The Best Christmas Video Ever – from Billy T.

 Midnight Collective 

Working for our wetland birds

Welcome to our Christmas video for 2021. 

We couldn’t resist our tūī’s again this year which have been ever increasing in numbers. They move around a lot and are bolstered by Kapiti Island residents flying over.

But what a trial of a year for everyone though we’re nearly through it now and things looking more promising for the year to come. Everywhere on these islands starting to loosen up, though not without misgivings, because that could change pretty quickly.

We are sending out a big tēnā kōrua (thankyou) to our visitors who are continuing to check us out. We aren’t posting regularly and this is deliberate for we are continuing to work down here. 

Despite the dunelake beginning to reform, our waterbirds haven’t returned. We have seen one duckling brood emerge (there used to be 8-10) who Mum pretty quickly pulled out of the area. Then only one pukeko chick which is surprising. 

Pukeko’s rule this roost, but they have become very wary and we think it’s probably because the previous barriers of fence and blackberry have gone. This is allowing dogs to roam more freely through the area and while most owners are really good, it only takes one…

The good news is that we now have a significant native wetland understory maturing in the area, but there’s willow, poplar and macrocarpa seeding up through it and these will take over now the NZTA weeding programme has finished. Our focus has shifted from  birds to vegetation. So we are hard at work trying to control these infestations.

The NZTA plantings are limited to 5 or 6 undergrowth species and concentrated in areas where the public are plentiful so we are busy trying to build our wonderful Kiwi species variety back into it, hence our reluctance to go public (a contractor mowed down five kahikatea seedlings another NZTA contractor had planted but what can you do!!!)

So it’s one day at a time with the big news this year being a piwakawaka nest (fantail) established in one of our  new plantings… This is such a delight and augurs well for the future.

And the voice of today? Has to be Billy T. of course. Can you pick the te reo Māori verse?

Meri Kirihemete

Aftermath of the Kapiti flooding

 Midnight Collective

Working for our wetland birds

Here are some new pictures from two days after one of our largest rain storms with the Wharemauku now subsiding but still topping banks 48 hours later.

We’ve been checking with other rain gaugers, (a stalwart breed)  and all agree with around 180-200mm falling over the two days. But our luck held out with the flooding. The rain eased off around 4ish at 120mm, but then we got another fifty overnight which kept the Wharemauku overtopping its banks for 48 hours. This is unprecedented but the flood plain seems to have done its job in limiting the damage between town and the sea.

Here is the diverted channel of Wharemauku after the flood.

Each flood is unpredictably different and here the serous issues developed at the north end of Raumati Beach where the creek began flooding behind the stopbank. 

It poured into the back gardens, threatening the houses while back-lifting these drain grills in the street right out.

But quick action by a local with a pump, then Council support prevented the flood from inundating any residences.

 This the worst effected, now clear. Then they’re out this morning repairing damage to the walkway.

These pictures from further down look bad, but here too the water levels stayed below the houses.

Up rooted tree

The flood levels rose 6 to 7 feet within the floodplain itself. We haven’t seen a lot of pukeko this year, only one chick, but there will be nests and these would have been flooded out. 

The wetland ngahere (forest)wasn’t immune either...

This is the floodplain at its peak and these shots below, show the impact on youthful trees.

ti kouka (cabbage tree)…

saltmarsh houheria (lacebark)…

Kahikatea. 8 feet tall, so that’s only half of it…

They’re all reasonably ok with wet feet so long as it doesn’t hang around too long. It’s curious about ti kouka which is usually found thriving under dry conditions, but they’re water resilient too, so here’s hoping…

Track for today? 

We’re feasting upon Judy Garland and here is her Christmas anthem—Have yourself a Merry LittleChristmas… Too forlorn for Christmas you think? Well its the Xmas song from 1944 so understandable, as Judy raises the bar on melancholy to transcendental levels. (Emily Dickinson can do this too…with words)  But keep a watch out for our Xmas video – coming to you soon… (free to air).

Ngā mihinui

 

Breaking news -Major flooding developing at Kapiti NZ -

Midnight Collective 

Working for our wetland birds...

We’ve had 120 mm of rain here over the last 12 hours and it's not looking like its going to stop there, as our local creek, the Wharemauku has begun to climb up into uncharted territory. It is now testing the Kapiti expressways flood plain design which is coming under serious stress…

3 hours ago it looked like it was coping. The Wharemauku had topped its banks and diverted into the flood plain. By 2.30 however the plain was full and the creek had begun pouring back into its old channel and beginning a dramatic rise. Back filling was also occurring, beginning to close roads in the centre of town. This hadn’t happened during the previous big flood, so is the expressway responsible?  This is the town flooding close to Wharemauku drain subsidiaries.

The major trouble (so far) is down stream, and here is the Wharemauku as it emerges from under the expressway bridge. It has done a right angle turn and is now pitching directly into the flood plain middle distance (south).

 That’s the bridge top left, while below is the creek that has now come out from the other end of the flood plain, 200 metres down stream. It is following the walkway. This was well contained at lunchtime, but it isn’t mucking around. It was too deep and swift to walk across at 2.30pm.

Above is the new creek streaming back into its old channel and below is the view downstream from there…. It has swallowed the walkway and is climbing the stop banks.

But the big problem is in the residential areas down stream where the last major flooding occurred after a similar amount of rain. These images show the water starting to rise again here.

As you can see we  are sitting on a knife edge down here though the rain is finally starting to ease up (4.05pm) and we're starting to see our hills again. Still it is usually an hour after it stops that the creek finally stops rising...   

Here's hoping everyone is keeping safe and dry... Kia kaha and

Ngā mihinui to you all

Midnight Collective