Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 127
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
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| Black-fronted Dotterel |
The best time for visiting wetland areas is
very early morning and we were down at the now destroyed dune lake around
6.40am recently and sighted these rare visitors.
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| Dotterels sighted to right and outside bridge support |
Our heart skipped a beat because they are
easily mistaken at a distance, for one of New Zealand’s rarest birds – the shore plover, of
which there are around 250 left in the world.
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| Shore Plover |
A small population of these plovers has been
settled on Mana Island just south of here. They sometimes visit the mainland and
warnings go out to watch for them so we were hopeful they might have found
their way north along the coast.
But it was not to be as DoC confirmed that these are Black-fronted
dotterels, not that delicate and notably over-trusting species. (Like many NZ
species they are not used to mammals and entire populations can be wiped out by
just one rat –especially at nesting time).
As you can see from this video these Australian
immigrants are rather beautiful and endearing birds. They were first recorded
in the 1950’s in Hawke’s Bay, (on the East Coast) then spotted breeding and have since begun a
migration across the North Island and into the South.
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| Female black fronted dotterel |
This is the first time we
have seen them here, though we spotted them on two different occasions, so perhaps
they have now settled and will begin to breed.
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| Male Black-fronted dotterel |
Unlike many dotterels, that usually set up
shop close to estuary’s and the beach, these birds can be seen more usually
inland, so only time will tell whether the settle to breed here.
Since expressway construction began we
have seen major changes in the bird populations in this area. This sighting is
a plus, but most have not been positive. The pukeko population, previously
settled into around four or five groupings of 6-8 birds has been scattered far
and wide and we have encountered only one chick this year. This was attended,
very unusually, by only one adult female.
Seagulls which we never used to find here, now visit the area regularly (not a good thing), while duck, teal and shoveller populations have completely disappeared. Like wise kahu (hawk) that used to
patrol through the area have been giving it a wide birth.
We’ll cover this issue in more depth in a
new post.
We would also note the continued silence around the expressway opening. Two months ago enthusiastic media releases put it six months
ahead of schedule and expected it to open well before Christmas. This appears to have been over-sold with no opening date yet set.
Meanwhile the traffic continues to jam up on Kapiti Road; so watch this space.
Track we were listening to while posting
this…
We have been going with John Lennon
melancholy all day and while we wanted to use -You’ve got to hide your love
away, we finally went with -If I
fell. Thinking we better keep something in reserve for when
this world really hits the skids.
If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
Cos I've been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands
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