Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 140
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
Here is a dramatic solstice moment, (called
Matariki over here), with the sun about to disappear behind Kapiti Island. It
is after 4pm with sunset about an hour away.
Meanwhile our local weather remains
inscrutable. Following a wet summer and early autumn, we now have midwinter drought,
and here is the evidence with this new dune lake starting to dry up. This is
unheard of for June.
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And playing havoc with hydro-electricity prices. The dams are half empty causing serious spikes in spot-market prices, but that’s what you get when you privatise your electricity supply, and place it in the hands of the gamers and the speculators. The sooner we all get our own rooftop, solar power supplies installed the better. |
We continue to run into unusual sights down at
the dunelake. Here is another of the black-fronted dotterels that we reported on earlier in the
year.
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| Black-fronted dotterel |
She seems to have taken up permanent residence. So we will be keeping an eye out for possible
signs of nesting, come August and September.
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| Black-fronted dotterel 2 |
We mentioned in a previous post that
three pied stilts had stayed over this winter, but these have been joined by at
least three more. They are difficult to count from this distance, but it’s a
pleasure to see them apparently settled in this area, in an image that also
shows the rich colouring of the wetland in the early morning sun.
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| pied stilts with sur winged plover (foreground) |
We have been keeping an eye out for the
return of kahu. Our Australasian harrier hawk has given this area a wide birth since the expressway
construction began but a couple of days ago we saw two wheeling together
in what was a charged up courting ritual, high above the Ratanui wetland. This is around 4 kms away, so what a delight to see them down here this morning,
foraging for a feed. This is the male.
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| Kahu - Australasian harrier hawk |
Local wildlife photographer, Roger Smith
has sighted a pair of kahu regularly nesting in the raupo down at the Waikanae
lagoon (4 km north) and these are probably the same two, getting ready for a
new breeding season.
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| Closing in... Kahu takes a dive |
Finally, we ran into a local couple (escapees from Brexit - with
broadish English accents) who were delighted to report they had a kotare
(kingfisher) in their back garden, close to the Wharemauku. We hadn’t seen kotare
at all this year, but knowing they must be here, kept an eye out. And here the two of them are.
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| Kotare - kingfisher |
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| Kotare 2 |
Once again it is early morning, and they
were settled on top of the new lights along the cycleway. They didn’t hang
around, but surely these two also, are getting ready for nesting in the
spring.
We have put together this short film of
pied stilt and black-fronted dotterel down at the dune lake.
This features our track for today Shaking in the Shaky Isles, from The
Maori Troubadours from way back in 1960. The major force behind this group was the precocious Prince
Tui Teka, who set out for Sydney at the tender age
of 15, and never looked back...
The song references our earthquake prone hinterlands
Shake shake shake
Shakin' in the Shaky Isles
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