Mary and I walked up the south side of the Waiau on Friday towards Rotherham. The aim was to get past the area where I got stopped last time and see how far we could get. The farmer had been back working and he had removed the bank which stopped me and we went into the tree covered area to find it very boggy and wet and thick with vegetation riverside.
We climb through a fence and walked up the back of a couple of fields to try and get past the boggy area and came back down on to the river only to find the water was right up to the bank and we couldn't get any distance, so we came back.
The only evidence of any wildlife we saw was plenty of rabbit droppings and bird and predator tracks in the mud. The Black-fronted Terns seem to have adopted the island between the Waiau and the Mason where I saw them before but the Gulls had moved on. We think we could see them (the gulls), on the River Road side of the river and we will try and get up there this week - weather and work permitting.
I was down on the Mason today as the weather was perfect and the Black-fronted Terns were definitely taking off and landing in the area they nested last year as well. I didn't go across as I didn't want to disturb them but I think it will be definitely worth putting traps in this area, as there were plenty of Banded Dotterel's around. The 2 Spur winged Plovers with chicks that I saw last time had gone, I expect that the chicks had been taken by predators - there were a lot of dog prints in the area as well.
