Newsletter #106
Image: Ailsa Howard. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the actual cover
Tēnā koutou katoa,
This will be our final newsletter for 2025, so I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your support of BRaid throughout the year. Using the website, including reading these newsletters online supports us by bumping up our profile on search engines. Thank you for your donations, which support our operations. Thank you for your kind words and for contributing stories and research articles. Feedback from students and early-career scientists and researchers tell me that these are very useful. Thank you for attending and presenting at the braided rivers seminar. And mostly, thank you for all the amazing mahi you do in helping to protect and enhance our braided rivers and their unique ecosystems.
You can also support them by purchasing Christmas treats for yourself or others. The Banded Dotterel Study Kaikoura have produced a stunning 2026 wall calendar to raise funds for predator control. And a percentage of the sale of Karikaas’ beautifully boxed, ‘Braided Rivers Bird’ cheeses are donated to the Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group to support trapping and monitoring.
Finally, a reminder that the next Braided Rivers Conference will be held at Lincoln University Wednesday 08 July 2026. We are currently inviting expressions of interest (not abstracts at this stage) to present. The committee will be meeting early next year to shortlist possible speakers. Meanwhile, have a wonderful Christmas.
Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou,
Sonny Whitelaw
manager@braid.org.nz
Bird surveys
News/articles
- 1 News: ‘Exceptionally rare’ pink grasshopper observed near Lake Tekapo
- ECan: Environment Canterbury’s contestable funding for the 2025/26 year is now open to help community groups, rūnanga, and organisations take action for the environment in Waitaha Canterbury. Applications for our three contestable funds are open and close at 11.59pm, Sunday 15 February 2026. More information about each fund is available here.
- BRaid website: new page Purple Willow
- RNZ: Stone cold killer’ feral cats added to Predator Free 2050 strategy
- RNZ: ‘Feral’ The advance of destructive wild cats across New Zealand’s native heartland
- The Conversation: Gold Clam Invasion: (so far Nth Island only) “…these clams are depleting essential minerals like calcium from the water, impairing arsenic removal during treatment and signalling a rapid escalation with broader impacts ahead.”
Research & Reports
- 2025: Coleridge Habitat Enhancement Trust Summary of Activities
- 2025: Row; Observations and dispersal of black-billed gulls (tarāpuka, Chroicocephalus bulleri) banded at North Canterbury, New Zealand, 1958–1974 and 1983 Notornis 72
- 2025: Gunby et al; Factors affecting shorebird hatching outcomes at the Ashley River/Rakahuri-Saltwater Creek estuary, New Zealand Notornis, 72
- 2025: Rayne et al; Expanding the social dimensions of conservation translocations, Trends in Ecology and Evolution 40 | 12
- 2025: Castelvecchi; Has the mysterious ‘compass’ organ of birds been found at last? Nature News (Open access)
- 2025: Graham et al; Climate change drives low dissolved oxygen and increased hypoxia rates in rivers worldwide, Nature Climate Change 15
- 2025: Patil et al; Over 100 global climate sensitive rivers are experiencing large and severe changes in streamflow volume and timing Environmental Research Letters 20
