From next week, the National Parks and Wildlife Service will be running its award-winning, ranger-guided, educational evening tours to allow visitors to see Muttonbird Island magically transform into a bustling seabird rookery.
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Ranger Andrew Turbill said the Shearwaters (Muttonbirds) arrived back on the island during August after spending their winter feeding in Southeast Asia and began the job of re-establishing courtship ties with last year’s partners, or creating new bonds.
“Then there’s the rather bothersome work of tidying up earthen nesting burrows which have lain fallow since the last batch of fledglings left in April,” Andrew said. “This is why the island has extensive areas of freshly-dug dirt visible on the surface during the Spring months.
“By October or November the birds move into the critical phase of egg-laying, where usually a single egg is laid in the burrow and the parents start taking it in turn to remain there to keep the egg warm during the day.
“Before commencing our evening tours in November, we need to make sure the birds are settled in and chicks have hatched, as well as look at dependencies for an evening tour, like full moons.”
The tours on the full moon are timed to experience the parent birds returning to their burrows each evening, bringing food for their chicks.
NPWS Ranger and respected Gumbaynggirr elder Uncle Mark Flanders said each night, thousands of sleek seabirds emerge from the ocean twilight and awkwardly search out their nesting burrows.
“We use special red filtered lights to spot the birds and often have to give way to them on the track,” he said.
“The cultural importance of Muttonbird Island and its birds to the local Gumbaynggirr people extends back many thousands of years.
“The island was called Giidany Miirlarl by the Gumbaynggirr people, meaning ‘moon sacred place’. The moon is the island’s protector that guards the muttonbirds as a food source and protects them from over-harvesting.
“This is a great opportunity to join us on one of our evening tours over summer and experience the unforgettable haunting calls of these beautiful seabirds.”
The first of the guided Muttonbirds By Moonlight tours will be held at 7:15pm on Friday November 23, with additional tours at 7:15pm on Saturday January 19 and February 16.
For bookings and information on fees and tour dates, visit: https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/guided-tours/muttonbirds-by-moonlight, or phone: 1300 072 757.
