WA Springtime 2023

 It's great to be back in Western Australia enjoying the amazing biodiversity that this region has to offer.

First stop always has to be Wireless hill in Perth a great place to get your eyes into searching for native orchids. It's also a good area to see birds feeding on the kangaroo paw plant.

Then our planned trip further South to Yallingup. On route we tried to locate the Ambergate Reserve at Busselton, but the GPS led us to a highway that seemed to bisect the road we needed. we decided it was better to press on and find this recommended reserve on the way back.

Yallingup is in the Cape Naturaliste National Park. The house we are staying in is surrounded by bush and an ideal area for native orchids including Cowslip Orchid, Spider and purple enamel orchid. Nearby I found two species of round leaved sundew in flower. One with white flowers the other blue flowers.

Purple Enamel Orchid

Cowslip Orchid

A whale watch boat trip from Dunsborough was excellent with good close sightings of 10 metre humpback whales. The boat keeping to a 100 metre distance to respect the whale's space.

Tail slap of a humpback whale

The next day we were exploring a favorite spot, Castle Rock. We found more orchids along the walk to Meelup beach. This included the tiny little pink fairy orchid. From the shore we could also see humpback whales too. No sign of Fairy Wrens on this visit but certainly many honeyeaters busy through the bush.

On previous visits we have also visited the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse and the walk to the whale watch lookout platform. It's a great walk through interesting sandy bush paths the habitat of snakes some venomous and lizards. We did see honey eaters and a pair of Bronzewing doves. 

Cape Naturaliste lighthouse habitat

Bronzewing Dove

The day was heating up to the mid 30 degrees so decided to head for shade with a return visit to Meelup beach to allow us further views of the whales that we had seen from the beach yesterday but not today. However, it's a great place to spend some time.

Then North to search again for the Ambergate reserve near Busselton. This time we were successful and enjoyed seeing Rattlebeak orchids and a species of larger leafed sundew. The temperature today reached 34degrees so hot work searching. Next stop Rockingham for the night.

 Refreshed in the morning we continued North to Yanchep staying at an Airbnb close to the Yanchep National Park. We spent a couple of days exploring this beautiful location. Within the plant gardens good sightings of two splendid fairy wrens. This is an amazing little bird of exquisite colour.

Splendid male Fairy Wren 

Interesting to see the koalas in the enclosures although these are not native to the region. They rest high up in the gum trees and are more active at night. We also spotted a western grey kangaroo with a joey in its pouch.

Tuesday evenings are the regular meeting time of the Pelican Point conservation area birders who have met each week since the 1970's I believe. Now that we are back in Perth, I tag along to their walk around this wetland to count the bird species and their numbers. We count 21 species with common sandpiper, red-capped plover, oystercatcher and black winged stilts (known as pied stilts in NZ) among them. We also estimate a flock of at least 300 + little black cormorants that at one point are chased through the water by a powerboat. 

As we travel around, I am aware that there are birds everywhere. The local parks and reserves are full of the sounds of birds, and they are constantly flying around. Corellas fly in flocks and around the lakes near Bold Park I watch them roosting in trees. I have also been aware at the number of large dragonflies around the ponds and lakes. At Bibra lake we watched the strangest duck, a Musk duck, propelling itself in the water displaying its tail feathers. It's very unusual.

It was lovely to catch up with Claire who is now working as a Marine biologist. Claire's specialty is seabirds particularly the Australian fairy tern, so this ties up nicely with my interest and volunteer work with the NZ fairy tern over the years. On Saturday we walked out at the sand spit at Point Walter to check the vegetation ahead of the fairy tern arriving to breed from November onwards. 

On Monday morning on a walk between Alfred Cove and Applecross Jetty. We watched at least three fairy tern way out diving for fish. There twittering and flickery flight was sure sign of this species. These early arrivals are no doubt checking out nesting sites.

It's always a must do to revisit Rottnest Island an A class reserve just a half an hour's bout ride from Perth. This car free Island is just great to spend a few days on and explore on foot or by bike. I always have to check out the Osprey nests and on in particular. Perfect timing as the two adults on the nest also had a juvenile with them.

Osprey stack nest with adult birds and one young bird.

  Tuesday so another catchup with the Pelican Point group. It's great to catch up with Sue Mather who was so helpful when I bumped into her at Rous head at the Fairy tern site and she passed on information about the Bird office in Bold Park and put me in touch with Nic Dunlop regarding Fairy Tern. It was also nice to catch up with John & Bev who I hadn't seen since 2019. This evening there are plenty of birds in the wetland. We count a total of 29 species including two buff banded rails.

Pelican Point Wetland Reserve

Explored the wonderful reserves of Lesmurdie and Ellis Brook on the Darling scarp. Ellis Brook was particularly good for wildflowers.

A lucky find in a secondhand bookshop after enjoying a coffee at the Swedish cafe in Fremantle which incidentally serves excellent coffees and food, a clean copy of 'The Flowers of May' by Richard Mabey. I have a collection of Richard Mabey's Natural History books starting with 'Food for Free' which was a great introduction to foraging for wild foods in hedgerows.

It's great to be back on Rottnest Island a wonderful 'A' class reserve a half an hour boat ride away from the Perth mainland at Fremantle. Refreshingly the island is free of cars apart from maintenance vehicles. Cycling is the main means of getting round the island or the bus that runs clockwise every half an hour stopping at the many beautiful white sand beaches. The island has some fascinating wildlife including resident Quokkas. 

Rottnest Island white sand bays

I head for one of my favorite Osprey nest sites and sure enough an osprey pair have a juvenile still on the nest. Nearby I watch a pair of kestrels one with a freshly caught small lizard.

I've walked out to Woodman point a few times when in Perth in the hope of spotting Fairy Tern but no sign. Just a kestrel hovering over the sand dunes.

A Sunday visit to the beautiful Araluen Botanical gardens in the Perth Hills which are simply quite stunning. The gardens are 90 years old. 

Araluen Botanical Gardens

Penguin Island today a small island I am always tempted to revisit whenever in WA. It's about 45 mins from Perth and a short boat ride from the shore. It's a bird island managed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. It's a great place to see pelicans and Bridled terns and other interesting species. If you are lucky penguins too. Today I was fortunate to meet Erin a penguin researcher who was busy setting up cameras to check the arrival of the penguins and their nesting sites under a coastal boardwalk.

Penguin Island Conservation Park

A farewell few hours spent at Point Walter. Its 35 degrees today so the cooling Easterly breeze of the Swan River is very welcome.

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

Springtime

 Its springtime again. The karo trees are full of flower and hum with many bees attracted to them. Many flowers have started to fall into our pond which adds some colour to the rather muddy coloured water after all our recent rainfall.

Spoonbill, sometimes as many as seven have been feeding in the local estuary and also see roosting (resting) on branches at the small pond near the local golf course which has been a much easier place for local people to enjoy them.

Our small share of bar-tailed godwit have started to arrive in our local estuaries following their long nearly twelve thousand kilometre  flight from Alaska after breeding. 

The first two arrived then 5 and now 26.  Numbers should build to over 200. They will stay with us until March 2024 when they will set off again for Alaska via China.

That time of the Year again

Each August I check the dotterel signage and replace, if necessary. It's hung on a taped fence across a vulnerable shell bank.

 

 August to March is the breeding season of some of our local shorebird species including the New Zealand dotterel, variable oystercatcher and pied stilt. Banded rail also breeds at this time. 

 There is clear 'No Dog' signage but that doesn't always deter people bringing their dogs to this sensitive wildlife area. A second line of defence was required and this little taped fence & sign seems to do the trick.

There are always additional things to see when visiting the estuary. This time a rather splendid jellyfish washed up by the high tide. Just checking the identification. It's about 50cm across.  It could be a   Lions Maine (Cyanea rosea). I do hope another high tide will take it back to the ocean.

Rainbows & Rainfall

 We should be used to that by now this year but today we also had sunshine and so it was good to be out and about. 

The Mahurangi Regional reserve was very quiet considering it is a school holiday. This allowed 46 Variable oystercatcher and one South Island pied oyster catcher to roost undisturbed on the beach. Three NZ dotterel each standing on one leg were joined by 8 mallard ducks while out to sea 7 gannets were diving at great speed. from quite a height to catch their food.

Variable Oystercatcher Roosting (resting) on the beach at high tide.

Patuone Planting

And it wasn't raining! which was a real bonus this morning for a small group of volunteers helping to plant the new upgraded walkway through the Patuone Reserve. This was organised by Dan Marrow from Auckland Parks and Tabitha from the Pupuke birdsong project.

Some of the grasses planted will help filter the rainwater from the nearby Barrys point road and business area helping to keep the water clean that flows into Shoal estuary before flowing on to the Hauraki Gulf.

One of the children spotted a skink so that was exciting but by the look of the single cell on its head it appears that this is the invasive rainbow skink that is regarded as a pest because it breeds so fast and risks taking over habits of our native species. I have often seen rainbow skinks in this reserve on sunny summer days when they enjoy basking in the warmth at the edge of pathways.

A small group of volunteers have been helping with predator control in this reserve to protect banded rail and other bird species in the mangroves. We were pleased to hear recently that during regular monitoring by Council their contractors found no signs of rats our target species. 

However, we know that it's only a matter of time before the rats will reinvade, so this has to be an ongoing project.  

HIGHPOINT

 The Highpoint of todays visit to Tawharanui was meeting up with Joel & Nichole who's company Highpoint Conservation Services are now in pursuit of Batwing passionfruit flower.

I first met Joel in 2016 when his company Highpoint was contracted by Auckland Council to set up a pest control line around Shoal and Ngataringa estuaries. This is the bait line that eight years later we are still monitoring and bait pulsing four times a year.

Joel was very helpful to our new group of keen local people at the time who planned to regularly keep these lines going.

Joel & Nichole are experienced rope access operators that means they can take on challenging projects on the Hauraki Islands removing pest plants from cliff top sites.

More to follow.

In Search of Sunshine.

Rain, rain, rain, that's all we have seen for some weeks now. Heading North in search of sunshine. 

And that's exactly what we have found. Sunny days to enjoy Russell again. It's always fun to watch the weka creeping up on unsuspecting tourist at the camp site. I love their calls at night which seem to echo across the valley.

 Good to enjoy a night out in the town with a good meal as we watched the sun go down. I always enjoy a walk around the historic church especially when the sun is shining. 

Russell Church.

Kawakawa is always worth a visit too. This little town is across from Russell using the Opua vehicle ferry is 

famous for the Hundertwasser designed toilets and now has a small gallery in remembrance of this well-known artist.

 On heading South, we would also visit the new Hundertwasser gallery at Whangarei.

Hundertwasser gallery at Whangarei

Then South to Ruakaka to enjoy the estuary. The lighting was spectacular for the sunrise. The sunset even better to watch the birds making the most of the low tide to feed.

NZ Dotterel in breeding plumage

Leigh was our next stop at the little campsite at Leigh Central a short hp then to be at the Goat Island Marine Reserve for a Botanical walk (BoT SoC) on the Leigh walkway.

Auckland Botanical Society overlooking Goat Island

 

Devil's Fingers (Anthurus archer)

Weta

Three Islands

 Thats three islands in one photo. The little island to the right is little egg island, the next is Te Haupa/ Saddle Island and the third is Motuora Island. This is the view from above Otarawao Bay

I have never quite timed the tide correctly to get onto little egg island. I have been out on   Saddle Island with the Auckland Botanical people.  Motuora island I have really enjoyed on many occasions helping with their restoration work although I haven't made it for a while due to clashes with other activities. 

Today however was just a trek over the hill from Otarawao ( Sullivans Bay) to the Te Muri stream. It's a delightful walk and definitely a favorite of mine.

Black - tailed godwit & a whiskered tern

 Good to join the Miranda team yesterday for their AGM followed by some high tide birding. At last a clear view of a lone black-tailed godwit on the mud flats amongst many, pied stilt, with knots and other remaining bar-tailed godwit that have not left to breed in Alaska.

 The whiskered tern was a first for me although it was tricky lining up the scope as it flicked around the stilt ponds which due to a larger than normal amount of water has attracted more ducks & swans than usual including over 20 dabchicks which is very unusual to have so many recorded here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see them today.

Dotterel Forum 2023

 This was the ninth. Dotterel Forum. This time held at Ambury Regional Reserve. Covid rather put the last on hold. My first was in 2016 when I was invited to speak about our work around Shoal estuary to protect this species. It's always interesting to hear what others are doing to help these birds and protect their habitat. 

Today I learnt about another way to use nest shelters to keep black backed gulls and hawks from raiding the nests and killing chicks and destroying eggs. Our shelters are tall, but Cam at the Crest group had shown a much lower shelter covering a nest that effectively stopped a black backed gull from getting to the eggs from above and it certainly wasn't keen to stoop underneath either. Cams excellent video showed that to good effect.

We use a denser smaller netting that also has the additional benefit of breaking up the nest pattern to foil over flying harriers.

Shaun discusses data collection and habitat information.

Not Long Now

 Our Godwit flock will soon have all left our local estuaries heading first to China and then to Alaska to breed. They have spent our summer although not a very good one resting up and feeding to avoid more severe climate of Alaska This morning just after high tide I counted 54 remaining, and they were rather agitated on a windy and rather cool morning due to the brisk southerly. They joined a flock of over 200 pied stilts resting up on the shell banks.

 

Waiwera & Wenderholm.

The dotterel Minder signage at Waiwera outlines a disastrous season so far due mainly to extreme high tides.

Plenty of birds at the Waiwera high tide roost site at the Northern end of the beach including-

 147 x SIPOS, 

23 x VOC's, 

249 x white fronted terns 

4 x NZ dotterels. 

There was also an additional Variable Oystercatcher (VOC) pair with a juvenile.

Dotterel Success Year Beginning 2023

 I have posted before about the lack of success and unwelcome interference of nests at Mahurangi Regional Reserve. Today we see some good news that a dotterel has survived from egg to chick and has now fledged (able to fly). This is great news and the first for the Reserve in 10 years. 

We have also had similar success at Shoal estuary with one chick fledged. Each year the NZ dotterel struggle with high tides and eggs and chicks being taken by hawks during their summer nesting time..

This is a great beginning to 2023 for local wildlife.

YEAR END 2022

Good to feel that things have returned to near normal after the pandemic disruption of the last couple of years. For many of us this was nothing more than inconvenient. I hate to think how we would have coped if a full-scale war was on our doorstep as in Ukraine...

Protection of the environment continues to be a challenge with the onslaught of poorly planned development in and around Auckland. Trees have been decimated and at every turn the powers that be resist discussing any meaningful tree protection. Unfortunately, trees get in the way of unbridled development and development rules in Auckland!

2023 will be a continual concern from those that care and have a vision of reducing our war with Nature and following the Science that has shown that if we protect our environment, it will protect us.

A Happy New Year to All.

 

AT LAST!

 The 'powers that be' have finally woken up to the fact that inconsistent signage since 2013 has not helped keep dogs off a designated 'SEA Marine 1' Chenier shell bank in Shoal (Oneoneroa) estuary. This habitat is important to ground nesting and roosting shorebirds.

Frustrated by this inaction of 'duty of care' & constant sign changes I sent Council staff a pdf of photos and dates of all variations of signs that I had recorded at this edge of Shoal estuary since 2013. I asked why the clearest 'No Dogs' signage was removed in March 2020 only four months after it was installed following Council asking me what sign should be used. It was then replaced with yet another ambiguous sign. Signage should clearly reflect the 2012 (amended 2015) dog bylaw.

Good to see that quite recently these three newly designed signs have appeared.  We are hoping that now there is no excuse for dogs being taken on the shell banks at this location.

Now Three NO DOGS signs.

Clear & concise signage is essential.

The next challenge is to get these new signs into other sensitive habitat sites at Shoal and Ngataringa estuary.  How long will that take????

Northland Coastal Escape

First to  Ruakaka for a couple of nights to enjoy the estuary and wildlife reserve. Eleven Royal spoonbill feeding at the estuary edge. Later in the afternoon as the tide came in at least one hundred gannets plummeting out of the sky almost colliding as they go after shoals of fish. 

Little shags roost in a favoured tree between fishing expeditions and the tides.

It was fun watching this young Welcome Swallow eagerly waiting to be fed. Its parents were away for some times more than 15 minutes searching for food to bring back to the young one's perch point on an old fence post. 

Then further North on to my happy space for more nights, more walks and swims in this secluded beautiful bay with back hills and bush to explore.

.

In Pursuit of Champions

 'In pursuit of champions' is the latest publication by Keith Woodley about the story of the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre.

It was great to hear Keith narrate the early beginnings of the Centre and hear about some of the characters and people who campaigned for the Centre to be built. 

I enjoyed catching up with a variety of people today some of which I haven't seen for a while especially with the disruptions of the Covid 19 lockdowns during 2020 and 2021.

This is another excellent book by Keith. I'm more than halfway through and enjoying every minute of it. The interwoven story of the tidal dependent shorebirds and the progression of development of the Shorebird Centre is a compelling story and Keith adds some darn good yarns about the people involved too.

Welcome to the Godwits!

 Great support today for our Godwit event at Sandy Bay Road.

Each year during September the bar-tailed godwit return to New Zealand from their breeding grounds in Northern Alaska a near 12,000 km nonstop flight. We are fortunate to have over 200 birds that choose Shoal and Ngataringa estuaries to stay during our summer months enjoying the estuary food of worms and crustaceans, before they are ready to leave the following March. Then they complete the cycle by returning to Alaska via a stopover in China to feed up to prepare again for breeding in Alaska. A round trip of nearly 30,000 kms.

Heading South

 Heading South after viewing the beautiful gardens at Hamilton. Then to Cambridge staying in a well laid out campsite where the trees mostly nonnative look magnificent. So good to see tall, large trees. In Auckland our trees are being cut down due to rampant uncontrolled development. Trees in Cambridge town appear well cared for and those in the surrounding countryside too.

 Volunteers desperately plant new trees in public reserves around Auckland but it's the loss on private properties that is the real worry. Development rules and trees have no protection in Auckland as they get in the way of intensive development. This is a third World approach to trees that should be saved as mitigation for increasing issues with climate disruption. Trees should be part of development projects. We have lost so many large trees in the city.

Then to Waitomo and an afternoon drive out to the wild coast to visit Marokopa a small Maori settlement that I last visited maybe 15 years ago. It hasn't changed but I had forgotten what a windy road it was to get there. This time we didn't cut through to New Plymouth but stayed the night at Waitomo before heading there the following day.

More to follow.

The Godwits are back

 Fresh from their 11000-kilometer direct flight from Alaska the godwit numbers have built up during the last few weeks to 183. On the 15th of October during 2020 we counted 181 so that's a very consistent number to have returned.

 We also have a special research bird that was tagged up with coloured flags in China in April 2020 on route North via Chinea to Alaska to breed. This will be the third yearly visit I have watched this godwit. in Shoal and Ngataringa estuary.

Today the conditions were good this morning for an 8.24 am 3.3 metre  High Tide and so the birds were roosting on a small shell bank with variable oystercatchers, South Island pied oystercatcher's, NZ dotterel and pied stilt.

Takangariki Island

Takangariki Island better known as Rabbit Island is on route to kawau island from Sandspit.

It's a beautiful privately owned island of just over two hectares with its own jetty.

Today I am here with a group from the Auckland Botanical society who intend to survey the botanical interest of the island. I'm here because I love the Islands of the Hauraki Gulf.