The Port Fairy locals guiding baby birds to their first flight

Each March, Short-Tailed Shearwater birds on Griffiths Island leave their chicks and migrate 15,000km north to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

The chicks need to lose weight, grow full flight feathers and build wing strength before they can join mum and dad.

The fledgling birds will take off on their maiden flight at three months old, between mid April and May each year. This is when the young birds are the most vulnerable.

Shearwaters are guided by the moon; this means that sometimes the fledgling birds will mistake a bright light for the moon and ground themselves, putting them at risk to threats such as foxes or cats.

Lights out for the flight

In an effort to protect the fledglings and keep the bird population steady, Friends of Griffiths Island began a bid to urge all Port Fairy residents to switch off their outside lights of an evening, to allow for safe, distraction-free Shearwater passage.

This was the start of the Switch Off for Shearwaters campaign - an initiative that won the FoGI the 2024 Victorian Government Marine and Coastal Award for the category Inspiring Community Engagement and Education.

The Brolga met President Mike Herbert, his wife Sandra, along with volunteers Robynne Mauger, Carol Taylor, Lex Thomson and John Holter last week to learn more.

The group has been hard at work seeing off the last of the migrating Short-Tailed Shearwater birds living on Griffiths Island as part of their second annual campaign.

“We monitor the Shearwaters during the night and count the fledglings that come out of their burrows,” volunteer Robynne Mauger said. “We do this at least twice each night. We do night time road monitoring and collect any grounded birds and safely return them to the island. 

“Then in the morning we do a lap of the island looking for any birds that have been killed during the night or early hours of the morning by ravens and fox attack, count and record where they were located.”

Volunteers praise community efforts

Many Port Fairy locals have heeded the request and turn their porch lights off at night.

Mauger said the group was thrilled to have local support, including local primary schools helping create artwork for posters, and Moyne Shire Council adopting a light management plan for Port Fairy’s street lights.

“We even overhear people in the street talking to each other about it,” she said. “It is such a marvellous thing to witness, to be on the island in the middle of the night surrounded by clumsy chicks learning what their wings are meant to do, and then they all disappear into their burrows in the morning as if nothing happened, it’s quite surreal really.”