorded throughout the survey area than in the past few years.
"With the higher-than-average rainfall, the food source has been quite abundant, so we're assuming that has had some impact on the high numbers of birds and allowed them to breed," she said.
There were some concerns birds had declined on several popular beaches frequented by vehicles and people during the COVID pandemic but this year's count has been a bumper result.
"We also had really good results of red cap [red-capped plover] numbers this year and that was a real positive because over the last couple of counts … the numbers were really down," Ms Hunt said.
"We weren't sure whether that was attributable to the really high number of vehicles we've had on the beach during the COVID time and the increase in visitors.
"To see a high number of red caps this year has been really good and we're attributing that to good seasonal conditions."
Ms Hunt said staff and volunteers worked intensely over February to survey incredibly remote spots and island areas, reaching destinations by boat, vehicle, and on foot.
One of the most astounding results was a boost in fairy terns, a vulnerable species.
"We see a breeding pair at Streaky Bay Spit that does well and has chicks every season but we actually saw 44 fairy terns and that was incredible because we haven't seen that number out there before," Ms Hunt said.
"Fairy terns are at increasing risk from habitat loss and human disturbance."
Other highlights of the count were more than 700 stints counted at Yanerbie Beach, 22 eastern curlews at two sites, 860 grey teal ducks at Lake Newland, and the fourth recorded sighting of a royal spoonbill at Acraman Creek.
Ms Hunt said, while the resident shorebirds congregated to breed, the migratory birds were feeding and resting to gain 70 per cent of their body mass in preparation to fly north for their breeding season.
Many of them had made incredibly long journeys from the northern hemisphere to reach SA's Western Eyre Peninsula.
"It's quite incredible … some birds may travel up to 15,000km, which is quite mind-blowing considering how small they are," she said.
"They've come from lots of different places including Russia, Siberia, Asia, Europe and some of them might have a little stopover on the way, but some of them also fly straight through.
"It's a pretty incredible biological feat."
Ms Hunt said it was critical that people kept their distance from the birds and kept dogs on leashes at the beaches.
Australia is home to more than a million migratory shorebirds but they are under threat from habitat decline and disturbance.
BirdLife Australia reports some migratory shorebirds have undergone population declines of up to 80 per cent over the past 30 years.
The Western Eyre bird habitats are among 520 key shorebird areas that are monitored to reveal national population trends.
