Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 148
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
 |
| Mum settles down... |
Today a quick note, plus video on a pied
shag colony 30 km north of here established in the macrocarpa at Waikawa Beach.
This beach is famous as the bolt hole of provocative early Labour Minister of
Public Works ‘Red’ Bob Semple, so first things first –
 |
| Bob Semple in Nov 1911 an early Labour rally in Auckland |
For those not currently up with the state
of political play in New Zealand and who have been patiently ‘watching this
space’ as advised, we do have a
new Labour-led coalition Government which includes the Greens.
 |
| 96 years later and here she goes - Jacinda Ardern PM |
It is very early days but a first big
test is on the horizon with the Climate Change conference about to get underway
in Bonn Germany. PM Jacinda Ardern and James Shaw – leader of the Greens
have both attended in the past and Fiji is providing leadership, so we are expecting major
support for ‘at risk’ Pacific nations to emerge from this new Government, which early declared its serious concern about the Planet's slide
into global warming. Now
back to the shags…
 |
| Growing chick with parent regurgitating |
This pied shag colony along the Waikawa
stream is only three or four years old, but growing steadily and we were lucky to be able to catch some
film of the nests of parents with
their young. We had to film from a distance, then through
tangled branches so apologise in advance for the quality – but here are youngsters being
fed and parents swapping over nest sitting duties.
There are at least two
chicks in each nest, one of which is rather larger than the others and busy
copping the lions share of the regurgitated food.
Pied shags, our largest shag, are coastal
birds that feed in the sea and estuary. They had a bounty on their head in the
1940’s when their numbers plummeted. There is still surprisingly little
information about how they are faring nationwide with population estimates varying between
1000 and 5000, though they are thought to be in decline. They appear stable on
this coast however and our marine reserve must be a big help in growing this local population.
The major threat is from continued shooting, the deliberate destruction
of nesting sites and net fishing. The
experience of two locals shows why.
 |
| Pied shag in Waikawa stream |
They were visiting the colony and found a
bird enmeshed in a net set right below it. They jumped into the creek to free
the bird but found it so thoroughly entangled they had to send home for a knife
in order to cut it free. The bird fortunately, was no worse for her
ordeal but not at all thankful for its rescuers. It bit the finger of one, causing blood to flow and when released dived down and bit his toe. First aid had to be rendered to the rescuers and the safest way to hold it (to protect themselves) was by the scruff of the neck. On this evidence the future of this bird looks assured!
Midnight Collective Conservation Order of
the Month goes to those two who cut up the net then advised the authorities.
Track we were listening to while posting this was Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill, 89 years old when he passed away last Thursday (our time). If you are a Treme fan you would have seen him as a highlight of Series 3, at his house, post-Katrina, playing the piano, looking all sorts of worn, but still with those magic New Orleans fingers playing over the keys.
The wind in the willow played
Love's sweet melody
But all of those vows you made
Were never to be
