Kereru © James Allan
5th August 2024
We may be thanking the snow gods and hitting the slopes, but our birds are starting to gear up for spring and need our protection!
Our braided river birds are beginning to arrive back to our basin. The Whakatipu provides the breeding habitat for six braided river birds:
The chocolate fish award goes to Ulises Cabrera for spotting and reporting to us the arrival of the first South Island Pied Oystercatcher (SIPO) | Tōrea on the 5th of July on Malaghans Road. He has since spotted a group of 68 SIPOs gathering at a night roost at Lake Hayes. Well done Ulises!
Remember to look out for any SIPOs with leg bands, and record the colour if you do see one. Red = Thames, Yellow = Nelson, Orange = Canterbury and Blue means Southland/Otago. Take a photo if you can! Band sightings can be reported on the DOC banding website https://birdbanding.doc.govt.nz/
If you want to know more about the monitoring for Tōrea check out this link to amazing research: https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/…/increasing-wader…/
Other banded birds to look out for are juvenile black-billed gulls, who were given red leg bands by the Aspiring Biodiversity Trust in the 2022/2023 breeding season.
Other braided river birds to look out for include black-billed gulls, black fronted-terns and our little banded dotterels. Gulls have been sighted and black-fronted terns have been heard up the Dart, so they must be among us here in the Whakatipu Basin.
These seasonal migrants spend their winters along New Zealand’s coastlines although some of our banded dotterels winter over in Victoria, Australia. All except wrybill return to the Lower and Upper Shotover River to breed arriving from late July to mid-August each year. Wrybill nest on the Dart River at the head of the Lake.
Braided river birds are adapted to high spring flows and when they arrive they will gather together, feed to regain strength, pair up and find their nesting territories (SIPO, dotterels, stilts and wrybill) and choose the site for the colony to nest (gulls and terns). We expect first SIPO nests in August with dotterels getting under way in early to mid-September. The first speckled, camouflaged chicks will hatch in September/ October. Terns and gulls tend to nest later and are often still chick rearing in January. They have evolved without mammalian predators, their “freeze” response is a great defense against avian hunters, but no defense at all from mammals.
Keep these species safe at their night roosts, while they nest, and before or as they are learning to fly and forage by trapping to remove predators like rats and hedgehogs who will be emerging hungry from their hibernation. Also target stoats, which will emerge as dotterels and SIPO prepare to migrate back to their coastal habitats but before terns and gulls have fledged their young. Cats and off-lead dogs and motorbikes also pose a serious threat to these birds along with natural predators harriers and falcon.
Look for the signs along the rivers to let you know when the birds are nesting and please give them space. If you see and hear them, they’re probably already off their nests or worried about their chicks.
Thanks to KAPOW, Tucker Beach, Shotover Country and the Wakatipu High School for trapping the Whakatipu habitats of these species.
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Other birds to keep an eye out for that will be making an appearance soon are Kotare/kingfisher. Look for markers of territorial behaviours that could indicate nesting in our birds – e.g. Tui displaying with dramatic airborne dives and nest building behaviours such as gathering nest materials.
While the trees are bare, now is a good time to take a walk around your neighbourhood and identify nests. Make a note of where they are. For example, if they are on your trapline make a note of the nearest trap to the nest. Keep an eye on the nesting site as winter gives way to spring. If one of our native birds uses the nest, it is an opportunity to ramp up your trapping efforts in that area.
For other birding opportunities, head to warm, sunny areas such as Jack’s Point and Kelvin Heights. Look out for early flowering natives such as the fuchsia at the Matakauri Wetlands and kowhai drawing in our nectar feeding birds.
We are organizing a bird watching day out at Tucker Beach on Saturday the 17th of August. Please email us to register your interest! hello@whakatipuwildlifetrust.org.nz
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