02-10-2014

 It's that time of the year again and the Waiau Rivercare group are gearing up for a busy  
 year.

The Black Fronted Terns (BFT) have been arriving for about a month and the traps have all been repositioned and set and are ready to go.

Down on the Mason this morning there were 6 Banded Dotterels visable, 2 Pied
Oystercatchers and some BFT's flying up and down the river.

We are putting traps out on the Waiau for the first time on Sunday. The farmer below the
bridge on the Rotherham side is willing to have and look after the traps for us which is a big bonus. We will also extend the Mason River traps down onto the Waiau on the Township side and later on we will try and get some traps up stream to the area that the Black Fronted Terns nested last year.

Now all we need is the Black billed Gulls.

12-02-2014

Finally 2 of us got down on the river today and found our Black fronted Tern Chicks.

This is one of the groups there is another one down stream from the township.

There were at least 50 chicks in the group we saw today the photograph below has at least 30 chicks in it - so well camoflaged they are very hard to see.

Just down a little were a bunch of Pied Stilts. No chicks visable but each pair had a chick when I saw them from the Jetboat so I guess the chicks were just keeping out of the Nor'wester that was blowing.

This is why we do what we do. Next year we are hoping the river behaves and lets us control some predators for them. Having said that the the birds seem to have done very well without any help. It would be nice to know how many birds actually nested. Next year is definately a much earlier trip in a Jetboat.

02-02-2014

It's been a busy week in Waiau and I am happy to report that I finally got a trip up the river on a Jet boat and found some of our Black-fronted Terns with around 100 fledged chicks in the middle of the river along with 4 Pied Stilt nests and 2 chicks that were visible.

I am thrilled with this find and it only goes to show that the birds will nest as soon as conditions are right. Interestingly the island where they have nested is in the area of the river where the Wrybills have been recorded in the past, so hopefully next year the river conditions will be right to allow us to monitor the river much earlier.

Both sides of the Mason river had the traps checked and on the far bank all the traps had occupants.

Our figures so far for this season are:

16 Hedgehogs
4 Stoats
6 Rats
2 Rabbits

We will continue to monitor the traps right up until winter when we will bring some of them in for maintenance and bait the others and check them at regular intervals.

Depressingly we still have idiots driving or riding through the middle of the birds but without an active Ranger in the area we stand little chance of being able to do anything about it. 3 boys on motorbikes completely ignored us when we were checking the traps and we were reluctant to say anything as it is probably the same boys that threw the traps into the river earlier on. Sometimes it is very frustrating.

No pictures today as the camera did not survive it's dunking in the river and I was reluctant to take my other one out in the Jet boat but hopefully we might be able to walk in this week and try and get some.

11-01-2014

Well Christmas and the New Year are past and it was time to check the traps which had been left for almost a month this time.
4 Hedgehogs and a Rat were a good result but slipping in the Mason and getting the camera wet was not! Fairly serious damage I think but won't know for a few days.

Anyway we re-baited the traps and will leave it another month before we go out again.

We have had trouble with someone throwing the traps into the river but managed to salvage 2 of them but this morning one could not be found - bored kids on School Holidays I think.

We have Banded Dotterel Chicks but I will be very surprised if any manage to grow up as the Black-backed Gulls and Australasian Harriers are busy patrolling the river bed looking for lunch.

Jane and Nick from BRaid went back up to the Conway a couple of times to check on the Black-billed Gull colony there and at the last visit counted 400 full fledged chicks. This sounds like a good result but there were a lot of dead chicks in all stages of growth and no signs of predation. Nick thinks that the main problems were lack of food and the weather.

Hopefully next year the weather settles down and they can come back and nest with us.

Unfortunately the Jet boat ride up the Waiau hasn't happened (mainly because the weather has been so bad) and it is to late now to see the Wrybills but I am still hoping that I can get someone to take me out to try and find the Black-fronted Terns.