White-faced heron in New Zealand

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 73

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds 

White-faced heron -Pauatahanui inlet

We haven’t seen a great deal of this elegant and graceful bird over the past summer  but in the last week have managed to run into three –one at the Waikanae River then two more down at the Pauatahanui Inlet where there are sometimes up to 5 birds though they remain loners and unlike the spoonbills, are rarely seen feeding in groups.

You get a sense of how scary it must be to be inanga (small sprats) or frogs, waiting in what you think is adequate cover  as the sleek, fierce shadow of this bird with her x-ray vision comes stalking passed. We have left our film silent to try and gain a sense of the grace and peacefulness you find in wetland areas though at the start of the Waikanae section you can see the bird hoist an inanga out of the river and flick it up then swallow in one movement, spraying off the water. We had trouble keeping up with it. Then there were people and dogs walking along the opposite bank and that is what is causing the bird to bolt into deeper water. 

A heron used to be a regular at the dune lake and then, through autumn you might run into one feeding in the Wharemauku creek or at the back of the airport. We haven't seen them however, since the expressway excavators got going. A female would bring her fledgling down to feed. She looked pretty exhausted at the end of the breeding season and was initially very shy, but then seemed to get used to us hanging around with a camera. There was always plenty of food, which is the main attraction but being such big birds they are vulnerable to dogs, especially when they take it into their heads to get down into the creek. Yet we never saw one in trouble; nor any of the shags that also haunt the creek around this time of year.

White-faced heron feeding in the Waikanae River  

We have used a photograph of one of these herons perched in a stand of california pine (radiata), as a flyer for the plight of this rare dunelake. But now the birds have gone and so to, the stand of pine an indication of how quickly this haven is disappearing.

I will go to watch the animals, and let

something of their composure glide

into my limbs - Rainer Maria Rilke 

 Jill Studd's Blog

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Autumn in New Zealand - an update

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 72

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

The days are now beginning to close in, with a very early cold snap bringing hail showers to Auckland and leaving snow on the Desert Rd (Centre of the north Island). So we are starting to get a taste of wintry weather, though it remains unusually mild.

NZ scaup pair at dune lake

Still, local birds are not deceived, with both pied stilts and now these scaup having packed up and left. Most of the waterbirds begin to flock this time of the year and we found 20 or so scaup banding together at the Waikanae estuary, just prior to their leaving. It remains a  mystery as to where they go, though Lake Taupo might be one destination. We haven’t seen a lot of the stilts this year (one pair in October looked very broody at the back of the airport, but decided against it), so we didn’t notice their leaving; but the scaup departed in early April.

Grey teal - Ratanui wetland

This colony of grey teal will stay here however and had gathered to sun themselves at the Ratanui wetland. They are noticeably less aggressive in their mating behaviours than introduced mallards (like most of our native waterbirds) so paired up couples were hanging out with the colony. 

Grey Teal - tete pair

These animals however will soon be decimated because  the duck shooting season is approaching and here we get an idea of New Zealand conservation in practice (rather than theory). This bird is a protected species, but 6% of the population is still shot during the season.      

Young grey teal - tete

We remain concerned over the fate of the dabchick pair at the Waikanae estuary. 

Lone dabchick-weweia at Waikanae loagoon

We have only seen one bird in nearly three months now though another lone bird has settled at Ratanui. 

On the lookout - lone dabchick at Ratanui

This delicate little grebe previously hung out with the family of scaup there which tolerated rather than adopted him;  but following their departure he is now left with a small group of coot. This recent Australian immigrant is very territorial (like Aussies themselves) and the dabchick was steering well clear.

A NZ icon amongst the sails at Thames

Finally an image of another kotuku – this one sailed in from the Hauraki Gulf onto a footbridge down at the Thames wharf…It seemed quite at home here in the local marina though home is 1200km away at the Okarito Lagoon Westland.   

Track we were listening to while posting this Siouxsie and the Banshees - This Wheels On Fire

If your mem'ry serves you well

You'll remember you're the one

That called on me to call on them

To get your favors done

And after ev'ry plan had failed

And there was nothing more to tell

You knew that we would meet again

If your mem'ry serves you well

 from Bob Dylan and Rick Danko of course - which really dates us (sigh)...
Jill Studd's Blog 

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Why would you bulldoze this?

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 71

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

This magnificent Royal Spoonbill was pictured feeding (with two others out of picture) 5 minutes walk from the centre of a town keen  to identify itself as The Nature Coast. 

It’s a short 20 minute boat trip to New Zealand’s premier endangered bird sanctuary Kapiti Island. Here they have started a colony and they fly across the strait to feed.

This dune lake used to be one of the few safe wetland areas where this bird could do so in reasonable safely in the centre of an urban area. At the height of the season there is a lot of food in this lake where five of these birds have been seen fattening themselves up at one time.

They seem to like it here and would have proved a major drawcard for local people and visitors alike, had the wetland been recognised and protected, but its too late now because they haven’t been seen since early January 2014 when the Expressway excavations got underway in earnest.

They have been spotted feeding in a retirement village pond down by the coast however, though this is a much more perilously enclosed habitat for these large birds to get in and out of, and they are much more at risk from harassment by dogs.

So we are stumped too!

Track we were listening while posting this? Well, hasn't been a track at all, but wall to wall Coachella on a 46inch screen and high density sound in the dark with curtains drawn and right through the day –Ok we agree, it is shameful, but we simply can’t help ourselves anymore and don’t even try to. This is the first time its been beamed all the way over here from California where you might almost think you’re there though even with five screens we couldn’t keep up with everything and missed Royal Blood while still hoping to catch them on a replay; but goodness knows how those on the ground manage to get round everything when we couldn’t. Enough already! Our pick for who got away with the top prize is Run The Jewels who have a chemistry that couldn’t be bottled try all you might, for it flows right through everyone on stage and then into the audience at large – though hey! we couldn’t hear most of the words which is probably just as well – We are rock and roll people however and Jack White should have walked away with this one by a country mile but he’s turned into such a flawed human being that we didn’t want to encourage him any further because, though  we all have our moments we try a little harder, than he seems to want to; the next time around…

And it’s now Monday over here but we’ve  still got a day to go, so we’ll be staying right where we are.

Jill Studd’s Blog

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Autumn comes to New Zealand Wetlands

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 71

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

It is nearing the middle of autumn and though it still remains very warm (22^oC most days) over the last 24 hours we have had out first substantial fall of rain for quite some time. It has cleared out the clogged Wharemauku and should have started filling the dune lake so it is going to be interesting to see how the expressway consortium cope with it, digging through one of the deepest and wettest deposits of peat on their route.

New Zealand Scaup - a diving duck

Meanwhile we are seeing the usual prickly behaviours as many of these water birds begin pairing up. The pied stilt and the NZ scaup however are starting to gather in larger groups in preparation for returning to their winter quarters. The stilts were spotted in numbers on a beach about 30 km to the north, while the scaup are clumping together into larger communities on lakes in the north of the town. We mentioned last year that we counted around 100 on Lake Taupo and though we are unsure where ours are heading to, this is one area where collect in order to overwinter and select a mate.

Pied Stilts

We have been concerned over the fate of our local dabchicks for although the pair at the Waikanae estuary have raised one chick we haven’t seen the two together for some time now, while a lone youngster has settled at the Ratanui wetland. It is unfortunate that a family of coot has also taken up residence here. These are an aggressive Australian import – a fierce competitor with dabchicks and scaup which are much shyer (and more alluring) birds. Whenever the coot are near the others are always on guard and ready to make for the safety of the raupo.

Dabchick (small NZ grebe)

Track we were listening to while posting this – It's an album Blue – and Joni Mitchell –who else – We’ve been more than a little anxious about this last week…