A Rena on our Doorstep.

Yesterday I checked out the news of a diesel oil spill in Lake Pupuke. This is a serious contamination of the lake and wildlife is seriously affected.

 

 

The 'Rat Pack'

Well not quite but great to meet up with F&B volunteers Amy, Anne-Elise, Bill and Joel to lay out the bait stations in the Jutland reserve. Not the best day to pick but a successful morning and in a months time we will meet again to check and top up with more bait.
This is part of the North West Wild-link assistance programme to protect the birds around the coastal forest edge of Shoal and Ngataringa bay and hopefully will also benefit the shore birds (NZ dotterel) attempting to nest on the shell banks of the estuary.

Café meet-up as Joel from Highpoint explains the plan

Joel from Highpoint contracted by Auckland Council.

Mangawhai Moonlight.

Beautiful moonlight across the estuary towards Hauturu (little Barrier Island).

Enjoying walks and the wildlife of the Mangawhai estuary.
Dolphins and stingray flow  in with the tide. Then at low tide banded dotterel and godwit feed below joined by SIPOs NZ dotterel in breeding plumage.

A reef heron hunts its prey along the edge of one of the channels.  Photos to follow...................

Kaipara island paddle

A muddy start to our day with the tide out so some early haulage over the mud to get to the water. But an easy paddle with two large drums of water for  weed work.

Low tide on the Kaipara channel

Happy days!

Changing the SD card on the monitoring camera.

Ngataringa Bay

72 Wrybill took flight along with 3 Caspian Tern, 156 Oystercatchers, 35 pied stilt , 9 banded dotterel and 3 NZ dotterel. I think it was a light aircraft way up above that spooked them.

City bird life-72 wrybill with two oystercatcher and a pied stilt

Ngataringa Bay bird count.

    2 x Caspian Tern
  29 x variable oystercatcher
192 x South Island Pied Oystercatcher 
    2 x wrybill
    4x  NZ dotterel
50 x pied stilt
  4 x spur-winged plover
  2 x banded dotterel

Rangitoto Island

Its a long time since I have visited this amazing island and it was good to be back today for a walk to the summit and the lighthouse track.

 It was good to be able to show Ed, newly arrived from the UK around and to have a chat with Susie who was tree planting on Motutapu island.

 

Reef Heron

I have been searching for a reef heron in Shoal Bay for several years to complete the five birds I am studying that the estuary is important to support and which earns Shoal Bay the DoC title of a Site of Significant Wildlife interest.



Reef Heron Shoal bay

 

 The other birds include the NZ dotterel, banded dotterel, wrybill and Caspian tern. I have seen the others on many occasions but this is my first sighting of a reef heron in this estuary. It is such a timid and solitary bird.
It landed on a rocky area that was uncovered by the tide and then haunched up waiting which is a classic pose of this bird. I have included some other  photos of reef heron that I have taken on the East coast.



Reef Heron East Coast




Reef Heron East Coast