Welcome Swallows on the Wharemauku

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 11

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

One bird that seems to be doing well in these open urban areas is the Welcome Swallow. We have noted three nests that have fledged since early December along with one abandoned (before eggs were laid) under the airport bridge.

Welcome Swallow at Raumati Beach dune lake

Swallows are noted long distance travellers so it is surprising that they didn’t find their way to these islands until quite recently. They are thought to be self introduced from Australia in the 1950’s and are a charming addition to our birdlife, welcomed with a civility not currently being reciprocated to Kiwi immigrants, (the human kind), traveling the other way!

Swallow mud quarry under bridge

Welcome swallow nest

A favourite roost is the Wharemauku bridge. The support girders are lined with guano, and they’re often to be seen coming and going, although nesting under the bridge has proved a mixed blessing. They abandoned one freshly made nest in November, presumably as a result of weekend night visits from local teenagers who drink beneath it and ‘bomb’ the girders. Yet blackbirds can also disturb them. Last year a male blackbird found the nest and fished out the soft down lining for its own use. (We caught it in the act, but it remained unfazed). They conserve energy and materials by rebuilding on the remnants of last year’s nest, although here, they have shifted along one bolt from last year. The mud base is dug out from the silt under the bridge.

The youngsters are reluctant to leave the nest and nesting area, and the mothers practice tough love in getting them away. They tease them, by fluttering in front of them as if about to feed them. If that doesn’t work they’re not above doing a little bullying.  They’ll fly low over head to prod and provoke them up into the air until they get the idea that they need to fend for themselves, and the confidence to start trying. Often one while get away and the others will gain the confidence then to follow. Still, they’re not above reverting to childhood and flying back to the nest where they try to chivvy back inside, though it is now too small to contain them.

Female swallow with fledgling (on post)

Here is one bird that doesn’t mind a stiff breeze for they can almost stall like humming birds in it and let the food come to them. The dune lake provides an ideal feeding area for them and up to 20 or more can gather there, feeding off the insect life nurtured by the lake. They all have individual flight paths, and it is a glorious sight watching them at work, swooping across the terrain after flying insects invisible to us, while keeping a sharp eye out so they don’t collide with each other.

Welcome Swallow in flight

Track we were listening to while posting this 
Judy Collins   Sunny Goodge St (Donovan)  

The magician, he sparkles

in satin and velvet.

You gaze at his splendour

with eyes you've not used yet.  

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