Keeping your four-legged friend under control when they’re excited can be a dog’s breakfast – especially if they spot a bird.
Which is why the Ocean Grove Dog’s Breakfast could be the perfect outing for you and your fur baby.
This event is a great opportunity to pick up dog behaviour tips from expert trainers while learning how to share our shores and help threatened beach-nesting birds, such as the hooded plover.
Join volunteers from the Friends of the Hooded Plover Bellarine and their beloved pooches on Saturday 30 November as they gather at Ocean Grove Beach to promote wildlife conservation.
Bring your dog and receive a free lead, along with breakfast treats for you and your canine companion at this unique event supported by BirdLife Australia, Barwon Coast, the Victorian Conservation Regulator and the City of Greater Geelong.
Birdlife Australia’s hoodie mascot will also make an appearance, with fun games for kids to help them learn more about our wildlife.
The hooded plover is a small black, white and brownish-grey bird that nests on beaches at Breamlea, Thirteenth Beach, Ocean Grove, Collendina and Point Lonsdale between August and April.
An adult pair of hooded plovers will lay up to three eggs in scrapes in the sand and incubate them for four weeks until they hatch. The hatched chicks then forage for their own food along the shoreline.
Hooded plover nests and chicks, like other beach-nesting birds, are very vulnerable and few live long enough to fledge due to the numerous threats they face.
Hooded plovers are also at risk of becoming locally extinct as only 12 breeding pairs live on the Bellarine.
The City enforces dog regulations on beaches while groups like the Friends of the Hooded Plover Bellarine work to raise awareness of breeding areas.
The upcoming Ocean Grove Dog’s Breakfast is just one example of their efforts and is also the last event on this year’s Geelong Nature Week program.
The program, running from November 25 to 30, also features:
Limeburners Lagoon Cultural Walk – Wadawurrung traditional owner Ash Skinner will explain the cultural values of the lagoon and Hovells Creek.
Sparrovale Nature Walk – be guided around our largest nature reserve and discover the amazing wildlife that inhabits it.
Design for Nature – Rewild Our Urban Public Spaces – presentations about nature-based solutions to urban spaces from City staff, professors, a landscape architect and a councillor of the Biodiversity Council. This event is also part of Geelong Design Week.
Spotlight on Threatened Species, Mount Rothwell – visit the Mount Rothwell Conservation and Research Reserve and learn about cutting edge conservation programs protecting endangered native animals and plants.
Lake Lorne Nature Walk – a family-friendly activity at Lake Lorne, Drysdale, with nature-themed craft activities and Biodiversity Bingo.
Charles McCarthy Reserve Nature Walk – led by the City of Greater Geelong’s Nature Reserve team, who will showcase the wildflowers at one of the most diverse grasslands on the Bellarine Peninsula.
To secure your spot at the Ocean Grove Dog’s Breakfast, visit tickets.geelongaustralia.com.au/event/ocean-grove-dogs-breakfast
For more information on Geelong Nature Week, visit geelong.link/GNW
