Five Eyes ?

Well actually five signs! To protect the high tide roost and nesting site of shore birds. It was good to meet up with Alex from DOC to add to and replace a rather tired sign at this vulnerable but important site.

Hopefully dog owners will act responsibly and follow the 2015 ruling that Dogs are not permitted on these shell banks.

Nothing Ventured......

Nothing gained! I was wondering what I had let myself in for when I recently volunteered to speak to a Forest and Bird submission at a Resource Management Act (RMA) hearing to try and save a notable tree from demolition ........
More to follow.

Shoal Ngataringa Wader Census Count

It was good to have Jim Eagles join me for this mornings sunrise wader census count. It was a beautiful morning and the estuaries were like mill-ponds. A good spread of species were observed including wrybill, South Island Pied Oystercatcher, Variable Oystercatchers, pied stilt, banded dotterel and NZ dotterel.



Waitemata Wader Census morning- Just like a millpond

SIPOS on High Tide Roost shell bank



Wrybill




Pied stilt with banded dotterel behind

In the afternoon It was good to meet up with Emma and her neighbour Barrie both Upper Shoal Bay local residents to set-up and GPS a new predator control bait line.

Emma and Barrie setting up a bait line

Miranda Winter Census

A beautiful day to be counting birds after a foggy drive to the Miranda Shorebird Centre. I was pleased to be able to help as we paired up and were sent to different shorebird locations along the coast and inland on some farmland sites. I counted up to 1700 when something disturbed them and had to start again. Gillian was more successful and made it to 2200



That's over half the World population of Wrybill at Miranda today



Wrybill can be fidgety birds not the easiest to count

We will soon be adding our count for Shoal and Ngataringa Bay as our local contribution to the winter Waitemata census.

Strutting Our stuff

Well here I am at the Pest Forum last Monday strutting my stuff explaining the Shoal Environment and where the predator control with help from the 'Ratpack' fits in.

Kym is strutting her stuff too facilitating our meeting

 

The French Connection

Great day on the Mangawhai coast meeting up with Sofiane who is an intrepid traveller. Sophiane has travelled extensively through Australia and Japan and is part way to Cape Reinga following the Te Ararowa trail. He had many tales to tell of near death experiences during his travels.



Looking for a safe place to cross this river

 

 Sofiane was camping nearby on route from Bluff so we asked him to join us for a day exploring the three dune beaches checking traps for predators.

 Three weasels, two hedgehogs and a mouse was a good total for the day. We finished the day with a Cointreau or two and then an Indian meal joined by other friends.

A great day and I'm looking forward to meeting up with Sofiane when he returns to Auckland after completing his walk and also hearing about the next leg of his travels.

Chew Card Project Tour

Its been an eventful week with meetings, walks, attendance at a tree hearing for a notable scheduled listed pohutukawa and today a walk on the wild -side to show Craig from Auckland Council the Shoal and Ngataringa estuary habitats.

 Amy joined us and I was pleased to have her along as she has recently returned from the Norfolk islands where she completed her Masters degree and more work on a bird trans-location project to an off-shore Island.

Craig from the  Auckland Council Biodiversity department is going to help with a chew card project at various locations around the estuaries to check for the presence of rats. We were pleased to listen to his advise and look forward to starting this project including checking the high tide  shell bank roost sites.

It was good to meet up with Roger and Cecilia at Ngataringa Park and be shown around. Then to Ngataringa Bay to meet with Graham to see where cards can be laid on the shell bank.

Wadeable or Swimmable?

With our usual humour I pondered on the idea of writing my memoirs one day and wondered what title I would use for the Chapter about my many Kaipara visits shared with a  good friend. I did it 'Her Way' came to mind

 

So why are we here? Well many reasons really but checking traps, bait stations, counting birds and other bird projects  are the important  ones. Enjoying a great environment and shared fun also comes pretty high on the list too.

 

With a particularly high tide our usual slippery muddy walk through the mangroves and estuary edge turned into more of a wade. However the water was not too cold and the chance to get up close with fern bird was another bonus.

 

Looking back to check that I am still above water.

 

As the tide recedes we start to dry out and then a shower of rain.

 

 

Why Care about Wai Care?

Enjoyed attending the macro-invertebrate and Wai Care workshop at Kristin school last Thursday. The team made it really interesting with their great enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject.

Damselfly nymph

 Pond dipping was a favourite past time of mine many years ago and I am keen to get back to exploring the macro-invertebrates of the streams entering our local estuaries. Its another photography project in the making.

SNAP

SNAP ( Shoal Ngataringa Action Project) for want of a better name at the moment had an informal Afternoon T get-together on Saturday 20th to say a big thanks for their support during the past year.

 

 I was keen to get together this great team of pest control champions who have been working around the fringe bush of Shoal and Ngataringa bays to protect bird life. I also wanted to share with them the data from CatchIT to support our project. 

 

Thanks to you all for coming and a big thank you to Terry for putting on a great spread.

 

Miranda Blue Sky Day

A perfect blue sky day to visit Miranda and catch up with people, watch birds and hear an interesting talk. I reflected on the fact that ten years ago I would drive by the Miranda  Shore Bird centre on my way to and from the Coromandel and wonder what went on inside this building set back from the road. Although I did venture to the hides on several occasions. However I never really timed it right for those high tides..

 Then one day in 2011 I ventured inside and have since spent time meeting and listening to some great people and earlier this year attending the excellent  six day residential Field Study course.

Dabchick

Chestnut-breasted Shelduck

Love Point England Rally

My first time to see this great area of community playing fields and farmland bordering the estuary. An important area too for some of our at risk species of birds, NZ dotterel, Shore plover..

Good to support the people who are standing up against the National Governments attempt to change the law to allow  Reserve land  to be built on. If passed this Bill  could set a precedent for other reserves to be gobbled up by development.

More to follow

Island Hopping

Great day today with superb weather ideal for an island visit. Thanks to Nick and Joel for sharing your extensive knowledge about these fascinating geckos and skinks.

Gecko

Moko Skink

Long-Tailed Blue

Dotterel Forum

I attended my third Dotterel Forum today, this year at Ambury park. It was great to come across so many familiar faces.

I have learnt a lot from listening to the dotterel care groups around Auckland share their successes and challenging times protecting dotterel at these forums. This year Ben Paris had asked me to be the Keynote speaker and I was almost disappointed to be asked because I thought I would not learn anything today if I was talking about the Shoal Bay project and just listening to myself..

Fortunately several members had presentations to share which gave me new ideas to take back to our project on the North Shore. A big thanks to Gwenda Pulham and Ben for organising this event and allowing me to share my presentation entitled 'Keeping the Shell Banks safe for Birds-Defending Safe Habitat'

Goat Island Marine Reserve.

Great Forest & Bird visit today to the Goat Island Marine reserve with an excellent guided tour of the wet tanks and talk by Tim. Thanks John for organising such an interesting tour.

Elaine, Helen and I then went on to Mathesons bay for a walk up the stream track and then stopped for lunch.

Then with still time to spare we called in at the Omaha Wildlife reserve to see the large flock of banded dotterels.

The final visit for the day was to call in at Charlie's ice cream shop at Matakana for an ice cream to round of a great day.

.

Motuora Island

A rough ride to Motuora Island this morning with a strong Easterly but once in the shelter of the Island all was good. Lots of work to do including clearing a large earth slip that had fallen across the track to the Ridge track. Dave was keen for us to help clear this. So about six of us shovelled the earth to make a track possible.

More to follow.

Hauraki School Shell Bank clean-up

It was great to be asked to help with the Hauraki school shell bank clean-up at Shoal Bay this morning following my talk and Power Point to the Middle School on Wednesday..

At twenty past nine a  huge crowd of children with their teachers and parent helpers descended on the shell beach at Charles street to begin the clean up. The students excitedly searched for plastic rubbish stopping only to ask the occasional question about birds, look through my scope at pied stilt and dotterel  or re-fit their sometimes loose and stuck in the mud gumboots. A magic morning!

Photos to follow.

Hauraki School-'Keeping the Shell Banks Safe for Birds'

Great to be invited  to talk to six classes of the Middle school of  Hauraki Primary today. My talk entitled 'Keeping the Shell Banks safe for Birds'.

Dodging the heavy rain I arrived early to a welcome by Chelsea the teacher who is   organising the beach clean-up. The students were amazing, asking some great questions and I'm looking forward to helping them with their beach clean up on Friday morning on the Shell Banks..

Shoal Bay has legs!

And that's not just the 80 pied stilts pairs of  pink legs that I counted today. No I'm talking about the pest control  project that is part of the  North West Wild-link (NWWL).

 Our aims are to help the bush birds already present along the bush edge of the estuary and also to protect the nesting and roosting site of some 12 threatened and at risk  bird species including shore birds that regularly use the shell banks to rest after feeding and some including the NZ dotterel, Variable Oystercatcher and pied stilt for nesting..

 These birds include my Famous Five birds that are mentioned in the DOC designation of Shoal Bay and Ngataringa Bay as a  site of Special Wildlife Interest. Those five birds are the NZ dotterel, the banded dotterel, the wrybill, Caspian Tern and reef heron. The very secretive banded rail is also present in Shoal bay.

This project has attracted more support from Auckland Council with a facilitator to help us work through the issues with a vision going forward to help with the sustainability of the project.

More to follow..........

Omaha to Pakiri via Mathesons Bay

A leisurely day visiting a few favourite places and sharing them with a fellow birder and all round naturalist Ed who will be shortly heading back to the UK after a year in NZ. I bumped into Ed a year ago on Rangitoto Island. I wish you Good luck for your next travels in Scotland and hope to meet up again in NZ in the future..

 

 

Kaipara Kayak

Another great day in this wild expansive environment. more to follow................

Omaha

Omaha spit to see the NZ dotterel, banded dotterel and wrybill.



NZ dotterel and banded dotterel at high tide roost site.

Wrybill

Casnell Island in the rain

Its 6.57 am and I am on my way. Our original plan to head to Big Sand Island on the Kaipara but a check of the weather reports at my 'Monday friend's cottage, on route, showed weather warnings of very high rainfall particularly on that West coast.

Casnell Island became our changed destination and the tide was just right for walking across the causeway with dry feet. Well that wasn't to last as the rain came tipping down and although the island is bush covered my feet were soon soaked.

Casnell Island

 

Monday friend - 'Singing in the Rain'!

 

 However the rest of me remained dry and with high spirits and with our usual laughter as we explored the island with my friend telling me all about the various visits she had made over some years to clear weeds such as tree privet which would otherwise take over the place.

On walking deeper into one area we saw a morepork fly in front of us and settle on a branch and were then able to study it and photograph it for some time. A tui nearby seemed to be trying to rattle it but apart from making bobbing movement it didn't seem concerned.

Morepork with puffed up feathers to keep dry.

Sad Loss of a friend

So many trees no longer have protection in the Auckland urban environment. The chain saw rules with the Unitary Plan allowing sections to have intensive housing. Developers clear to the boundaries and then pour concrete.
Any tree is now valuable for wildlife. Native or exotic it doesn't matter. So to lose our beloved Black walnut tree through the heavy rains and high winds of the last few days was quite a blow. When I woke this morning and as usual checked the garden for birds and found the walnut tree had quietly fallen.

This trees has hosted so many bird species including silvereye, grey warbler kingfisher and the 12 tui that often feed from our sugar solution feeder.  More recently a pair of tame Barbary doves fly in perch on the tree then drink at the pond before heading off to the woodland edge of Shoal bay.

Young fantail regularly had their  first flying lessons from this tree and kingfisher during the Christmas period use it as a perch to dive for earthworms observed on the lawn below probably to build up protein to feed their chicks.................

Kaipara Return

Its good to be back on a fine summers day on the edge of the Kaipara. We are ferrying water by kayak for a bird project and checking traps and sound equipment.

SIPOS in great numbers



My 'Monday' friend reconnects the solar panel to the sound system