Bitterns to the Fore Operation Duck Pond Teal Boxes
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DUCKS UNLIMITED NEW ZEALAND INC. For Wetlands and Waterfowl Flight ISSUE 158 - JANUARY 2014 Bitterns to the fore Operation duck pond Teal boxes - build your own From the President Contents The last few months since my appointment at the AGM in Napier, has gone quickly. Looking back we are making good January 2014 Issue 158 progress on a number of fronts. Science in the swamp 3 The 1200 metre low bund was constructed at Wairio to capture and hold extra water 75 years of conservation 3 and it is performing exactly as it was designed. When I was on site there in Bittern are booming 4 October it was holding about 25 hectares of water with a maximum depth of 1.2 Reward for bulbul 4 metres. Local DU members and volunteers had commenced planting along the bunds Watch our predators 5 to provide cover for wildlife and protect the bund from wave lap erosion. Excellent An eye for the birds 5 habitat for a wide range of wetland birds Operation duck pond 6 including bittern, pied stilts, dabchick and waterfowl. Jim Law, Ross Cottle and team Banrock Station boost 7 are now looking at replicating this for the block immediately to the south. This “think big” approach is certainly paying off. Patake doing well 7 I am also the DU nominee on the NZ Game Bird Habitat Trust which distributes about $100,000 each year to worthwhile wetland projects and Picture Gallery 8 & 9 $2 from each waterfowl hunter’s licence goes into a national fund for this DU Canada celebrate 10 purpose. The Trust members met in November in Blenheim to inspect the Nelson – Teal boxes by design 11, 12, & 13 Malborough Fish and Game Para Wetland project located alongside SH1 between Picton and Blenheim. This large project has the same challenges as Australian invaders 14 many wetlands: declining water levels and invading willows. There is a long term restoration plan in place currently being funded by the Trust at about Letter to Editor 14 $18,000 per year. The sight of large dead crack willows as you drive past looks like a grave yard but they are starting to win the battle. Native fish and Shorts 14 wetland birds, including waterfowl are the beneficiaries. For sale 15 On behalf of the Board, I hope you all had a very merry Xmas and will have a prosperous New Year. The AGM will be in the Wairarapa this year and planning is well underway to make this a success. Look forward to seeing you there. John Cheyne Board of Directors Patron Jim Campbell President: Flight published by: Ducks Unlimited New Zealand Inc. John Cheyne Waipukurau 06 858 9506 P O Box 281, Levin 5540, New Zeland. ISSN 1173-2776 www.ducks.org.nz Chairman: Advertising in flight per issue (ex GST). Ross Cottle Masterton 06 3787 408 Full colour back cover $400, Full colour inside 350. Full colour half page inside $200, Black and white full page $300. Treasurer: Black and white half page $180, black and white ¼ page $90. John Bishop Cambridge 07 823 7070 All to be camera ready. Discounts for long-term adverts. Waterfowl adverts free to members. Directors: Contact the Editor to book space or check discounts. William Abel Levin 06 362 6675 Contributions to Flight from members or other readers are welcome. Neil Candy Woodville 06 376 4448 Deadline for copy for Flight 159 March 7, 2014. John Dermer Feilding 06 238 9740 Jim Law Wairarapa 06 307 7855 Editing and Production: Liz Brook, Brightnook Farm, RD9, Feilding 4779. Dan Steele Whakahoro 07 895 6276 Email: [email protected] Tel: 06 328 9836. Cover photo: A bittern raises out of the Oioi reed Printing: Lamb-Peters Print, beds at the Mouth of the Avon River. 106A Main Street, Photo:Peter Lackland. Greytown. Science in the Swamp - WETmak now live WETmak is a free online Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Kit visit. Pick up a copy at your local DOC info centre or visit the DOC aimed at groups working on wetland restoration projects in New website to view them online. Zealand. It includes a range of monitoring techniques and methods of A feature wetland is Nukuhous Saltmash, Burke Road, Ohiwa Harbour, assessing the impact of restoration work, all designed to minimise the Bay of Plenty. need for expensive or complicated equipment. Nukuhou Saltmarsh covers about 60 hectares where the Nukuhou The kit is available in different formats to suit user needs. You can stream enters the Ohiwa Harbour. In 2003 the Nukuhou Saltmarsh Care download the entire resource or focus on specific modules. Blank Group was formed and with the help of the DoC and Environment Bay datasheets and report templates can be printed off or downloaded to fill of Plenty, began a significant restoration and interpretation project. in electronically. Extensive plantings, weed and pest control, an overlook, interpretation Download WETmak, print out a few datasheets, pull on your gumboots panels, pottery bird plaques, a short boardwalk and a contemplation and head out with friends to get measuring. Increasing understanding bench have made this a pleasant place to enjoy the wetland and listen of your restoration work will bring huge rewards and provide useful quietly for fernbird calls (a high pitched single note). Pest control has information for future planning. boosted fernbird numbers, as well as banded rail, Australasian bittern There are 40 Wetlands to visit. DoC in association with the National and waders. Wetland Trust has produced a booklet about the 40 wetlands you can 75 Years of Conservation Excellence Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) pats its own back – and so they should. Together, they have conserved 6.4 million acres (approx 2589988ha) It has been 75 years in the making, but they say wetland and waterfowl and completed nearly 9,400 habitat conservation projects. Building on conservation has only just begun. the strong foundation developed by the founders back in 1938, DUC is continuing their rich tradition of wetland conservation and writing a DUC celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2013. That’s three-quarters of new chapter for waterfowl, wildlife and all Canadians. a century of work conserving critical wetlands including marshes and ponds. Read more about the DUC celebrations on page 10. wetland care N E W Z E A L A N D Our business is to harness community, business and government resources to restore Restoration: Work underway last year at Wairio wetland Wairarapa. Photo: Ross Cottle and develop lost wetland areas within New Zealand. Waterfowl and Wetlands Trust established by Manawatu Estuary Trust, Foxton Wetland Care members recognise that Ducks Unlimited New Zealand Inc in 1991, Mangaone Wetland, Raetihi wetlands are vital to the wellbeing of the as well as from membership, donations and environment, acting as huge ecological Masterton Intermediate School corporate memberships. sponges by soaking up pollutants and filtering Steyning Trust, Hawke’s Bay water before it reaches streams, rivers, lakes, Central to Wetland Care New Zealand’s Travis Wetland Trust, Christchurch aquifers and the sea. mission is forming partnerships with people Wairo Wetland, South Wairarapa and organisations with similar aims. Money Our initiatives focus on matters as far-reaching Wetland Trust New Zealand, Rangiriri from our partnership with Banrock Station as groundwater replenishment, flood control, Waitakere Branch Forest and Bird Wines has been given to wetland conservation nutrient and contaminant management and projects done by, among others: Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, Dunedin climate change – all critical factors for the Cape kidnappers pateke release, 2008 conservation of freshwater and saltwater Tutukaka Landcare Coalition and 2009 wetlands and marshes. Tawharanui Open Sanctuary Society Inc. Fiordland pateke release, 2009. We want to preserve and conserve the flora Ducks Unlimited Operation Pateke and fauna of our most endangered ecosystem Port Charles release 2005 at Coromandel For further information, please contact: so that vibrant wetlands are our legacy to Henley Trust, Masterton William Abel - Director, Wetland Care future generations. Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, Wellington New Zealand, phone 06-362 6675 Funding for projects comes from the Kitchener Park, Feilding PO Box 281 Levin. 3 The Bitterns are a Booming Bitterns are an iconic wetland bird which is of action on. This requires regular early starts becoming increasingly rare through wetland and late finishes for the bittern counters. loss and predation by mammalian predators. During the survey 20 male bittern were They are the apex avian predator in many recorded booming and their territories plotted wetlands and their presence gives an indication on a map. Seventeen of the booming birds of overall wetland condition and health. were calling from patches of raupo and the I was fortunate that Greater Wellington other three from scattered wet patches of oioi Regional Council engaged me last year (jointed rush), closer to the eastern lake edge. through my small wetland consultancy The main concentrations were around five key WetlandWorks to carry out wetland bird sites: Boggy/Mathews/Wairio, Ponui Lagoon, surveys on a number of wetlands on the Barrage Gates, south Donald/Mangatete eastern side of Lake Wairarapa. This included Stream and Bartons/Tauherenikau River Boggy Pond, Mathews Lagoon, Wairio mouth. wetland, JK Donald Block and Bartons Lagoon. Each trip was 8-10 days duration and While bittern are polygamous and males can Elusive: A master of disguise – the Bittern attract more than one female to their territory, we based ourselves at Kilmore Lodge, a great Photo: Dougal MacKenzie. home away from home owned by Wellington some males are unsuccessful at attracting any. Fish and Game. One of my recommendations Other studies indicate the sex ratio is about 1:1 This was followed by a get together of local to the Council was the need to carry out a so the total population for Wairarapa Moana people and landowners interested in bittern bittern survey of all wetlands around the lake and associated wetlands is around 40 birds.