Welcome to the
Midnight Collective Broadsheet 168
Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
Just a quick note to record
in fotos a change to the swampy floodplain left by the expressway construction. Here’s what
used to be there… A 5-7 hectare lake
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| Raumati Beach Dunelake August 2006 |
Here’s what replaced it in 2017.
That’s what the tailback looked like
this morning at 8am –7km and growing.
We were
initially encouraged in that first autumn
when a large number of wetland birds including putangitangi-paradise
duck, tētē-grey teal and mallard settled here, but it wasn’t to last. The
diggers moved in again and redrained the area. For the last two years there
have been no significant wetland birds settling or breeding here, save the
ubiquitous pukeko (which predate other wetland species). All our medium to rare birds had gone.
In response we
began monitoring the new native plantings.
The area was
originally forested wetland, dominated by big trees including kahikatea and
totara but the new plantings are primarily native understory species limited to
a botanical style of landscaping design with four or five local species, then flax and toitoi. It is a big plus of course, but we are not
going to get our coastal forest back.
There is a
weeding programme but it is mostly confined to areas visible to the public.
Elsewhere the weeds are taking back control -blackberry and lupin - but also
weeds brought in by the construction. The worst of these is the willow, but
even wild turnip is now proliferating.
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| New settled water - how long will it last? |
However this
is very much a moveable feast and the big change appears to be, that this
excavated area appears to be holding
water again. It has been a
reasonably wet spring and now into early summer (another 40 mm overnight) and
this year we have been away a lot, but the return home brought a very pleasant
surprise. We have young duckling families again.
 |
| PareraX Mum with ducklings |
 |
| Australasian Shoveller Mum with ducklings |
 |
| Two dads (back of picture) |
Here’s the
Parera cross dad. Mum looks very mallardy, though he was the duck who caught our attention as you can see from this foto,
 |
| Parera cross male |
He’s a parera, crossed with a mallard, but showing all the behaviour of a parera by staying with the female. Mallards
don’t do this.
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| The mums are very wary. We were a good 60 metres away but they soon disappeared. |
We are not
sure why this water is holding. Even after heavy rain it would quickly drain so it isn’t the result of human
intervention. A couple of things could be happening - the area may be settling and then the drains silting up. Long may it continue.
So Christmas has come early here in Kapiti.
Track we were listening to
while posting this -Because of You-GloriaDe Haven with Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians in a draw-dropping
performance, as Canadian PM Trudeau might say!!!! from New York City June 1951.
Because of you
There’s a song in my
heart
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