Spending the first 30 years of my life in the suburbs of northern Melbourne gave me a great appreciation of the coast. That is, getting away from the traffic and walking along a beach was heaven.

Now, despite living by the coast, I still get a kick out of going for a walk along a beach. Today I carried out a Hooded Plover survey on one small section of beach in the Point Nepean section of the Mornington Peninsula National Park. I only found 2 adult Hooded Plovers but it was pretty obvious the type of habitat they like and how the process of dune erosion can be a limiting factor.

These two sections of beach (below) were separated by around 500 metres.

Hooded Plover habitat in Port Phillip Bay

Coastal erosion and no Hooded Plovers