Royal Spoonbill's at Raumati Beach

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 3

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

There’s been quite a delay over the holiday and to the finishing of our new film, so here’s an interim update while we sort it out.

 

Weather wise the summer has been a write off for holiday makers, but great for wetland birds. The dune lake, though much reduced in size is still attracting large wading birds. A white faced heron has been in residence since late November while two royal spoonbills have been regular visitors. These large birds are very wary of closely approaching human beings and while quite happy to be filmed from the pathway, became very nervous as we left the track to move above them and around the back of the lake.

Royal Spoonbill feeding at Raumati Beach dune lake January 29, 2014

A Pukeko family are still down on the grassy flats of the wetland. By midsummer they have usually disappeared into the blackberry. It is honeycombed with pukeko size tunnels and the berries seem to sustain them through to early March. It is difficult to get a good count in the thick grass but there are around 7 – with the three chicks all seeming to have survived. Last year only one of four survived to adulthood. Pukeko are of course, one of the top predators at the lake and a very mixed blessing come nesting time.

 

In previous years the dune lake dried up mid-January and then in a year of drought – mid-December, so it has been quite a surprise to see it still operational as we head into late summer.

Niwa expressway pollution monitor in Wharemauku. January 29 

The Expressway is starting to close in with NIWA having installed pollution monitoring equipment into the Wharemauku creek. The National Government is anxious to get the development passed a point of no return before the election at the end of the year. We are hoping however, to get another undisturbed Spring out of the wetland. Clearance work is beginning at either end and is likely to meet at the dune lake. This work has only just begun  so this may be possible. The area will be impassable to heavy machinery from May  through to mid December so this will also work in our favour.

The Wetland at Raumati Beach

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 2

actively supporting NZ's endangered wetland birds 



Raumati Beach Dune Lake

This is a panorama of the wetland taken in November last year. It is set beside a track about 5 minutes walk from the centre of town (to left of picture) and around 10 minutes to the beach (the other way). 5km offshore is NZ’s premier conservation estate, the island of Kapiti; (named Entry Island by Capt Cook in 1769). It is playing a leading role in saving and rehabilitating New Zealand’s most endangered birds. 

 

This dune lake is very modified from an original life as a swamp forest though an original line of sandhills, now covered in blackberry, can be seen winding along the top end of the lake. Stumps of the original trees are still in the wetland while the spring fed creek beside it, (just visible bottom left), probably flowed through the forest, keeping it under water all year.  The creek has been straightened into a drain. These days the wetland dries up from mid-January (usually) through to mid-April and in this photo, it is about a third its maximum size. Half the lake is hidden in the brown rushes and at  its fullest extent it covers around 7 hectares.

We have been careful not to identify the precise location because it isn’t accessible to vehicle traffic and the wetland birds at the lake are wild and shy away from human contact. We want to keep it that way, at least for the limited life left to it. At this time of the year it is full of bird tucker which attracts waterbirds like teal, grey duck, mallard, dabchick, scaup and shags and then also, because it is a shallow lake, waders like pied stilt, white faced heron and royal spoonbills.

We are especially interested in recording and trying to understand the wild lives of these wetland birds and will post stories of our encounters onto this site. In the past two weeks however, we have been taken over by a developing drama down at a nearby artificial pond. 

NZ Scaup (female) - Frances Jill Studd - Watercolour on paper  

Here an orphaned NZ scaup has precipitated a surprising turn of events amongst the resident (introduced) mallard ducks. Scaup, (sometimes called Black Teal) are a charming endemic diving duck, about three quarters the size of a mallard and previously extinct from this coast. They are now making a comeback. Two pair turned up at the dune lake in November. Its been a great year for waterbirds because the summer has been quite wet (so far) and they are fit and feisty with glossy feather coats. We will follow this scaup waif's progress in the next post, as we put the finishing touches to a short film on the imbroglio. 

 

Meanwhile  an appetizer has been provided in the watercolour from our resident artist - Jill Studd. You will find her artwork on francesjillstudd.com or keep up with her current activities at francesjillstudd@blogspot.co.nz

The destruction of a wetland at Raumati Beach

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 1

Actively supporting NZ's endangered wetland birds

We are an independent film making Collective who have been recording the wetland wildlife community on the Kapiti Coast NZ, over the past 3 years. Our attention has been centred on a rare unprottected dune lake in Raumati Beach. This is a remarkable survivor of the urbanisation of Kapiti and home to a wide range of water and wading birds. Some of these are rare, including the nationally threatened dabchick, the regionally rare New Zealand scaup  and the critically endangered parera, (pictured), amongst others.

Male PARERA – critically endangered NZ Grey Duck - Raumati Beach, NZ. Early morning Oct 26 2013

Royal Spoonbill - Raumati Beach Dune Lake Dec 8 2013

This wetland is about to be destroyed by an expressway. Midnight Collective have been  monitoring the project, and this broadsheet will introduce the inhabitants  of the wetland and their connections to the wider wetland community, while charting the course of the destruction. A full length feature film is in preparation.