Newsletter #66
Top Image: Entrance to Abberley Park
Tēnā koutou,
Hopefully, our next meetings will go ahead as planned, Friday 26 November at:
Abberley Park Hall, 15 Abberley Crescent, St Albans, Christchurch 8014
- Minutes from last Annual General Meeting: 09 October 2020
- Minutes from the last General Meeting: April 16
- Agenda: Annual General Meeting 26 November 2021
- Agenda: General Meeting 26 November 2021
- Annual audited account for 2020 – 2021
- The current Financial Report will be available in the day
Please note, aside from the Financial Report, which will be available on the day, we will not be providing printed copies of the the agendas and minutes.
All paid members are entitled to nominate office bearers (including themselves) and to vote at these elections. Funding for the 6-year Partnership Programme has now ended, ‘so a where to from here’ will be a topic for discussion.
Ngā mihi,
Sonny Whitelaw manager@braid.org.nz
Bird surveys:
Once those of your who are compiling information on your bird surveys have completed them, could you please send me a copy so that I can add them to the website under each of the ‘rivers’ pages?
If there are any late surveys or postponements that I have not already added to the Facebook Events calendar, please do let me know so I can keep this updated. An average of 80 people review each of these Events pages, so we know they’re an important communications’ tool.
Coming Events:
The weekend following the meeting, November 27-28, is annual collaborative effort between multiple trusts and Conservation Volunteers to help remove Russell lupins from the upper reaches of the Waimakariri River. For more information and to book, go to the Conservation Volunteers website.
To find out more about travelling from Christchurch and for accommodation, contact Kat Miller at info@chchenvirohub.org.
News:
- On that note, you have to wonder… Blooming pest pops up on Tourism New Zealand website despite efforts to halt promotional pics of Russell lupin – Stuff.
- Congratulations to this year’s Bird of the Year winner: the pekapeka or long-tailed bat! Why are we so happy to see it win? Well, pekapeka are also braided river species; you can find out all about them here (this website).
- Congratulations also to one of our members, Aspiring Biodiversity Trust, one of the finalists for this year’s Cawthron Institute’s ‘River Stories’ River Awards (awards will be presented 25 November).
- Piracy on the high seas! This impressive photo clearly shows a juvenile black-billed gull trying to force a juvenile white-fronted tern to regurgitate its catch. “The gull was harassing the tern for quite a while and the latter out-manoeuvred it many times. But the gull finally managed to grab the tern by the neck. The tern took a rest on a rock after the attack, appears unharmed as it resumed its hunt later. Not a common gull behaviour, the “high sea pirates” are mostly juvenile gulls, they start life delinquently.”
- Waimakariri River nesting: black-billed gulls, black fronted terns and wrybill are nesting throughout a large area of the shingle near Woodstock Road. “This looks to be one of the most significant breeding spots in the whole lower Waimakariri River. See here showing the location of the terns and gulls. If you are in the area, please stick to the more northern end of the site, and you shouldn’t cause the birds too much stress. ECan have put signage out roughly where the tern colony starts and have asked that people please don’t go past this point. And please, PLEASE keep dogs under control.” – ECan.
- Volunteering opportunity. DOC is running a project on the Ashley Rakahuri River over summer, led by Dunedin-based Science Advisor for Threatened Species Tara Murray. It will run for 5 nights once a month. The Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group needs two to three volunteers each month. Details of the project are here. If you would like to help out, please contact Judith Hughey.
- Te Papa Atawhai Department of Conservation and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) are looking for feedback on innovation in the way they use information and on emerging technology which might help biodiversity thrive. This consultation helps them construct a Long-term Insights Briefing. Submissions close Sunday 14 November 2021.
- Te Manahunu Aoraki: Multimillion dollar investment to help restore South Island braided river valleys, alpine and pastoral lands – Stuff.
- The Cacaphony Project; Kiwi ingenuity developing world-leading predator eradication technology – PredatorFree2050.
- Pohowera/banded dotterel will benefit from trapping in the coastal forest opposite Ocean Ridge. Teaming up on pests in Kaikōura – ECan (Unfortunately this won’t target domestic cats).
- Pests, dogs and 4WDs threaten endangered nesting birds in Southland – Stuff.
- The black stilt/kakī breeding season is underway at Isaac Conservation Trust. Four eggs were collected a week or so ago and put in an incubator to be transported to the Department of Conservation kakī breeding facility in Twizel for hatching – see more here.
- ‘This is how it ends’ . If you haven’t already, check out this 7-part (so far) video documentary series from Stuff.
- Water quality: Experts question Fonterra funded nitrates study – New Zealand Geographic/ Radio NZ. While the focus is in human health, nitrates in our waterways result in toxic algae blooms. This de-oxygenates the water, killing macro-invertebrates and small fish that braided river birds need to feed themselves and their chicks. The situation in waterways is worse in summer, which is when the birds nest.
- Water reform: Collective action will help fix water woes, say environmentalists – Radio NZ interview with Forest & Bird’s Canterbury regional manager Nicky Snoyink.
- ECan exposed: regulator hides damning report – Newsroom.
Research:
- Increasing flood resilience across Aotearoa – NIWA five-year research programme to develop a nation-wide system to map flood hazards over the next 100 years due to changes in rainfall and sea level from climate and land-use changes.
- (Over 60% of people in New Zealand live in floodplains. This Global Flood mapping tool is very useful to look for historic floods and ground conditions around New Zealand. (And unlike me, I recommend reading ALL of the instructions before trying to use it…)
- Birds beaks and legs are getting larger; Shape-shifting: changing animal morphologies as a response to climatic warming Ryding et al; Trends in Ecology and Evolution Vol. 36 | 11 pp1036-1048 (if you can’t access the research paper, there’s a good Radio NZ podcast in the NZ Geographic website).
- Advancing Shorebird Conservation with Data-driven Tools – eBird.
- Sea surface temperature, rather than land mass or geographic distance, may drive genetic differentiation in a species complex of highly dispersive seabirds -Torres et al; Ecology and Evolution (open access, no institutional password required).
- If you are interested in the concept of planetary boundaries and tipping points, and the essential role of biodiversity in providing life supporting ecosystem services, Sir David Attenborough has teamed up with Prof. Johan Rockström, in what Sir David describes as “…the most important scientific discoveries of our time.” This 10-minute version covers the key points in the 75-minute documentary available on Netflix. ‘Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet’. The most compelling part is how far we have stepped into the danger zone due to biodiversity loss.
“Breaking Boundaries tells the story of the most important scientific discovery of our time – that humanity has pushed Earth beyond the boundaries that have kept Earth stable for 10,000 years, since the dawn of civilization. The film takes the audience on a journey of discovery of planetary thresholds we must not exceed. It offers up the solutions we can and must put in place now if we are to protect Earth’s life support systems.”
See the website: Breaking Boundaries – Count Us In for more information
