Yesterday was a flurry of excitement for the Department of Conservation team with a visit by His Royal Highness, Prince William, to Kapiti Island to take in some of the wonderful wildlife sights.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
Active in the Park, the DOC summer programme in and around the central North Island is up and running again this year, and it has been off to a really busy start, which gives me a pretty lame excuse for the late post but I’ll work with it! We have tried to put together a programme with a little bit of interest to anyone, and really want it to be family friendly.
Take the Poronui bike ride on the weekend, we had over 60 people on the ride of all ages and had a fantastic time in a place you can never normally ride. Big thanks to Poronui Lodge for letting us on, hopefully we can get in there again next year.
The climb up to the crater lake on Mt Ruapehu was another awesome trip, despite the weather. Howling gales and snow would ordinarily put people off, but this trip showed how much fun it can be to challenge yourself when you are well prepared and have the right people with you to show you the way. And every hard-won metre uphill was a huge buzz on the way back down, with the perfect snow conditions making for a fast descent on the seat of your pants. Nearly 300 vertical metres on your butt was a great way to get down the hill in a hurry!
We have a heap planned for the upcoming week, finishing with a new trip from Urchin tops to Umukarikari which should be a real blast. Lets hope the weather lets us get out there! You can check out the programme at www.doc.govt.nz/tongarirosummer
Catch ya
Well it’s been a hot few weeks over the Christmas-New Year period, with more people holidaying around my part of Northland – the Tutukaka coast – than I’ve ever seen before. Everyone’s been talking about how dry it is! An inescapable truth when you look at the ever-browning grass. It’s fantastic for getting out on the water but of course not at all good for wildfire danger levels.
While travelling a bit over the break I’ve noticed a lot of new “Bernie” wildfire danger signs around the region, all part of the national rural fire authority’s work to raise awareness of the acute situation we’re in. And Newstalk ZB rang me a few times around Christmas to get more info on our campaign. I spoke to the breakfast programme just before New Year about the dangers of fireworks during New Year celebrations but guess some of our neighbours didn’t hear it! There were at least three different displays in our bay, fortunately not leading to problems, but they didn’t help my peace of mind.
The escalating fire danger hit TV1 news recently as well. Not the kind of publicity we really want, but definitely good for getting word out there. You don’t want to be the person spending their summer paying a huge fine for starting a wildfire, rather than enjoying the season.
It would be great to hear from you about any of the publicity you’ve seen or heard!
Whilst many folk are doing their best to be seen on our beaches this summer, some of our more secretive residents are struggling with the crowds.
I’m talking about the NZ dotterel (tuturiwhatu) which nest in sand scrapes on many of our North Island beaches.
NZ dotterel sitting on a simple sand-scrape nest
These birds and their nests are well camouflaged and often invisible to the untrained eye, leaving them vulnerable to disturbance by unwary beachgoers, their dogs and vehicles.
Today I’ve had a report from a member of the public about people walking through the fenced off nesting site at Matakana to relieve themselves and to sit in the sun.
It’s true that sometimes the birds choose to nest in places that are inconvenient to beach users, but in the scheme of things, I’d suggest that the inconvenience of having to walk an extra 100m is a small price to pay for the survival of this species which numbers just 1700 individuals in NZ (and the world!)
A tiny, very sand coloured dotterel chick is easy to miss
and the results can be devastating – this chick was crushed by an unwary motorist
When dotterel adults are disturbed off the nest while incubating, the eggs are at risk of overheating. Young chicks, when disturbed, can die from exhaustion as they cannot eat in time, or get to their feeding grounds at the water’s edge.
Here in Tauranga we have major dotterel nesting sites on Matakana Island and Maketu spit that are protected through the efforts of Ranger Witana and the Port of Tauranga at Matakana and community volunteers at Maketu whom control predators, monitor breeding success and fence off the nesting areas in an effort to protect them from being disturbed.
Birds bred at Matakana last year have recently been seen at beaches around the Coromandel and East Cape.
So as you enjoy the beach this summer, please spare a thought for the shy locals (even if you can’t see them) and give them a little space.
For more information about NZ dotterel, please visit our website.
Blending in with the driftwood
DOC staff working with local volunteers to rescue the stranded whales
I didn’t expect to be flying up to Coromandel to help with a whale stranding when I woke up this morning, but at 9.30am, that’s exactly what I was doing.
63 pilots whales stranded in Colville Bay at about 5.30AM this morning and it didn’t take long for the DOC team up there to leap from holiday to emergency mode and start working towards rescuing them.
Sadly about 20 of the whales expired pretty early, but thanks to the efforts of locals, iwi, holiday makers, Project Jonah volunteers, the Harbourmaster and our own staff, the rest were kept wet & comfortable until they could be refloated at about 2.30pm.
Pilot whales get pretty disoriented when they strand, so it took a while for them to ‘find their fins’ and each other, plus they paused for one of the females to give birth to a calf before heading into deeper water.
Dr Ingrid Visser was keeping an eye on them as I left this afternoon. Here’s hoping they stay out there tonight.
The sad losses
