Christmas in Paradise

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 56

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

 

Female putangitangi-paradise duck atop 8 youngsters 

Just when you think nature is done and dusted, she pulls a new surprise and here they are - a family of putangitangi – paradise ducks - that have just come out on our local public pond. There’s quite a back story here but first to our Christmas video.

This pond has been emptied for renovation over most of this year. The mallards that usually loiter here, hung around  for a while (for feeding) but had deserted it by spring. They still haven’t returned. A pair of paradise ducks have raised ducklings here over the last three years, though in ever decreasing numbers; four, three, then a solitary one last year.

Two weeks ago the pond was refilled, and then to everyone’s delighted surprise, as if on a christmas cue, three days ago this brood of eight ducklings came out on it. They are attracting a lot of attention, but raise many questions, the first being - are these the same pair that usually nest here?

They aren’t banded so we only have circumstantial evidence to link this pair with previous years. However going by the worn quality of their feathering, they definitely are an ‘older’ couple, while the male has developed a pronounced limp. Another pointer is that the parents are used to being fed by the public and so are more domesticated than their wild cousins who you can’t usually get close to. This feeding isn’t as automatic a response as you might think, but learned. When passersby first attempted to feed the ducklings they had no idea that food was being thrown at them until their parents began picking it up and sharing it round.

She keeps a close eye on proceedings

But then how did Mum get her timing so right, because the pond was dry when she began sitting on her nest? Presuming this is the same pair, they are about six weeks later in the year in bringing out a brood which are usually about to leave this pond by Christmas. So she must have delayed her sitting – though how remains a conundrum. (We didn’t know they were filling the pond until it happened!)

Another intriguing character of putangitangi behaviour lies in their sibling relationships. These ducklings will soon change colour, with their feathers growing into the same shade as their father. They all look the same until three or four weeks later, when over about four or five hours, the daughters assume their female colouring. Three years ago, when we were just getting to know these animals, we began to take umbrage when a runt of the litter seemed to be picked on by older siblings. On further observation it became clear that the opposite was happening – that the runt was being overly protected. This runt turned out to be the sole sister in the family. She was particularly attached to her father and would often go and sit by him. (He usually keeps a watchful distance)

What is also noticeable around a public pond like this is that the ducklings can get overheated. They will try and shelter under their mother, but then dive back into the pool to cool down.

These native birds aren’t ducks at all of course, but a shelduck, closer to a goose,  and one of the reasons they are doing reasonably well, is that they are such impressive parents – especially the mothers. It was always good to see them at the dune lake because they acted as an early warning alarm for all the other birds, some of whom weren’t near as canny. And just as a final point though these birds are very tolerant of public attention they are especially aroused by dogs which are frequent visitors here, and adolescent males. It is intriguing to watch girls approach the brood to photograph them when they hardly move, but any male of tweenage or older, sends them straight into the safety of the pond.

Pohutukawa - a NZ Christmas tree

A very Meri Kirihimete  (Merry Christmas) to all our many visitors from over this year and all the best for 2015… And to those who are also trying to hold their ecological fort against vandalising forces … Salutations! You are not alone!

Track we were listening to while posting this the peerless 

Eartha Kitt Santa Baby...

Come and trim my Christmas tree 

with some decorations 

bought at Tiffany's;

I really do believe in you;

Let's see if you believe in me...

Jill Studd's Blog

Contact Us

Kotuku - The fallout

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 55

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Finally we have a response from the NZTA to our list of questions regarding the management of kotuku, the red pollution in the Wharemauku, pollution monitoring in the Ratanui Rd wetland and the issue of pollution monitor delapidation.

NZTA (from the Environment Manager)

Thank you for the photograph – it reminds me of the plastic heron in my fish pond back home. I have checked out the NIWA monitors at the location post storm this week and there is some vegetation fouling which needs removed and this will be attended to. I don’t have much more to say on this topic other than the project has consent to construct the expressway and is doing its best to comply with all consent conditions at all times, and there is a real commitment by the construction team to do so. If you wish to meet with the ecologist and myself at any time in the future to discuss the weed removal and landscaping plan for the areas of land you are concerned about please let me know.

In other words - they're continuing not to say (much more) though  just so you aren’t confused, here are two spot-the-difference photographs - the kotuku is on the left.

 
 There are only  100 left of the former still living on this planet; but no shortage of the latter. They start at around $800 (sans postage).

Meanwhile we remain none the wiser as to whether the NZTA has a plan to manage  encounters with this critically endangered bird.

Despite the assurance in this email, the monitor hadn’t been checked, because we found two staff doing just that, the next morning. They had a cursory look and were goodnaturedly heckled by strollers on the walkway for being unwilling to get their feet wet by crossing the creek for a closer inspection. A week later  the monitor still hasn’t been cleared of debris. Though as we have previously mentioned it isn’t sited far enough down the Wharemauku anyway, to pick up the red pollution that is pouring into its lower reaches.

NIWA pollution monitor Dec 10

This is the monitor submerged at the height of Wednesday’s flood, which was one of the most dramatic of the past ten years. And here it is again a week later.

NIWA pollution monitor Dec 16

Snarled detached pipe Dec 16

Just downstream from here the local juvenile delinquents had detached a section of the Fortress fence, designed to keep the Public off the expressway site,  and laid it across the Wharemauku. It enabled us to get across and have a closer inspection.

The detached arm going into the body of the monitor, which we have been publicising for six weeks now, will have allowed the water inside.  Curiously a makeshift  pallet bridge has been thrown across the creek though we don’t know by whom, or whether they had  permit to do so.

Fortress Bridge over Wharemauku

In lieu of their assistance we have decided to bestow upon these delinquents the Midnight Collective Fortress Award which includes free membership to the Midnight Collective. (Well ok, membership is free anyway.)

Raumati Beach Dune Lake Dec 16

The storm has given us our dune lake back, though, ominously  all the  wetland birds have now abandoned this area and there is no sign of the heron and spoonbills of previous years. 

Yet the air  is filled with new generations of welcome swallows as our nests at either end of the Wharemauku have fostered second broods. Here a mother and fledgling are resting on a section of the expressway security fence that our new juvenile delinquent members missed. 

Welcome Swallow and fledgling NZTA security fence Dec 16 

The mothers continually tease the youngsters into the air by looping down to feed them and then not going through with it. This trips them into the air where they start to get the idea themselves. A light seems to go on and then they’re away on their own. There is still plenty of insect life around for these birds despite the premature drying up of the lake.

Track we were listening to   John Mayall  Let's Work Together This is from A Sense of Place 1990. He mines a narrow range of Blues but its all pure gold.

People, when things go wrong

As they sometimes will

And the road you travel

It stays all uphill

Let's work together

Come on, come on

Let's work together

Jill Studd's Blog

Contact Us

Kotuku & the Goebbelisation of the Media

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 54

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Kotuku at Ratanui Rd wetland - adjoining expressway excavations

This is a photograph of one of New Zealand’s iconic birds, the very rare and endangered kotuku. It is thought to have established here from Australia a few hundred years ago, and was nearly hunted to extinction by both Pakeha and Maori when their breeding ground was discovered in Okarito Lagoon, South Westland (south-west coast of the South Island). Their plumage, like the extinct huia’s had become a fashion accessory.  They have recovered to around a hundred birds and a stray is sometimes encountered along this Kapiti coast. It is the breeding season so this one may be an immature juvenile. There is only one colony of these birds in New Zealand and it remains a mystery as to why they haven’t established further colonies in the manner of the Royal Spoonbill. 

Kotuku beside Expressway excavations Dec 5 2014

It is the location of this bird however, that has set alarm bells ringing, for this impressively large animal was found resting after feeding at the Ratanui Rd wetland about 30 metres from where excavation work was being carried out on the expressway.

So what are our concerns?

Juvenile dabchick - Ratanui Rd wetland 2013

They centre on two areas: the first on conservation issues,  the second on the way the NZTA has set out to propagandise itself. We recently contacted the organisation (like the Hydra it now consists of about four different entities – perhaps more) – to ask how it manages encounters like this and whether adequate pollution controls exist to prevent run off into this wetland, which is one of our most important outside the Waikanae estuary. There were two broods of NZ scaup raised here last year and a juvenile dabchick was also seen feeding here. 

We couldn’t find pollution monitors and are waiting to be reassured. And we are still waiting for our concerns over the NZTA monitor and the pollutant in the Wharemauku to be addressed in writing, though they seem happy enough to talk on the phone and in private meetings; which raises the second issue and that is the slick management of our media by the NZTA.

In a recent post on snowjobbing, we discussed the Government’s plans to muzzle the scientific community by feeding its commentary’s through media managers, the leverage for which comes through the government funding that most of these scientists rely on. This system is in place in the management of the expressway by the NZTA. The environment manager’s emails for example appear to be vetted by their media managers, while incoming emails also appear to be routed through a media central CONTROL, before being passed on. We also have a steady stream of partisan stories appearing in the local press.  Three puff pieces appearing in the week before the election however, has effectively compromised the NZTA’s professional independence along with that of its environmental managers.

The NZTA media strategy is laid out in a manager’s job description

Role & Key Responsibilities:

• Develop communications and community engagement strategy, channels & budget. • Develop tender docs and negotiate for best communications services & solutions including film, graphic design, conceptual design & advertising. • Establish regular communications channels for locals, national road users and media. Including radio, press, web, social media, digital newsletter and others.  • Create local event events series and seed positive engagement projects with local schools, iwi, artists, community groups etc. • Manage external project brand in line with NZTA Alliance guidelines. • Develop internal brand to support Alliance culture of high performance. Launch brand, assets and channels across an organisation that has grown from 60 to 300 people in just over six months.  • Manage all channels (internal & external) and a team of contractors.  • Seed positive media stories and support NZTA media manager with media issues.

Here lies revealed the Goebbelisation of the media.     

So what does this mean for a local conservation community intent on trying to protect and enhance the lives and habitat of the native species that still remain here? Simply that it is impossible to work openly and share information freely with such organisations without being sucked into their propaganda apparatus. In effect you’ll be damned if you collaborate; then damned again when you don’t –better by far to treasure your integrity.

Track we were listening to while posting this – John Rowles heartsickness for home Cheryl Moana Marie which more than matches our own for what’s going on down here at the moment. 

In the sleepy little town

Where soft breezes blow

There's a lovely little Maori miss

I used to know

Someday I will find my way

And I'll return from over the sea

To where my island sweetheart

Waits for me

Jill Studd's Blog

Contact Us