My Account
Volunteering at Shakespear Open Sanctuary always goes quiet over the summer break, but the throng of visitors escaping the heat more than made up for it. Some days, Te Haruhi bay looked as busy as a beach in the South of France.
The birdlife has been busy too. It was initially expected that some bird species would simply fly across from Tiritiri Matangi and establish a new population. However, although the distance is only 3km, it seems that forest birds are not keen on leaving the forest and visitors have been fewer than expected. But now a pair of kakariki (our native green parrot) has finally had chicks at Shakespear – not the first, but the first for quite a while. It is also probable that we have a Little Spotted kiwi chick or two (HM February 1), although we won’t know for sure until someone spots a kiwi without leg-bands, as all the introduced kiwi wear these. All we know for certain is that a few pairs showed egg-sitting behaviour for the required time. If you’d like to hear a kiwi, their calls have been lately been reported around dusk along the Waterfall Gully track.
Anyone boating or living near the sea will have noticed large rafts of seabirds on the water lately. These are petrels and shearwaters, which breed almost exclusively on islands. Land-based sanctuaries have been trying to re-establish them on the mainland and Shakespear has had artificial burrows and sound systems in place for a couple of years. This season brought the first grey-faced petrel chick to hatch successfully from our artificial burrows (HM August 16, 2017) and it lately it has been getting ready to leave by emerging to stretch its wings. These birds bond strongly to their birthplace so it will be back.
The news on dotterels is also good but not nearly as good as it might have been. Any observant visitor to Te Haruhi beach will have seen these endangered beauties hurrying about on the sand. This year they managed to lay 25 eggs on the beach or in the sand-dunes but of these only half hatched out, the others falling prey to high tides or predators (sadly, including humans). Of the 12 chicks, only six made it to fledgling stage (ready to fly), so what started out as a bumper year steadily became disappointing instead.
It is always going to be a challenge for tiny birds to raise chicks on a popular beach, but you can help them. We know that some nests were destroyed through carelessness and some deliberately by little boys with sticks. Some kids just like chasing them around on the beach. Beaches are for sharing, so if you see bad or thoughtless behaviour, please speak up or report the miscreants to a ranger.
Visitors to the Open Sanctuary will have noticed that contractors across the road from Army Bay have been busy too. They are preparing to drill a new outfall to take Hibiscus Coast wastewater out to sea and have set up a temporary site on Regional Park land. They have worked closely with Sanctuary managers to protect any wildlife potentially affected, including penguins, reptiles and kiwi. Work will finish mid-2019, after which this worksite will either be restored or used to upgrade the parking for Army Bay visitors.
