Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 39
Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
There has been a
noticeable increase in activity of Welcome
Swallows around the dune lake over the last two weeks. This has coincided
with an upswing in insect life coming from the wetland and surrounds with
small swarms of midges. The swallows make an appealing sight, as they swoop in from one end of the lake (depending which way the wind is blowing) and
hoover their way to the other. Then loop round to start again.
So they are well fed,
paired up and now, very early in the breeding season, are starting to build
nests. Here is one, located in a culvert at the town end of the Wharemauku.
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| Female welcome swallow nest making |
It
is about three quarters complete. The females do all the work, while the male
accompanies her, looking more and more puzzled about what is going on. It is a
mystery how she managed to get this nest started in the inside of this concrete
pipe on a narrow split between two pipes, but she is very industrious and had it three quarters finished after
about 4 hours work (with breaks for feeding).
The nest is composed of
mud with organic reinforcing. She takes about 4 or 5 scoops of mud from the
creek bed into her beak and then flies it directly on to site. Dabbling it down
with her beak, then shaping it with her feet and breast. She will then coat
the inside with her own down feathers.
These birds are very easily
disturbed, so we tried not to intrude while filming this,
though this nest is so exposed to view from the path that it will be a surprise
if it carries youngsters through to full term.
Meanwhile, down at
the other end of the creek, her sister and brother in law were hard at the same
work. There has been quite a lot of activity around the airport bridge over the
last few days so it is no surprise that they are beginning to nest again. Though
once again, we hesitated to intrude in case we frightened them off. They have a
habit of abandoning their nests under this bridge.
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| Welcome swallow female below Wharemauku bridge |
Other birds are now
beginning to make their way to the lake with 11 paradise ducks sighted (7
females so there is an imbalance in this population) and a pair of pied
stilts finally making an appearance. They were over in the Wharemauku pond feasting on the water-boatmen.
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| Pied Stilt spearing water boatmen. This is as deep as they venture |
This paradise duck pair were making a point here of standing up to the pukeko, which makes
them invaluable to have around during the nesting season.
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| Putangitangi pair on Wharemauku |
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