Flocking terns, poaching and political skullduggery at Kapiti's marine reserve

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 133

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

flocking white fronted terns on Paraparaumu Beach

The pleasure of living close to a marine reserve is amply demonstrated in this large gathering of white fronted terns, that over the past week have taken up residence on this coast, and are following schools of fish, shoaling through the reserve.

In flight

Something must be going right to find such a large congregation which, as these photos reveal, includes many adolescent birds.

Rested up

adolescent

We counted 216 squatting on the beach, then the next day they were back in even larger numbers. They feed off-shore with gulls and shags. Then, no doubt, larger marine fish like kahawai and kingfish are following in train, under water.

Southern section of Kapiti marine reserve. Island in background

Yet these reserves remain under constant threat, not simply from a government that might reverse or modify protecting legislation (as has been threatened in Australia), but also from illegal fishing.  In the days when we were involved running tours to Kapiti Island, cynical visitors observing the thick beds of regenerating paua (abalone to our overseas visitors) would joke about DoC staff helping themselves. (It never happens.)

And there is always the threat of illegal fishing. Here is a shot of a fishing boat, testing the law by running its nets right along our reserve’s northern boundaries.

Fishing boat trawling along northern edge of reserve November 2015

There is little to stop a boat like this dropping its nets into the reserve while travelling through the strait at night. What is also concerning is this net, set out on the beach in the middle of the reserve last Sunday lunchtime, with neither qualm or a fishery inspector in sight.

Hand held net, foreground 

net floats (detail)

Why? Because the government isn’t providing the funding to properly police this activity.

There is a worrying level of worldwide cynicism about governments and the ever widening gap between what they say and what they do. Having announced the laudable, but harebrained objective of ridding this country of introduced mammalian pests  within 50 years, (that doesn’t include the humans); it is now going to clean up our rivers within 40.

Noone believes this because... 

Is it achievable? No. Is there an election coming up. Yes. Are the Greens polling strongly. Yes. A hung parliament looks a strong possibility which explains why a government that’s spent the best part of nine years now,  trying to repeal the RMA (the legislation that puts environmental protection around development), disembowelling the Department of Conservation, and turning our Environmental Protection Authority, (Look Out America!), into the hand maiden of business interests, is now trying to green itself up.

The good thing about making lofty pronunciations on the environment is that they carry primetime coverage without giving time to look at what the detail might involve; which always comes down to how much money is going to be put into realising it. Which is why someone can happily place a set net in the middle of our marine reserve without having to worry about the consequences. There is no money to police it.

Massaging the truth in this way is a tried and trusted political strategy but it only works until you get caught out. It was through the risk of epidemics in the 19^th century that New Zealand developed a co-ordinated public health system very early; but only on paper. It was passed into law but never adequately funded; the healthy wealthy (who ran the country) drawing the line at funding the healthcare of the poor.  Epidemics showed no respect for wealth and class boundaries however and following public panic when the news broke that plague had arrived in Australia, suddenly there was ample cash to begin developing the full cover public health system we have today.

So what is it going to take to protect, fund then police the legislation designed to guarantee the quality of our unique but now threatened environment?

Track we were listening to while posting this... Well in lieu of a song we are putting up this link  to  a column in the New Zealand Herald we thought you might enjoy...We dare you 

Environmental artist Jill Studd's blog
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A New Zealand dabchick family -Feeding the youngster

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 132

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Discovering intimate wildlife moments is often a matter of chance; the finding of yourself in the right place at the right time. You stumble in on them and that’s what happened here, on one of the rare fine days of this summer. (It’s persisting down again right now, as we send this to air, with NSW across the water, in a heatwave emergency.)

Regenerating swamp forest wetland -QEII Park Kapiti

We were visiting the QEII park wetland restoration (above), about 10 km south, where two families of dabchicks have been in residence since last year. These charming little endemic grebes don’t usually tolerate each other, especially during the breeding season, but while one pair were busy feeding a rapidly growing chick, they simply ignored the other pair frolicking close by.

Young dabchick pair

We managed to shoot this lengthy video of the two parents in action at the end of which the chick was so sated, that she sat herself down on a floating clump of weed to rest up.

Both parents contribute to the feeding though the mother (the smaller and less coloured of the two parents) is noticeably more successful in fishing up food. It was she who kept coming back to check the youngster as she settled in the centre of the lake.

Dad brings home the bacon -Mum in the foreground

This chick is almost ready to begin to dive on her own and was occasionally following her parents in putting her head under water and steering around with her webbed back feet on the look out herself for food.

All done - chick at rest on water

Having two parents actively involved in feeding and raising youngsters must have a positive impact on their survival (when they come off the nest it is usually the father who carries the brood on his back). There is increased competition now as the Australian émigré coots begin to gain a foot hold locally.

Coot at Ratanui wetland

They are aggressive and the dabchicks are wary of them when around, but the population in this area seems to be holding its own.

Track we were listening to while posting this – The Weavers  I’m standing on the outside of your shelter …

I'm standing on the outside of your shelter, lookin' in

While the bombs around are falling everywhere

Inside you look so warm and safe, and oh so happy

Have I ever told you that I care?

This is from The Weavers  Carnegie reunion May 1963... Better start digging them again.

Environmental artist Jill Studd’s blog

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Bummer of a New Zealand summer…yet another flood hits the Kapiti Coast

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 132

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Shelter from the storm - a fledgling welcome swallow takes a breather

The headline in today’s paper ‘Bummer of a Summer’ was not designed to sell newspapers, but certainly sums up our summer. Every week a new front has swept through, thwarting what should be the holiday season. It’s now only three weeks to autumn and  thursday dawned promising enough, though the forecast said otherwise. Another storm was steering through the centre of the country. By 10am it was drizzling; by lunchtime it began to mean business. This weather was coming down from the nor’west, so it was warm with it and forewarning gave us the opportunity to try and understand what was happening to the wetland as our Wharemauku creek began to rise.

Midday and going down the gurgler. The Wharemauku begins to reverse flow, back into the wetland

It got pretty rough out there through the afternoon -the wind climbing to 60 knots and more, so picture quality from under a complaining umbrella began to deteriorate, though here is a visual account of what happened next. 

Wetland West -This photo was taken after 20mm of rain.
Backfilling of the wetland is just beginning

Rainfall topped 60mm (3inches) over the next 9 hours. This was less than the floods of September (110) and November (85), but the flooding nevertheless was comparable. 30mm had fallen by 4.30pm, then 50mm as night began to fall. By dawn it had topped at 60mm, but the Wharemauku was still running high.   

Wetland West around 5pm - after 30 mm

 

Wetland west at 50mm and height of flood -7.30pm

 

Wharemauku breaks its banks 

Same time from under the expressway bridge

Similar flooding was occurring on the other side of the expressway 

Wetland East after 30mm around 5pm

Spot the difference 3hours later -just before dusk.

Wetland West -Dawn the next day after 60mm.

We are beginning to form a picture of how this flooding is going to affect this area. The Wharemauku was rising through the afternoon but it wasn’t until rainfall hit 30mm that flooding became general through these areas. But this happened very quickly after the rainfall topped 30mm. What has been surprising is to see these two year floods occuring  every two months. Though before the expressway drained the area,  the stopbanks would have coped comfortably with this level of flooding.

Marooned - a lone pukeko makes a break fro higher ground 

 

Flood at its height from the other end of the wetland -bridge in far distance

This area has been entirely transformed, and we still don’t know what the long term effects will be. The ground level has been substantially lowered, perhaps below the water table. It would normally be dry this time of the year and this may have turned the area into a permanent year-round wetland. This is very good news for our wetland birds who have already begun to descend on the area. In the former dunelake there was a mixed population of 60-70 birds. On our morning trip after the flood, we made a rough count of 130.

38 ducks come into land on the now flooded plain. And this was only half of them.

A new seasons gathering of paradise duck youngsters -putangitangi.
And this was only half of them. (Grey Teal in front.)

We don’t have the species variety of the old swamp, but this may come over time as the area begins to look uncannily like the original Wharemauku swamp of 120 years ago,  minus the forest of course and with an expressway, carving it in two.

Track we were listening too while posting this rebel song from The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem Kelly the Boy from Killane.

What winds from the south brings a messenger here

Of a hymn of the dawn for the free

Environmental artist Jill Studd’s blog

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