18-12-2013

A beautiful day in Waiau and finally some time to go down to the river and just sit.
Nothing caught in the traps last week when they were checked except another young rabbit.

Sitting by the river today made all the trap checking worth while as I spotted a pair of Banded Dotterels with their very young chick. Mum was busy pretending she had a broken wing so I knew something was nearby.

I just hope we have caught enough predators to keep it safe while it grows up! Mind you there were some very interested Black backed Gulls and an Australasian Harrier slowly flying over head all of which were seen off by Mum and Dad.

The Black fronted Terns were sweeping up and down the river fishing but I still haven't found out where they are nesting.

Finally as I was coming home I spotted an area alive with Damselflies. Now I love Damselflies and couldn't resist the opportunity to stop and get a few photos.

 The other really good thing I noticed was the amount of small fish every where. Despite the early heavy flows the rivers are certainly full of life.

04-12-2013

On Monday this week, 2 BRaid members and I took a walk down the Conway River to see what success the Black-billed Gull colony had had there this year. It took us 21/2hours walk and 30 river crossings to get there (and the same back!) but it was worth it. Without any protection and minimal human interference these birds had done really well.

It is a big colony probably 2000 plus birds and it appeared that each pair had a least 1 chick making 3000 plus birds. Now that is what I call success. Click on the picture and see just how many birds were there and this was only half the colony.

This is what we are trying to achieve on the Waiau, the next time they chose to nest with us.

We also saw plenty of Banded Dotterels, Pied Stilts, South Island Oystercatchers as well as some Black winged Gulls (and 4 chicks), Paradise Ducks and Canadian Geese (there were about 10 geese with 5 nests).

The walk down was high cliffs surrounded by a lot of native bush and coming back we were accompanied by the calls of the Bell birds. The Manuka was in flower and a lot of native plants were showing there best colours. A truly memorable day - not least the aching body when we finally got back and the next day. Painful but so worth it.