Despite the devastation of the bushfire season and the deaths of an estimated one billion animals across Australia, local endangered shorebirds have undergone a "hatching boom".
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According to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, critically endangered little terns, pied oystercatchers and hooded plovers have successfully fledged their chicks at nesting sites along the South Coast.
Fledging is the stage in a young bird's life between hatching and flight, and this season's peak laying period from late November to mid-December has seen what has been described by national parks staff as a "boom" in hatching numbers.
Volunteers kept watch over the populations which have included 35 little terns at Mogareeka, near Tathra, 10 little terns and three pied oyster catchers at Tuross estuary, despite fox attacks and high tides, and five pied oyster catcher fledglings near Durras Lake entrance.
"While pied oystercatchers are residents on many Aussie beaches, little terns undertake an arduous migration from as far away as Korea and Vietnam," a national parks spokesperson said.
Shorebird Recovery Coordinator Sophie Hall-Aspland said the the numbers show the "resilience" of the animals.
She said the results have been helped by the state government's Saving our Species' South Coast Shorebird Recovery Program, a collaboration between national parks, community groups and 100 volunteers.
The program was started in 1999 by national parks to reduce the rate of decline of threatened shorebird species, with Mogareeka and Wallagoot Lake designated as sensitive local sites.
The program describes Mogareeka, as a "fickle site" with birds "in big numbers one year and very few in another".
Wallagoot Lake, inside Bournda National Park, is described as "a tight nesting area", which requires the lake's waters to be at the right level to attract breeding birds.
The state's energy and environment minister Matt Kean said the rare birds said volunteers had moved one population of birds on the South Coast to safety from an advancing king tide by shifting nests to higher ground.
"These precious birds made it through last week's king tide which nearly washed the eggs away before they hatched," he said.
"It's great to have positive news about these birds which are migratory and listed as endangered or vulnerable species at risk of predation, storms and other threats."
