Welcome to the
Midnight Collective Broadsheet 85
Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
We were dismayed in February
to discover that we had lost our breeding dabchick pair at the Waikanae River
estuary. They had been producing youngsters every year but the female suddenly
disappeared leaving the male on his own. We then discovered another about 3 kms
away on the Ratanui Rd wetland, but it was also a male.
It was great news this
morning to find the male once again paired up with a female. It was a chilly
morning and difficult light, but here are some images to celebrate the two and
hopefully look forward to more chicks later in the year.
This delicate little grebe
has been a visitor to the dune lake and is one of our rarest local endemic
waterbirds. We knew of three at the end of the breeding season in February then
reduced to two. It remains a mystery how they get around. It is assumed they
fly at night, though we’ve never seen them take to the air. They may also make
their way through many of this areas drains and waterways. So where this little
female has come from remains a mystery but her appearance gives us every reason
to celebrate…
Track we were listening to
while posting this - If you want to be a bird –The Holy Modal Rounders… This
track would fly right past anyone born after 1955. It is fairground music strained through American
trades hall stomp, then raised to the level of
cantata brilliance by electrification and concentrated mindlessness (and the help no doubt of illegal
substances). It charts a moment in musical history that will never return…
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