Hobsons Bay
City Council
Hobsons Bay City Council
The Red Necked Stint is an animation in conjunction with Hobsons Bay City Council we worked on with the purpose of educating local residence on these tired travellers and raising awareness of their struggles coming to Australia, and then once they arrive.
Deep within North Eastern Siberia, sheltering on the tundra and feeling winter’s first ice, is the Red-Necked Stint. It’s July and these small birds are preparing to fly south for the warmer weather. This is a journey they will take every year over the course of their lives and hundreds of thousands of kilometres along the East Asian – Australasian flyway – a lifetime journey that is the equivalent distance from the earth to the moon. Korea, Japan, China and Vietnam provide important layovers to feed and rest.
But with each passing year these once intact habitats are slipping away. As our cities grow, these birds have fewer places to rest on their long and perilous journey.
For countless generations the Stints have taken this flyway passage to Australia and New Zealand. Here they feast at the mudflats along Hobsons Bay’s coastline, filling their bellies with molluscs, gastropods and tiny crustaceans, recuperating in the safety of the saltmarsh and mudflats. But our own backyard presents challenges of its own for the Red-Necked Stints. Dogs off leash and people walking in these sensitive habitats can frighten the birds. Predators like cats, foxes and at times overpopulation of some native species like Little Ravens make their stay one for caution.
We all have a significant part to play in welcoming these tired travellers to our shores, and by increasing our awareness and changing some behaviours around these important guests we can conserve our natural habitats, not only for the Red-Necked Stints but for all bird life in our local area.
