Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 60
Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
Here
finally is our short film on our local colony of Pied Shags.
It
is still a work in progress because the more we get to know these
animals, the more ignorant we realise we are. There have been many surprises. We
have found for example, that they live close to black shags -kawau, (the black shag
travels up into the creeks and lakes while the pied shag lives and feeds on
the coast).
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| Black and pied shags - Waikanae Estuary |
They use the estuary as a nursery for the young birds and like us, they
have a very social nature. This is evidence of high intelligence in an animal.
They also share a communal life and roost and feed together. Best of all this
rare shag is thriving along this coast.
Why
are they rare?
A third of the world’s shag species live in these South Pacific Islands, but
when trout were introduced
by recreational fisherman, they were declared a pest and a bounty put on their
head. Black shags were the target, though most shag species became victims to
trigger-happy fishermen and others who could make a living out of hunting
them. The onslaught was a savage one with birds being targeted during the
breeding season, and their youngsters left to die of starvation. The carnage was
stopped from around the 1940’s, though Black shags can still be shot around fish farms. The Conservation Department is trying to get them fully protected but the saga has left a stain on our conservation history.
One
of our aims has been to try and track our local waterbirds progress through this
urban area. They never stay in one place, moving through the day and migrating
through the year. The pied shags daily routine became clearer as we followed
them. They have a large breeding
colony at a gentrified lagoon near the Waikanae Estuary. These are big birds,
noisy, scrappy, and smelly and as this area has become progressively urbanised,
residents have begun to raise a clamour to have them removed.
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| Gentrified Waikanae Estuary |
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| Raumati Beach Pied Shag roost |
This marks a
local frontline, in the battle between our wildlife and Developers. The local Authority
however, has so far stood fast and resisted the call. Meanwhile these birds have established another
roost about 5 km further down the coast.
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| Kapiti Coast - west coast lower North Island |
One
of the main reasons why this colony is thriving has been the establishment of a Marine Reserve between
the Coast and Kapiti Island. It is becoming a common sight now for large shoals
of punua (young fish) to travel along this coast accompanied by a frenzy of bird life,
–including shearwaters, white faced and Caspian terns, shags and black-back
gulls along with the occasional gannet. Long may it continue.
Track
we were listening to while posting this – Better Day by the two and only Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. We were lucky enough to catch these guys at the
Theatre Royal in Auckland (now demolished) in the late 1970’s. Brownie leading
his blind compadre onto the stage. Unrivalled in their younger days, they just got better and
better.
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