Pukorokoro Miranda News Journal of the Pukorokoro Miranda Naturalists’ Trust November 2014 Issue 94 Plight of the curlew Why a visit from our biggest shorebird is now a rare event A plan to save the Red Knots Homeless Caspian Terns cuddle up to hand-made decoys Pukorokoro Miranda News | Issue 94 1 Miranda Snippets A fresh face at the hides this summer There will be a new Shorebird Guide welcoming visitors to the hides this summer. Kristelle Wi, who has done the job superbly for the past four years, has decided it is time to move on, though she will still run the pest control pro- gramme along the coastal strip. With ASB Community Trust having once again agreed to provide a grant of $17,500 to cover the wages of a guide, PMNT has appointed Charmaine Stan- ley, a graduate of the 2011 Miranda Field Course. Charmaine, who says ‘I’ve always been crazy about nature ever since I was a child’, comes originally from Wellington. She moved to the area to work as a nurse at Thames Hos- pital ‘and the shorebirds immediately caught my attention’. Then, when her mother was up from Wellington for a visit, ‘I was taking her on a tour when I just hap- pened to spot a flier advertising the field course and I was instantly beside myself with excitement to participate.’ NETTED: Charmaine Stanley on a cannon-netting trip near Darwin. When she did the course it crys- talised a growing dissatisfaction with nursing and the desire to take need to survive has only grown. pest control work. This will be used to a different direction. ‘I left my job as ‘I will be returning to Massey buy new traps and pay for baits. a registered nurse, moved down to University next year to complete my Chisholm Whitney Family Charita- Palmerston North, and started my BSc honours year. What happens after that, ble Trust has given $9000 for upgrad- in ecology and zoology. well, I’ll just have to wait and see.’ ing computer gear and creating mobile ‘What a roller coaster ride it has Charmaine said she was looking display panels. been! Returning to study as a mature forward eagerly to starting work as the Ron Greenwood Environmental student is an eye opener, and hard Shorebird Guide in early November. Trust has donated $1100 to assist with work, but definitely a rewarding ex- ‘I hope to meet many of you over the the much-needed replacement of mist perience. summer out at the hide.’ nets and other banding equipment. ‘Over the last three-and-a-half Grants Bequests years I’ve worked hard to be involved As well as that grant from the ASB The Trust has also benefitted from in as many cannon netting and mist Community Trust, PMNT continues to generous bequests from longstanding netting expeditions as I can, fitted in benefit greatly from support provided members. Nanette McLauchlan, who around my busy study schedule. My by a range of organisations. served on the council from 1998 to passion for all of New Zealand’s birds Waikato Regional Council has re- 2007 left $15,000 in her will. Kay and preserving the environment they cently made a $1700 grant towards the Haslett, who was secretary from 1988 to 1995, has left about $10,000. Eila What’s on at the Shorebird Centre Lawton has also left the Trust $10,000 If you’d like to consider doing 21-23 November, Wader Identification Workshop something similar a copy of the trust’s Tutors Keith Woodley and Gillian Vaughan. legacy letter is available from the 17-23 January 2015 The Miranda Field Course Shorebird Centre. Now in its sixteenth year the Miranda Field Course is perfect for any E7 still going strong naturalist. This course is so pupolar that it is already full but you can go Yet another sighting has been made of on a waiting list. the remarkable E7. The record break- Front cover: Eastern Curlew Watercolour / Keith Woodley 2 Pukorokoro Miranda News | Issue 94 ing Bar-tailed Godwit was spotted in Manager Keith Woodley says ering all that, the fact that she made mid-September by Tim Barnard still employing Robyn is a first step in a it at all is cause for celebration. That hanging out in her Maketu Estuary re- long-term plan to revitalise the Trust’s she’s hatched a chick represents real tirement home and looking reasonably links with schools. ‘Preparation of new hope for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.’ well considering her age. education resources for junior schools Chenier Plain is the first step, but we also want to Scientists at the University of Auck- include secondary schools as well. Our land are carrying out research into the wider long term vision is to develop an development of the shell banks which education outreach programme where make up the internationally significant we can take our message to schools chenier plain at Pukorokoro Miranda. as well as facilitating class visits to Dr Murray Ford, a coastal geo- Pukorokoro Miranda.’ morphologist, says their work involves K2K Cycleway attaching tiny electronic tags, similar The Trust has given its approval to a to the identification tags planted in revised route for the Kopu to Kaiaua dogs, to shells which are then released (K2K) branch of the Hauraki Cycle on to the mudflats and beaches. ‘We Trail which it is satisfied will avoid sen- return 4-6 times a year with a met- sitive bird areas but DOC still has con- al-detector-like instrument which helps cerns about the impact on the chenier us locate tagged shells and reads the plain. The Trust’s approval is also sub- unique ID number. Real needle in the ject to an undertaking from Hauraki haystack work, but the results have An unexpected guest at the latest District Council that construction will been encouraging so far.’ PMNT Council meeting was Digi Dot- not be carried out during times when The project allows the team to terel, a very large NZ Dotterel, who birds might be adversely affected. The track the movement of shells across like many of her feathered bretheren council has given assurances that dog the mudflats and the breakdown of was looking for a safe home. Digi was control along the route will be policed shells as they are chipped, cracked and made by Council member Ann Buck- more rigorously. fragmented. master (above) as mascot for a DOC digital media programme. But when the programme was cancelled poor Digi had nowhere to go. Digi lounged around the Shore- Arctic Migrants bird Centre and, naturally, attended Bar-tailed Godwit 3500+ the annual Dotterel Management Great Knot 2 Course where she met up with Joanna Red Knot 1000+ McVeagh from the Wairarapa. These Ruddy Turnstone 4 days the cuddly bird - now renamed Sharp-tailed Sandpiper 6 Delta Dotterel - is a key member of Marsh Sandpiper 1 the Riversdale Beach Dotterel De- This little fellow is the first ever Spoon- fence Group taking her environmental Red-necked Stint 3 billed Sandpiper chick to be hatched in message to beach displays and school Pacific Golden Plover 6 the wild by a hand-reared bird. groups. Curlew Sandpiper 5 Spoon-billed sandpipers are crit- Eastern Curlew 1 Environmental education ically endangered and the news con- Black-tailed Godwit PMNT has contracted experienced firms to conservationists that the birds environmental educator Robyn Irving they hand-rear can go on to breed to scope out what would be involved naturally once released. New Zealand Species in producing an updated range of ed- Two years ago, aviculturist Roland Wrybill 200+ ucation materials. Digby hatched this chick’s mother in NZ Dotterel Until recently the Shorebird Centre northeast Russia and fed and protected received regular visits from school her for her first three weeks, before Banded Dotterel 50 groups learning about conservation. releasing her to migrate 8000km to SI Pied Oystercatcher 500+ But in the last few years they have southern Asia alongside wild birds. White-fronted Tern declined markedly due to curriculum Until now it wasn’t known whether Black-billed Gull changes, cost of transport, health and hand-reared birds would return to Pied Stilt safety requirements and problems get- breed themselves. Royal Spoonbill 30 ting sufficient adult supervisors. Roland says the arrival of the chick White Heron 2 The existing educational kit, pre- made him ‘incredibly proud of this Cattle Egret 23 pared in 1999 in conjunction with the little bird, who has flown half-way Department of Conservation, has been round the world on just her instincts, Bittern well-used by schools but now needs managing to find the few safe refuges updating and expanding. and dodge illegal trappers. Consid- Pukorokoro Miranda News | Issue 94 3 Birding stars line up to celebrate Trust’s 40th birthday party An impressive programme of events is being organised to mark the founding of the Trust in 1975, including celebrity speakers, a members lunch and competitions for children and photographers. Focal point of next year’s 40th birth- search Scientist and Wadden Sea team All Birds Barcoding Initiative steering day party for the Pukorokoro Miranda leader at Royal Netherlands Institute committee, which aims to identify all Naturalists’ Trust will be a lecture se- for Sea Research. Earlier this year he the 10,000-plus species of birds in the ries, in conjunction with the Auckland was awarded the Spinoza Prize, the world with unique DNA sequences Museum, aimed at raising the profile highest honour in Dutch science, by from the COI gene, a member of the of shorebirds.