Newsletter #74 including bird survey dates
Top image: Grant Davey, Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group.
Tēnā koutou,
Thanks to everyone who attended the Annual General Meeting and General Meeting, 16 September. Links to the relevant documents are below. You can also find these and all other documents in the Member’s area of the website (no password needed):
- Annual General Meeting: 16 September
- Rule Change (carried) 16 September
- General Meeting: 16 September
- Chair Report: 16 September
- Manager’s Report: 16 September
Many thanks to Greg Stanley from ECan’s Braided River Revival project, for a comprehensive presentation on how different elements within ECan form part of the overarching Braided River Revival project. The project’s aim is Whakahaumanu i nga Awa Patiki, to restore the mauri of the river. Like all large scale projects, it’s taken time to reach the implementation phase, one that is now underway.
Unfortunately, as the above image sadly testifies, we still have considerable work to do to get the message through to some people. The day after the AGM, a flock of 24 wrybill were feeding along Waikuku Beach when a dog gave chase. This animation from photos taken by Grant Davey shows the entire sequence:
The Waimakariri District Council’s Northern Pegasus Bay Bylaw (2016) (NPBB) regulates beach recreational activities from Kairaki to Ashworth’s (WDC northern boundary) and includes the estuary. This bylaw is enforced by the Environment Canterbury parks rangers. Tuhaitara Coastal Trust also provides ranger services focused on Kairaki/Pines Beach. While the NPBB prohibits dogs from the estuary, dogs are not restricted from being walked along the beach off lead. And let’s face it, even the best trained dog is going to find it hard to resist chasing birds.
This bylaw is now being reviewed and there will be a public consultation process. Once I know they date and link to where you can submit, I’ll send it out in a newsletter. Please take moment to submit, with a reminder that killing or disturbing (and that should include dogs chasing, even if they don’t capture and kill) endemic birds are protected under the Wildlife Act.
In the spotlight:
If you’re out and about in Christchurch over the next few weeks, keep an eye out for the billboard pictured below. Karikaas cheese is running a series of advertisements promoting their award-winning and very yummy cheeses, and they generously offered BRaid this advertisement as well, at no cost. I will be adding a link to the home page of the website this Sunday, that answers the question. Click on the image below to see where the link will take visitors.
And do try Karikaas cheese. It’s seriously incredibly good.
Bird surveys
Experienced volunteers needed. Please contact Jean.Jack@ecan.govt.nz unless otherwise stated below.
- Ashburton Hakatere: Saturday 29th October, leaving Tuam Street or ChCh c.7am.
- Waiau-Uwhai: Tuesday November 1 – Friday 04 (back-up dates Nov 15 _ 18).
- Opihi: Tuesday November 8 (back-up date Nov. 22nd).
- Ashley Rakahuri: Saturday November 19, 8.30am at the Cones Road carpark. Contact birdiebev@xtra.co.nz
News
- NZ on the cusp of a rivers revolution? – David Williams/ Newsroom
- Waimakariri River – a story of native revegetation – City Care report and short video
- The bizarre bird that’s breaking the tree of life: Darwin thought that family trees could explain evolution. The hoatzin suggests otherwise. – The New Yorker
- De-extinction: scientists are planning the multimillion-dollar resurrection of the Tasmanian tiger – The Guardian (if successful, this opens up implications for other recently extinct species)
- Here’s How Some Species Will Survive Climate Change – Scientific American (this raises the question about poaka and kakī – should we be preventing or encouraging hybridisation?)
- Plant-based hot foam kills weeds as effectively as chemical spray – New Scientist
- Artificial intelligence spots pests in trail cams, and tracks indigenous plants from orbit – Scimex (link to the TAIAO research paper below)
- Rejoice: Californian Supreme Court Confirms That Bumblebees Are Fish – IFLScience (If a mammal (bat) can be a bird, it makes complete sense that a bee can be a fish. Hmmm, what might this mean for the next Bird of the Year competition here in Aotearoa?)
Reports and research
- Showcasing the TAIAO project: providing resources for machine learning from images of New Zealand’s natural environment – Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
- Threats to Seabirds of Northern Aotearoa – Edin Whitehead. Many of our braided river bird species migrate from rivers to coastal areas over winter. We know many wrybill spend winters under the watchful eye of Miranda Shorebird Trust. But what threatens them elsewhere? And what about other bird species? Why do many fail to return in the spring? This report features Aotearoa’s northern seabirds, but the research (and outcomes) have implications for our braided river birds.
- Science for Policy: The Role of Science in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management – EDS / Deidre Koolen-Bourke and Raewyn Peart
- Multiple lines of research and reports were presented at the Braided River Seminar in July this year, so please take a look if you are looking for the latest.
- This website also has a ‘search‘ function. Using this is generally much faster than emailing me as I may take a few days to answer…after I use the ‘search’ function :).
