Hooded Plovers are listed as vulnerable birds, with only 800 in South Australia, but one inseparable pair has thrived on the Fleurieu for a decade, raising four chicks.

Last year the City of Onkaparinga decided to ask the public’s help to name the Port Willunga pair, to honour their achievement and raise awareness of the need to protect them.

The council was flooded with responses and ran a poll on the top five names via the local press.

The winning names were Harvey and Daphne, which referenced the letters HV and DP on the birds’ identification tag codes.

Harvey and Daphne have not successfully raised any chicks for the past three years, but before that they had raised four chicks over eight years.

In another success story, volunteers Sue and Ash Read discovered two chicks that have become juveniles, flying along the beach at Ochre Cove.

These are the first two chicks that have fledged in Onkaparinga in two years, and the first multiple fledglings in eight years.

This is big news, as last breeding season in the Fleurieu Peninsula region there were 33 breeding pairs, 86 attempts at a nest, 223 eggs, 46 chicks and only 10 fledged Hooded Plovers, with none in the Onkaparinga region.

So far this season Onkaparinga has had 14 nests from seven different pairs, with the breeding season running until March offering hope of more.

City of Onkaparinga’s Nature Conservation and Ranger teams help support Hooded Plovers through temporary exclusion zones and signage.

They work in partnership with passionate local Hoodie Helper volunteers, who monitor the birds and raise community awareness, with support from BirdLife Australia and Natural Resources Management Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges.

To help protect local Hooded Plovers while they are breeding, keep dogs on a leash near council’s temporary beach restrictions, and obey any temporary parking controls posted on beaches that allow vehicle access.

Keep up-to-date with the plovers’ progress on the City of Onkaparinga Facebook page throughout the breeding season and check out the wider world of the Onkaparinga community in Onkaparinga Now.