Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 98
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
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| Facing off - 3 dabchicks at the Waikanae estuary August 2015 |
It
was back in August that we renewed contact with our rare local population of dabchicks,
filming a pair at the Waikanae Estuary, as a third attempted a spirited
intervention. ‘She’ was seen off, apparently by the female. This pair have now raised
two chicks who are doing well at the estuary.
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| The dabchick and scaup at Ratanui wetland |
We
saw no further sign of the third dabchick, until much to our surprise, one
turned up at the Ratanui Rd wetlands about 4 kms away. We noted the appearance in
early March, of a lone dabchick on this wetland who appeared to be trying to
bond with a scaup pair. The scaup seemed barely tolerant of the fraternal overture,
but didn’t see her off.
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| Australian Coot - self introduced |
This is a very different response to a coot for
example, a recent Australian arrival and also a diving waterbird. They are prickly
and aggressive and dabchicks give them a wide berth.
Both the dabchick and scaup disappeared over the winter months, but they are back and
appear to be forming a similar alliance. So what do we think is going on?
Here
multiple questions are raised and all seem unanswerable. Waterbirds move around
all the time, though dabchicks and scaup appear only to do so at night. They are
underwater a lot which makes them very difficult to track (and film!).
But here are the questions anyway. Are these the same three birds from February?
Is the dabchick one of the youngsters raised on the estuary last year? Is she
the same bird that was seen trying it on with the Waikanae pair in August. How
did she get to Ratanui –by air or through the many waterways taht link these wetlands, some of which are
underground? Has she made a local home here?
The
question we most focussed on however is a behavioural one. And this is a query that dare not speak its name! Is she lonely? Is her apparent attachment to these scaup, a response to her enforced solitary status?
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| Female scaup takes a dive -bubbles extreme right |
Scaup
and dabchicks do have a lot in common. They are both diving birds and often
seen in the same habitat. They have similar passive or ‘domestic’ temperaments;
a feature of the character of many New Zealand birds, which evolved in a
land where there were no indigenous mammals (sans the bats). It’s not that they
don’t get feisty and provocative in their behaviour; it’s simply pitched at a
level way below their more recent arrivals, like coot and pukeko. These birds are of course
from entirely different species (Scaup is a diving duck -genus Aythya - Dabchick an endemic grebe).
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| Dabchick follows suit -bubbles on the left of the male scaup |
All
the relationship work at Ratanui appeared to be done by the dabchick, with the scaup
once again seeming tolerant, rather than welcoming. But the three seemed to interact more closer than
in March, because they were filmed feeding together, or rather the two females
fed, while the male scaup snoozed amicably on.
We
are straying here, well off the beaten path of scientific orthodoxy, becasue we are anthropomorphising these animals, but bear with us for an unexpected
development has occurred that both throws light on what is going on, while at the
same time deepening the puzzle. Though the good news of course, is that the dabchicks which are rare in this area, and certainly rarely seen in urban environments, seem
to be here to stay and their numbers are increasing.
We’ll
cover all that in our next post, but before we go, here's two further issues.
We’ve covered waterway pollution from the expressway extensively and this foto appears to
record more.
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| Discoloured Ratanui lake - expressway in background 1 November 2015 |
This Ratanui lake should be reasonably clear this time of the year,
not this shade of sand-dune brown. The colour appears to be leaching through
from the disturbed workings of the expressway which is around 200 metres away.
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| Little black shag with algal growth - Ratanui wetland |
And here is an equally concerning algal growth. That’s a little black shag
poking its head through a thickening infestation which is also rapidly spreading down at the estuary.
These profoundly modified waterways are prone to algal bloom which can poison birds and marine
life. It isn’t a deadly variety yet, but we’ve never seen it this thick at this
time of the year, and are wondering if it is an early sign of El Nino. We’ll be
keeping a close eye on it.
Track
we were listening to while posting this The Man From Laramie - A Jimmy Young classic from 1955
He was a man with a peaceful turn of mind,
He was kind of sociable and friendly,
Friendly as any man could be,
But you never saw a man out-draw
The man from Laramie.
We're way to young to remember this or the TV series, but the song deftly manages the incongruity between its lilting, croony balladry and gunfighter flare. And why? Because it aint American at all; but a rare Anglicised Western. Picture John Wayne in a blazer if you will...He couldnt bring it off but Cary Grant could...
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