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From: Wade Doak
Date: 17-04-08
Time: 12:20
TE ARAI TO MANGAWHAI : BIRDS OR TOWNSHIP?
Wade Doak 1741 words
On our way home from Tiritiri Island Jan and I called at Te Arai reserve: the only gap in our coverage of the Northland coast from Leigh north to Cape Reinga. We struck utterly enchanted late autumn weather and were able to make an exciting photo essay of the Te Arai reserve, exploring the promontory from Pakiri to the car park and distant Bream Tail. The lagoon or tiny cove was calm and blue. Like statues two lovers were embracing on the highest rock above it. From the opposite crag a father dived into the cove to impress his delighted kids.
Forty years ago, when we lived at Wellsford, we haunted this area, scuba diving the rocks offshore intensively. In those days it was an ugly area onshore: a quarry operation was demolishing the promontory.
I was thrilled to find such enormous progress: landscaping and public access has transformed a vicious quarry into a coastal treasure. I do hope current efforts to avoid a subdivision there are forestalled. The amount of subdivision around nearby Mangawhai must be a record for anywhere in N.Z.: estate after estate. It suggests super-saturated market to me...
From Te Arai promontory we had views north and south on a perfect day which can not be duplicated any where else on the east coast of Northland: for miles in both directions, no sign of habitation. Such an extent of wilderness in the north is of inestimable value to our country. It is what so many city dwellers seek for their mental health. It is a major national treasure, on the verge of being squandered. And then, there are the endangered sea birds.... Our fairy tern story brings this home.
Fairy Tern Day
Jan Doak
Monday 19th February 2007
As part of our series of Kaipara harbour expeditions Wade and I decided to explore another area: Okahukura peninsula extending from Wellsford out to Tapora and Journeys End. Port Albert was our first stop. We drove down to the jetty and a little bit further on we parked near a boat ramp and grassed area. I noticed through a gap in the small mangrove trees a big flock o f pied stilts. I said to Wade: ‘I’m going to see what I can photograph through here.” Wade went over towards the jetty with his camera, where he got pix of white-fronted terns lined up on the jetty rail.
I was so thrilled to see such a large flock of pied stilts. I had to walk out through thick mud to get closer to them. Using a tripod for steadiness and a twelve times zoom lens I took many shots before they flew off in a large flock- not because I had disturbed them but because the tide was coming in fast and getting too deep for them. I heard a great commotion behind me. Turning I saw a black-back gull harassing two smaller birds. They looked like white-fronted terns from a distance. The mother had just fed its juvenile something long and wriggly and the gull stole the fish off it. They were screaming and protesting very loudly. The terns flew up into the air and the adult swept around and landed in front of me about 12 feet away. As it landed I noticed the forked tail and the bird seemed quite small. It crossed my mind it might be a fairy tern. I got very excited and started to take pix. One minute later the juvenile landed and I got pix of them both together. I took eight shots while the tide rose round my ankles and was edging close to the birds.
When the juvenile arrived I though it looked rather like the white-fronted terns I had photographed on the flats at Pahi. So in my mind I thought these could not be fairy terns because they are so very rare and thought nothing more about it until four days later. Wade and I were sitting in bed going through our New Zealand bird book. I rushed down stairs, turned the computer on and began comparing my shots with the book. I definitely had fairy terns!!! It was Wade’s birthday and he was saying “what a lovely gift.”
Then, looking closer at the computer screen, Wade noticed that these birds had bands on their legs. The adult had two bands on her left leg: one blue and one grey. On her right leg was a single grey band. The juvenile had one band on each leg. Blue on the left and a much wider grey band on the right. We were so thrilled and excited to get such clear pictures of fairy terns from side and rear angles. Wade started to phone round different people to find out the significance of the bands and where they might have been released.. Could the chick have been incubated at Auckland zoo and returned to its mother on South Kaipara Head?
D.O.C. WARKWORTH: Hi Wade - back again. The Northland troops have checked out their data & it has come from Mangawhai .
They are Male pGB-M and chick RK-M banded at Mangawhai on 20/1/2007. (It'’s with Dad, not Mum!)
Thanks very much for the info, & we'd be keen to hear of any other fairy sightings you come across in your travels. Regards, Thelma Wilson
WADE’S REPLY: Thanks so much Thelma. We could not be more surprised. I wonder if male care [ ie feeding chick out of nest stage] is normal? Or is it a result of limited population? Can you suggest who might have the expertise to comment?
Tomorrow we plan to explore areas on Puketotara Peninsula. We are eager to help DOC in any way.
The proposed Te Arai housing development would really screw up a bird zone of global importance. DOC are manning it virtually full time in the fairy tern breeding season. I know you know all this but these stories may be good ammo... Wade
THE STORY OF PEDRO THE FISHERBIRD Jane Vaughan
To Wade and Jan:
I hope you dont mind but I recently received your and Jan’s email regarding the terns you saw at Port Albert in Feb. It came from DOC.
I am part of a group we call About Tern who have formed here at Mangawhai to voluntarily help D.O.C. monitor the fairy terns out on the sand dunes at Mangawhai.
Five chicks were successfully fledged during the last breeding season. I just had to tell you a little bit about that chick and its dad you photographed at Port Albert.
He was named Pedro after one of the D.O.C. rangers. There was only one chick in the nest, which was situated at the south end of the spit just to the north of the largest sand hill not too far from the Te Arai forest. This was the fourth nest to be made on the dunes, if you can call a scrape in the sand a nest!
Our job was to creep up on each nest and lie low and observe that both parents were present. While they were still sitting on the eggs we had to make sure we saw the change over when one bird came in and swapped places on the nest often bringing in a tiny fish to feed its mate. After hatching, we had to see both parents and the chicks. One parent cannot manage on its own. If it flies off for a feed, the eggs cannot be left for more than twenty minutes as they will either cook in the sun or get cold.
Pedro’s egg, appeared on 10 Dec ‘06, and he wasn't hatched on 30/12, but was on 31/12. As chicks they are tiny little balls of white fluff. It doesn't seem long before they start getting mottled yellowy bits on top of the body and a darker head. In a few short weeks they are greyish mottled on the back, darkish head, and white chest. They stay fluffy for a little while. They always have their nest scrape amongst scallop shells; the theory being that is why they get yellow mottled backs when young so that when they freeze in times of danger, it is easier for them to be overlooked. Each bird, we soon discovered, has a personality of its own. Pedro was very cunning. The chicks stay at the nest site for only a day or two, and then go walkabout. Of course, we had helped put a fence round each nest site to let people know there is a nest there, but the chicks stray way beyond it. They are extremely hard to see as they freeze and even through good binoculars or even a telescope, can look like a lump of sand or stone until they move. We sometimes spent two hours hunting for him. Do you realise how lucky you were to see him flying? None of us did. He ran everywhere, very fast indeed. There are many little humps and small dunes down that end of the beach and he hid very well. His parents were very attentive and brought him fish every twenty minutes. He did not have to fly. Why bother when takeaways arrived so frequently. We would find both parents usually, and then hunt for him... I remember crawling on my stomach with two others up and down dunes and through the pingaoa for ages on one occasion. Our supervisor that day, an eighty year old man from Whangarei, said it reminded him of manoeuvres during the last war!!
Pedro was seen and both parents, on 31 January, still running but not flying. His nest was amongst dunes unlike the other nests, which were on flatter areas. Other chicks seemed to fly much sooner. We assumed this was because they had nowhere to hide. They only seem to use the freeze tactic when really small before flying. The two D.O.C. women who, when they banded him, said he did fly briefly.
Nobody observed the trio leave. They just weren't there one day when we went to look for them. We did here cries high up on a very windy day in that area.
On 6 February, my husband and I went out there for me to show him around, as he had never been near the nest sites. We heard a bird call near Pedro's site but nothing was seen.
Last changed: 17-Apr-2008