Spring is catching up to the Wharemauku Swamp, New Zealand

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 144

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Welcome Swallow

We are seeing plenty of Welcome Swallows this year, feeding over the wetland. They are usually in groups and like fantail/ piwakawaka, can swoop in close to you when you’re out amongst them. They are very difficult to film but we watched these two, looping together around the same spot for five minutes.

courting swallows

Courting swallows 

Then managed to get a short film of them. They were not feeding but chasing each other. The larger male seemed to be doing all the hard work and you don’t usually see swallows circling the same spot like this. An hour later when we returned, they were still at it.  So we think this is courtship behaviour and are keeping an eye out for nest building.    

 

Attached to this film are clips of two Little Shags diving in the ponds close to town. We couldn’t see whether this was a pair but they are rare visitors. We have never seen two down here like this so its a further good sign and may indicate there is more marine life in the swamp now the drains have opened up.

Wharemauku swamp pond - looking towards Expressway

Little shag at Wharemauku swamp

What we aren’t seeing however are many ducks. Where previously there were 30 to 40 mallards and usually a couple of broods of ducklings by now, then a small colony of parera cross birds, we rarely see more than five or six mature birds. Even so we have seen some provoking behaviours.

A solitary parera-cross pair appeared at one of the town ponds over a month ago and the male immediately set about keeping the green headed mallard males in their place. 

Parera-cross on left, set about this  mallard 

The two have been seen down here regularly-

Grooming

And more recently the female has gone walk about in the undergrowth with her bewildered mate in tow.

Female Parera-cross

Bewildered male

Once again we are keeping a look out for nest building. One of the signs  is to  find lone males moping around. And there are a number of these around at the moment…

Mallard male

This guy has only one leg. The female was well hidden up in the undergrowth, but they were  disturbed by people on the track oblivious to what was going on, and we're not sure if they will return.

This male starred in a previous post but wouldn’t keep his head still here. No female in sight for a while now but he hasn't left the area.

And this kotare is still around but no sign of a mate for a while.

Track we were listening to... today we are going back into the history of rock’n'roll, because well, we just can’t resist it. Buddy Holly's Rave on.. 

We-a-he-a-hell, the little things you say and do

Make me want to be with you-ah-ou

Rave on, it's a crazy feelin' and

I know it's got me reelin'

I'm so glad that you're revealin'

Your love for me

Rave on, rave on and tell me

Tell me not to be lonely

Tell me you love me only

Rave on for me

Jill Studd's Blog

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Courting couples at the Wharemauku Swamp - Kapiti New Zealand

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 143

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Looking East - Sunrise across the Wharemauku - forecasting trouble ahead...

With 60mm of rain over the past three days and another polar blast due any time soon, we are still knee deep in winter over here, but nevertheless seeing a lot of spring behaviours now and having trouble keeping up with them.

Putangitangi (Paradise Duck) couple grooming (female with white head)

One of our main objectives has been to try and get close to the intimate lives of these birds (without disturbing them); to look for the connections they make between themselves, and then with other species. This wetland has begun to look more and more as if it is harbouring an integrated community life. There is plenty of conflict of course, yet just as much co-operative comportment and here the similarities with ourselves, not the differences, begin to pile up.

Parera-cross pair 

 

New arrivals. Canadian geese have not previously bred here and usually only overnight. but this pair look as if they intend to hang around

And all this just a 5 minute walk away.

Pied Stilt pair

We are planning a series on Spring pairings and here is the first, a 3 minute clip on Pied Stilt. 

 

We have seen a dozen of these elegant birds down here over the past few months but only five seem to have taken up permanent residence.

This is comparable with 2016 when two pair coaxed three chicks into adulthood. There has been plenty of feisty conflict between these five birds over the last few weeks but they have  settled into pairs. Even now however there is an alpha pair who keep the other two in their place, while the loner seems to be one of the youngsters from last year who hasn’t yet got a full adult plumage.

Pied stilt youngster from last year?

When they begin courting the male is particularly aggressive towards interlopers (remind you of any other species?), and there follows a period of mutual feeding and grooming before mating takes place. The female is not passive through all this. She can be just as aggressive towards interlopers and takes the lead in initiating grooming behaviours that appear to reassure her about her chosen mate’s dependability. This forms a very strong bond between the two (unlike with mallards say), with the male then sharing nesting duties and playing a lead role in warning interlopers away from the nest and the chicks.

Next post we’ll have  a look at some of the other birds, including welcome swallow, little shag, then the first pair of Parera-cross ducks that have ventured back here since the expressway construction 3 years ago. 

Little Shag

Track we were listening to while posting this?  Well, this is for all our US friends. We too, are feeling your pain and hope you can still see the amusing side of this selection that may provide a salve for it. 

Show me around your snow-peaked mountains 

way down south

Take me to your Daddy's farm

Let me hear your balalaika's ringing out

Come and keep your comrade warm

I'm back in the U.S.S.R.

 You don't know how lucky you are boys

Back in the U.S.S.R.

It's Back In The USSR… 1968 with Paul McCartney doing the Beach Boys doing Jan and Dean…

Environmental artist Jill Studd’s blog

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Signs of an early Spring at a Kapiti dunelake in New Zealand

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 142

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds 

We have been away for a midwinter break and here is the evidence

 

A little hard to identify this but believe it or not it's snow in the car park at the North Egmont visitor centre on Mt Taranaki.

The winter drought finally broke and we have had two or three southerly storms through, but not before these youngsters emerged on the Wharemauku stream back here at Raumati Beach.

This is way too early and Mum showed her anxiety by hiding them in this culvert for a good 5 minutes when she knew we were hanging around. 

Hardly room enough for them, leave alone the larger bird but they eventually emerged and took off down stream.

Here are some more youngsters, cygnets this time

These were spotted at the Ratanui wetland, 4km due north. Once again, Mum was very wary and herded them pretty quickly out of sight. Given that she would have been on the nest for nearly a month these birds seem to have mistimed badly, because the bad weather hit just as they were hatching.

And this has brought widespread flooding back to the wharemauku

wetland which supports the idea, floated in our previous post that this area has now become a flood plain. While we now have a larger area of wetland, the 5-7 hectare dune lake has effectively disappeared. We still don’t know what the longer term effect on wildlife will be. On our last visit we counted 30 mallards a good sign, then for the first time spotted a parera-cross pair. (Parera are NZ native ducks that are seriously endangered through interbreeding with introduced mallards)

The male very aggressively confronted a squadron of green headed mallards which gives some weight to the idea that even while they have mallard genes in their veins, they still ‘see’ themselves as parera. We’ll be keeping a close eye on them to see if the small colony that used to be at the dune lake are still around.

In the meantime here are some other residents of the area

Courting Putangitangi

This Welcome Swallow was busy feeding during a storm. Unlike most birds they don’t seem to be too bothered by bad weather.

The kotare or NZ kingfisher is still up on his perch overlooking the wetland though you have to be up early to catch him.

Theoretically we still have a month of winter to go, but conditions are already spring-like some days so we will be looking out for signs of nesting from now on.

Meanwhile it’s been a sensational few days as the Labour Party changes leadership 7 weeks out from a General Election. It sounds like political suicide but the whole country has been hoisted from its torpor, at the sight of a feisty new generation and Jacindamania on the rise. Watch this space!!! 

Jacinda Adern fills the TV screen

Track we were listening to this week well, there was really only one song in it...

It well recalls the triumphs past

It gives the hope of peace at last

The banner bright the symbol plain

Of human right and human gain

Then raise the scarlet standard high

Beneath it's folds we'll live and die

Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer

We'll keep the red flag flying here

Environmental artist Jill Studd’s blog 
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What's going on at our New Zealand dune lake?

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 141

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Early morning view of wetlands from townside - expressway cutting off view of Kapiti Island in distance. - 

It is very early days in the life of these new wetlands and we still haven’t a clear idea about their seasonal life, indeed, they have still to develop one. But the annual cycle is starting to look very different to the original dune lake as they enter a sixth month of their new existence

late June 2017 featuring plantings weeds, but where is the dune lake? 

We had a wet summer and autumn, but the past six weeks have made up for it, with very little rain (around 4mm in our rain gauge for June). The original lake would enlarge from April and reach its full 5-7 hectares early in July, then hold this through to mid November.

Raumati Beach dune lake - July 2012

This year the opposite is happening. The transformed wetlands have been carrying water through late summer and autumn and this attracted a lot of waterbirds, who didn’t seem at all put out by the new traffic hazards. But over the past 6 weeks these areas have been reducing and taken the birds with them. We’ve had a couple of big storms through both Islands, but they passed us by. And while it has been chilly, we haven’t had the severe frosts of other years. (We’re all still mowing our lawns!).

All that changed overnight when we got our first steady rain a couple of days ago. This supplied only 10mm over two to three hours, but it immediately swamped the wetlands and back came the birds.

Drying up

A day later with Canadian geese in residence 

Dried up - Drain 7 in foreground

A day later - 

The Wharemauku had risen about a third of metre on this rainfall, which isn’t  a lot, but in collusion with Drain 7, which boxes in the other end of the wetland, it had backfilled this western side of the expressway; topping it up to its highest level. It looks as though we now have an area which is acting more like a flood plain, than the  original dune lake.       

New things are also going on, on the other side of the expressway. It has become apparent that there is a difference of around two thirds of a metre in height between this townside and the former dune lake. The Wharemauku hadn’t risen high enough on this rainfall, to backfill this area but the drain coming into it was carrying around 3 times as much water than before the rain. So where is it coming from? This area is a closed system. It can drain out, but there is no through flow from local waterways. The area isn’t large enough to sustain such an increase from 10mm of rain? 

The NZTA’s theory is that this whole area has been lowered below the water table which would account for it holding its water over summer; but while this may keep  the wetland wet, it can’t explain the volume of water we are seeing. Is there some other entry point that breaches, when we see rain  at this level? It is difficult to get into this back area, but we will be keeping an eye on it to see if we can find out.

      

Neither of these areas are regularly flushed by natural water flow, so have remained discoloured since they were formed. This is of some concern, not only for nearby residents as the water turns fetid, but also for the health of the bird and marine life it will likely now sustain. The dunelake wasn’t flushed either, but it always ran reasonably clear and while there is usually a blackened tinge to water in pakihi (lowland swamp) country, this discolouration is light brown.

Another issue is the rapid increase in predators – we’ve seen rabbits, rats, and then native locals, including an increase in populations of pukeko and spur-winged plover, both of which will take the eggs and young of other birds, including pied stilt. The introduced Canadian geese are also a mixed blessing. They used to overnight in winter at the original dunelake, but never stayed through the day. The area was too close to human traffic. Now we are spotting them through the day which will have a detrimental effect on rarer native birds through competition for food and the mess they make in the water.

Scaup pair, Queen Elizbeth II park - In June?

We will be keeping an eye on developments here over time but in the meantime here is a scaup pair, spotted at the QE2 park wetland (10km south). They take off in early April and don’t usually come back until August/September, so we are not sure what’s going on with these two hanging around like this.

Fed up female dabchick -Where's that male?

Male after her...

Just around the bay at the same wetland, these two dabchicks suddenly surfaced. One dabchick appeared at our dunelake just before construction of the expressway got underway. We haven’t seen them here since, but they are very territorial which causes the young to move around; and we’ll be keeping an eye out for their return.

And now here is a wistful dose of nostalgia for all our Russian friends.

Калинка, калинка, калинка моя!

В саду ягода малинка, малинка моя!

Ах, под сосною, под зеленою,

Спать положите вы меня!

Ай-люли, люли, ай-люли, люли,

Спать положите вы меня.

Yes, they toured here too, and this LP was picked up in a local charity shop.

Jill Studd’s blog

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Matariki at a New Zealand dune lake

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 140

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Here is a dramatic solstice moment, (called Matariki over here), with the sun about to disappear behind Kapiti Island. It is after 4pm with sunset about an hour away.

Meanwhile our local weather remains inscrutable. Following a wet summer and early autumn, we now have midwinter drought, and here is the evidence with this new dune lake starting to dry up. This is unheard of for June.

And playing havoc with hydro-electricity prices. The dams are half empty causing serious spikes in spot-market prices,  but that’s what you get when you privatise your electricity supply, and place it in the hands of the gamers and the speculators. The sooner we all get our own rooftop, solar power supplies installed the better.

We continue to run into unusual sights down at the dunelake. Here is another of the  black-fronted dotterels that we reported on earlier in the year. 

Black-fronted dotterel

She seems to have taken up permanent residence. So  we will be keeping an eye out for possible signs of nesting, come August and September.  

Black-fronted dotterel 2 

We mentioned in a previous post that three pied stilts had stayed over this winter, but these have been joined by at least three more. They are difficult to count from this distance, but it’s a pleasure to see them apparently settled in this area, in an image that also shows the rich colouring of the wetland in the early morning sun.

pied stilts with sur winged plover (foreground) 

We have been keeping an eye out for the return of kahu. Our Australasian harrier hawk has given this area a wide birth since the expressway construction began but a couple of days ago we saw two wheeling together in what was a charged up courting ritual, high above the Ratanui wetland. This  is around 4 kms away, so what a delight to see them down here this morning, foraging for a feed. This is the male.

Kahu - Australasian harrier hawk

Local wildlife photographer, Roger Smith has sighted a pair of kahu regularly nesting in the raupo down at the Waikanae lagoon (4 km north) and these are probably the same two, getting ready for a new breeding season.

Closing in... Kahu takes a dive

Finally, we ran into a local couple (escapees from Brexit - with broadish English accents) who were delighted to report they had a kotare (kingfisher) in their back garden, close to the Wharemauku. We hadn’t seen kotare at all this year, but knowing they must be here, kept an eye out. And here the two of them are.

Kotare - kingfisher

 

Kotare 2

Once again it is early morning, and they were settled on top of the new lights along the cycleway. They didn’t hang around, but surely these two also, are getting ready for nesting in the spring.    

    

We have put together this short film of pied stilt and black-fronted dotterel down at the dune lake.

This features our track for today  Shaking in the Shaky Isles, from The Maori Troubadours from way back in 1960. The major force behind this group was the precocious Prince Tui Teka, who set out for Sydney at the tender age of 15, and never looked back... 

The song references our earthquake prone hinterlands

Shake shake shake

Shakin' in the Shaky Isles 

though the group was domiciled in Australia and and included an Australian  - guitarist Johnny Kealoha (Maiden name Nicol) who was born raised and remains, domiciled in Queensland...   

Environmental artist Jill Studd’s blog

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