I'm Simon, the person you might have seen out with cameras filming the Bush Stone-Curlew family.

I am not a student, nor researcher. I work professionally as a web developer, all of this filming and documentation is just a side-project of sorts.

Bush Stone-Curlews are predominantly nocturnal birds, that are typically heard more than they're seen. If you've ever heard some loud scream-like calls at night there's a good chance you were hearing Bush Stone-Curlews.

During the day they tend to go unnoticed due to their effective camouflage and their minimal interactions, often mistaken for statues when spotted.

This is all taking place at Moorlands Park in Brisbane. But you might have seen me filming at other places over the past few years.

This park is split in half by a busy road that hosts a large number of commuters throughout the day.

October in 2022 is when I first started to film the family. But I had passed their park many times over the years and had always felt it seemed it would be an appealing location for Bush Stone-Curlews.

But I have been filming other Bush Stone-Curlew families since early 2020.

There are a few factors.

Bush Stone-Curlews, with this family in particular, offer quite a rare opportunity to truly observe a family of birds in their "natural" habitat, to see how their lives play out, and in theory, to not miss a single moment.

As much as it'd be fun to also film say a Grey Butcherbird family to the same degree, they would be flying around throughout the day, covering a vast amount of territory, they'd be hard to keep track of. In comparison, the Bush Stone-Curlews typically stick to one location throughout the day, and if you're around in the evening you can follow along and see where and what they get up to.

And then there's the aspect of "bigger picture" outcomes.

Bush Stone-Curlews are considered endangered in other states (NSW, VIC), and while they're considered of "least concern" in QLD, personally I feel like the factors that have led to their population decline in the lower states very well could already be impacting them in SEQ.

While it was never my intention when I first set out filming Bush Stone-Curlews, by documenting their urban lives in great detail it does help raise awareness and increase education about the lives they live, the impact that we have on them, and what we can be mindful of. And perhaps all of that might lead to positive outcomes in the future.

Those positive outcomes aren't likely to be "led" by myself, I only have so much time and energy to invest, so for now my focus is just on filming the family, helping keep them safe, and sharing their story online.

But I believe others have already felt inspired by what they've seen. On a local level, I've heard from a variety of regular commuters that now that they're aware of the family, they keep an eye out for them whenever they pass the road. So every little thing counts.

Sadly the father was badly injured and had to be euthanized. You can read more about it here.

(A heartfelt thanks to whomever put out the flowers.)

"If the father passed away, then why are there still adult Bush Stone-Curlews at the park?"

Within weeks of the father passing, a male newcomer had arrived at the park and managed to convince the mother to let him remain.

And now many months later they are a new couple.

Have a read here.

If you live local to the park, or you pass by the road, the best way you can help is just to keep an eye out for the birds when you happen to be around.

Beyond that, there isn't too much that I personally would advocate for, and here's why:

We all have limited resources, in terms of time, energy (emotional / physical), and money. It wouldn't be too difficult to leverage the growing popularity of the family to help keep them safe, but if you allocate resources towards them, perhaps those are resources that would have been more impactful elsewhere.

There's no guarantee of keeping them safe, even with a series of volunteers at night, even with more signs, even with personal escorts on the road, there always will be the chance that tragedy will strike. And the more that's invested into keeping them safe, the more devastating it will be when something goes wrong.

I think the most sustainable thing an individual can do is to adjust their behaviour in a way that might help, and that's mostly just keeping an eye out if you happen to be nearby.

There's a lot more to say about this topic, which I likely will end up writing a post about on this website in the future.

I'm not a professional, nor an expert, but in my opinion relocating the family is not a viable option.

One reason is because Bush Stone-Curlews are capable of flying long distances. What's to say they won't just fly back and return?

The other more important reason is, this park where they live, is a well sought after bit of real-estate for Bush Stone-Curlews.

If you move the family out, the territory will be opened up, and it's almost certain that others would move in. A key bit of evidence of this is that only a few weeks after the death of the father, a new male Bush Stone-Curlew had arrived at the park, keen to make it his home.

It's just not viable to relocate them when it will just lead to others moving in.

I have sought assistance on a few occasions. The first was in November 2022 when I first discovered that the family was crossing the road on a nightly basis. I quickly reached out to my then local councillor, and asked to see if Brisbane City Council would be able to provide any assistance, primarily in the form of signage.

Unfortunately BCC was not willing to provide any assistance, they were only able to provide me with a number to report any injuries / deaths on the road.

At the time I also reached out to a local Brisbane Birds facebook group. Some members of the group had some useful suggestions. Some of them also took it upon themselves to contact some wildlife agencies within Brisbane for advice (about relocating for example.) But in the end, there wasn't too much that could be done.

In 2023, I took it upon myself to design and put up some signs notifying motorists, pedestrians, cyclists etc. I figured even if council wasn't willing to do anything, there was nothing stopping me from taking action.

I have also elicited assistance from local residents on occasion. They've helped keep me informed on the family whereabouts, others helped with supervising crossings, and others helped keep an eye out when I was away for a few weeks.

In 2024 I also made contact with my local councillor, who was very receptive to hearing about the situation. But even with her desire to be of assistance, Brisbane City Council was still sticking by their original response from 2022.

And even though my local councillor was still keen to meet and talk further about what she could do to help, I am wary about dedicating an excess of resources and time to helping this one specific family, when those resources might be better spent elsewhere.

I'm happy to work within the confines of what BCC typically facilitates, but I felt that leveraging the growing popularity of the family to force council to act wasn't quite the approach that I wanted to take.

Too much special treatment for just one highly visible wildlife family would give off a false impression on how things typically play out.

Whenever I anticipate a genuine risk of injury, and if I feel I can safely intervene, I always cease filming in order to provide whatever help I can.

But the reality is that if I supervise the family crossing in the early evening, they're going to be crossing back once more before morning, and I can't supervise their return crossing. Which means 50% of the time they're crossing the road, they will be on their own.

As such I consider it quite important to minimize the amount of intervention from myself, so that the family, especially the youngsters, gain experience about navigating the danger of the road.

If I was to strictly cross with them, waving my hands, and stopping traffic each time, it might keep them safe on those moments, but it might also lead to a false sense of security for the family.

And then another big factor is that, their story is told by me capturing it and sharing it online. Photos and text can only be so impactful. If I wasn't out filming them, there would be no story to share. With no story to share, I wouldn't be able to invest so much of my own time and resources.

So it's a delicate balance between documenting what's happening, and only intervening when necessary.

I genuinely believe that I have kept any "harm" that I might be causing to a minimum, and that the time and resources I've invested into the family definitely has done a fair bit of good.

From a human impact perspective, aka leaving nature alone, their lives are already highly impacted. There are local residents who often feed them, and they feed them food (salty processed meats) that is very unhealthy and has led to symptoms of illness on numerous occasions.

They're already used to proximity to people from crossing the road, dealing with gardeners, dog walkers, and park-goers.

So my presence in filming them is mostly of little interest to them. With the exception that I will often provide them with water in summer, and that is definitely something they appreciate as they will often approach me before I even have a chance to prepare the water.

But despite their familiarity with myself, and people in general, they are still wild birds and not tame in any sense. I am able to be up close filming them due to being careful, patient, and experienced in how to set myself up to film without causing any issues. But if I, or anyone else, just tried to simply waltz right up to them and stick a camera in their face, they would not tolerate that behaviour and would likely retreat elsewhere.

Another important consideration is that by documenting and sharing their lives, it helps raise awareness (as cliche as that might sound), for the family themselves, for Bush Stone-Curlews in general, and for some of the challenges imposed upon our urban wildlife.

I have contact with a variety of professionals, wildlife carers, including a Bush Stone-Curlew researcher. I haven't been alerted to any harmful / detrimental behaviour, but I do invite anyone qualified who might have concerns to reach out to me. The number one priority for me will always be the wellbeing of the birds themselves.

I don't have any authority over the family, so I can't tell somebody what they can or can't do.

But I would prefer that other photographers didn't come with the intention of photographing the family up close.

The day after having a friendly chat with a local, they returned with their camera and started disturbing the birds whilst taking photos, which is unpleasant for the birds, and it also meant I couldn't film them that afternoon. And if I can't film them, then it makes it harder for me to justify spending so much time keeping an eye on them.

A big concern is that if the family becomes too popular, there'll be a constant stream of photographers intruding, and if that ended up being the case, I'd have to signficantly cut the amount of time I spend at the park, which would mean less time supervising their crossing.

There are many other Bush Stone-Curlews living in more accessible locations that are a bit more used to people, you will find greater success photographing them. Check out either the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens or the City Botanic Gardens. The lighting is also better at those locations.

Sooner rather than later, whether that's by my own decision or not. Each year my rent has been jumping $50 at a time, and lately I've had very inconsistent work. It probably won't be long until I have to move elsewhere, and when that happens it won't be viable for me to document, let alone regularly visit and keep an eye on the family.

And that's a big motivation for me to make this website and be a bit more "public" about the family. Keeping them safe in the future is something that will fall to the local community.

"When I saw you at the park, you seemed avoidant (or unfriendly)" ---hypothetical, but plausible remark

I typically try to keep my head down when filming at the park and minimize interactions, for a few reasons. Firstly, I'm there to film, and as much as I do have some lovely chats now and then with some of the locals, time spent chatting means time not filming, and you never know when something of interest is gonna happen.

Couple that with some unpleasant encounters over the years, incidents with motorists and cyclists. Equipment of mine being stolen. Potential attempted scooter thievery. Angry online messages, etc.

Oh and I'm often quite sweaty and a bit dehydrated from being out in the sun filming...

But in spite of all of that, overall there's been more positive encounters than negative. And I've made some good connections and even friendships from the people I've chatted with at the park.

So if you do want to say hi and have a chat, and if I'm not actively filming, certainly feel free. A good way to break-the-ice is with "hey I'm a friend of the floof" :)