BRING BACK KOKAKO For more about bringing back Kokako to GBI see our website or give us a call. Productive Pateke at Glenfern No owner in sight - Kaitoke Beach Sanctuary BUSH TELEGRAPH We now have a total of 29 new Pateke at FREE Issue 5: December 2012 Glenfern in less than10 months! Initially we released 6 orphaned ducklings from Karen 7.30pm Friday 11th January, 2013 Bird of the Month Walker, one pair produced 12 fledglings. Tryphena Club Kingfisher (Kotare) another pair has successfully reared another halcyon sancta 11 babies with an additional10 ducklings spotted recently. To eliminate potential conflict, we also recently released an additional two orphans from Karen into the dam at the end of Glenfern Walk, where This is just a gentle reminder to be aware of they have also happily established where your dog is this summer. Dotterels will themselves. Scott has become the ducks ‘sugar be nesting on all the eastern beaches, and daddy’, keeping a watchful eye out for hopefully at Okupu too, from October until breeding pairs, and providing February. There are dog exercise areas supplemental food when a new brood clearly marked on Medlands and Awana arrives. beaches, but dogs are not allowed on Whangapoua beach and most of Kaitoke. We are exceedingly pleased with the near As you are probably aware the So please either stay away or keep your Kingfishers are back. They first started to 100% success rate of the ducklings to dog on a lead. These birds are nationally fledglings, and attribute this to the lack of appear in September around our homes endangered and they need our help. predators in the Sanctuary (and Scott’s and tracks. It is the season of chasing and watchful eye and supplementary feeding). mating displays, before the serious As we want to further support pateke business of mating begins. productivity, we are planning to extend I’m sure you have incurred the wrath of a habitat suitable for supporting nesting kingfisher - hair nearly parted in pateke. Emma Cronin Complementary Champagne 7.30pm - 8.30pm Meals available - extra cost the middle, and a near coronary to boot! Or on passing a nest hole in a bank, or a rotting tree stump, heard a strident Tickets on sale: rasping sound emitted… “what the hell?” On Sealink, and as you give the spot a wide berth the Pigeon Post, Claris, realization dawns. Outpost, Tryphena It’s fascinating to watch a blue streak dive Thank you for Sponsorship Sealink to the ground, retuning with a worm, a beetle, or - heaven forbid - a lizard. I Fundraising event for GBI Trust have even seen them with a mouse, or a waxeye, forcefully beaten to death on the celebrating 10th years promoting perch and swallowed whole. Environmental Notice Board a rat and feral cat free And would you believe that in the 1870’s, Dates to be set for 2013 - Auckland Council Environmental Strategy Planning Committee Great Barrier Island in Hawkes Bay, there was a bounty on Santa Parade - GBI Sports and Social Club, Claris kingfisher beaks? Why? All because they New Years Picnic 2nd January, Medlands may have eaten trout! Please email [email protected] if you would like to join our Bush Telegraph mailing list Page 4 Black Petrel Action Group Emmy Pratt Address: P.O.BOX 105, Claris, Gt. Barrier Island Phone: 094290940 Email: [email protected] Websites: www.gbict.co.nz & www.greatbarriercharitabletrust.co.nz Page 4 Page 1 Something to think about when Bird checklist for Great Barrier Shags… Clematis - Clematis paniculata out in the boat next time ... Island… Mike Bell of Wildlife Management International Ltd. (www.wmil.co.nz) has asked me to The Trust has completed the first checklist of the cooperate in a survey of shags on Great Barrier bird species recorded on Great Barrier since this summer. Although some may think “The 1868. common cormorant or shag, lays its eggs in a GREAT BARRIER ISLAND The list comprises BIRD CHECKLIST paper bag” I’m sure you know differently – they 124 species, ten of build messy nests usually in pohutakawa trees. which are now extinct on the Island, This summer I want to count them. I’d like to get and one extinct NZ Kingfisher - Kotare NZ Pigeon - Kereru a few people involved in this, so if you know the nationally. There is location of shag colonies please get in touch coded information with me. Some ‘historic’ colonies on remote sea Clematis paniculata is a climbing vine in on rarity, status (e.g. stacks or islets will also need visiting so if anyone can help with a boat, a day fishing and the buttercup family, with masses of snowy endemic, migrant NZ Pipit - Pihoihoi Fern Bird - Matata white flowers announcing the arrival of Please go carefully near dolphins or whales. etc.), habitat and shag counting can be easily combined! spring on the Barrier. It is one of seven This dolphin was sighted around Great current threat Otherwise I’ve only got my kayak, which keeps Barrier Island recently with horrendous category. me fit but is inefficient for the job. native species of Clematis, but there are Brown Teal Pateke wounds. This is a clear reminder to all of us about 250 different species throughout the ENJOY YOUR BIRD WATCHING Please let us know if you have more interesting On the back is a information or records email: [email protected] If you’re interested please contact me on world. After flowering the seeds develop who have boats with motors to be SEE MORE GBI BIRDS AT WWW.GBICT.CO.NZ careful- this includes small dinghies map showing some 09 4290980 or [email protected] long hairy extensions, well known in ‘Old Kaka or larger motor boats. key areas for bird and I’ll explain further. John Ogden, Awana Man’s Beard’, which is a serious environ- watching. mental weed in New Zealand, climbing Bottlenose dolphins... It is hoped this free pamphlet will be of interest over and smothering the forest canopy. to visitors and residents, many of whom have Fortunately this plant isn’t present on Great Recent research by Massey University PhD an interest in birds. Barrier Island. The ‘beard’ is a hairy grey student Sarah Dwyer is highlighting the (Pick a brochure up from the Visitor Centre, mass of feathery seeds. Puawhananga importance of Great Barrier Island waters for Claris) plants are either male – which has really the North Island bottlenose dolphin population. We welcome your feedback and any showy flowers – or female, which has Data collection off the west coast began in unusual bird observations. shorter less conspicuous petals, but carries January 2011 to investigate whale and the bearded seeds in the summer. Maori dolphin distribution. The project also involves associate the plant with mourning and will photo-identification work of bottlenose dolphins not pick the flowers. The vines were once to assess site and movement patterns. As a NEW ZEALAND ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY used to bind together ancestral bones result of the nicks, notches and scarring on their “ECOLOGY IN ACTION” AWARD before they were finally laid to rest. dorsal fins, unique individuals can be identified, John Ogden assigned a catalogue code and subsequently This has been awarded to GBI Trust monitored over time with on-going photo chairperson John Ogden and recognises Did you know? identification work. After processing 10,000 individuals who are achieving excellence and Kereru (Native Pigeon) live images the sightings database now holds best practice in the promotion of ecology, up to 10 years information for approximately 150 dolphins including communication, education and transfer Both parents incubate eggs sighted between Miner’s Head and Tryphena of ecological science at the grass roots. The over a 22 month period. award includes a $500 contribution towards for 28 days and chicks spend 2 weeks with parents This database proved extremely valuable attending the next NZ Ecological Society recently for two particular event involving Conference at which John will present a paper before being independent dolphins needing help - the one above in the stressing the ecological significance of Great Kereru are the only remain- photograph and the dolphin stranded on Barrier to the Biodiversity of the Auckland ing large seed disperser in Whangapoua Beach in September. region. Find Great Barrier Island Charitable Trust NZ therefore important for on Facebook Dolphin Researcher Sarah Dwyer forest regeneration. Page 2 Page 3 .