Kiwi prints and a new reflective sign are exhibited at the Newday café Parua Bay Shopping centre through to January the 5th
Kiwi prints and the Free Range Kiwi reflective sign can also be viewed purchased at Burning Issues Gallery, 8 quay side, Town Basin Whangarei: http://www.burningissuesgallery.co.nz/
Or online http://www.heatherhunt.co.nz/shop
Meet Local Luminary – The Free Range Kiwi
Trap catches for April: 1 stoat, 2 weasels, 2 cats, 55 rats, 16 Hedge Hogs,
6 possums
I have been changing over from salted rabbit lure to eggs as the traps checks get moved out to 6 weekly for the winter.
BHCT kiwi release (funded by Kiwis for Kiwi).
As mentioned in my last report we had a very successful release of “Christchurch” and “Gail” on the evening of May 6 at Ocean Beach.
Kiwi Call Count:
Thank you to all those folks that have been sitting out in the cold to listen for and record the number of kiwi calls. We have 22 sites through out the Heads – it is a lot harder to do the four x 2 hour listening stints than it sounds. Results to date have been variable – it is still very dry for this time of year and some breeding kiwi may need a good drop of rain to trigger them into breeding activity. I will collate the results as they come in and hopefully have a summary for you next month.
Radio Tracked Kiwi
What your radio tracked Backyard Kiwi have been up to:
Darwin – He went for a wander but is back at the Lamb road quarry, his activity is high – 12.5 hours per night.
Whitu – In the pampas at Reotahi. I caught up with him for his 6 monthly band change – he was a very healthy 2390g and has an activity of
11.5 hours per night,
Dallas – His activity has dropped slightly and he has taken up residence in a pampas bush near the sewage pumping station beside the road in Taurikura that he has used as a nest in the past – he may be our first dad to nest for the new season.
Lambert – Usual area Taurikura Ridge, he is still proving very hard to locate in the dense pampas there.
Waka – High activity of 11.5 hours a night at McKenzie Bay.
Lucky – Caught up with this young guy in the bush above Mckenzie Bay for his 6 monthly check. He has grown since he was first found last December showing that he must be a young bird (kiwi take a few years to reach full size). His weight has gone from 1900g to 2010g and his bill has increased in length from 95mm long to 99.3mm.
JR – On the South Taurikura Ridge on the slip above Urquart’s Bay. Caught up with him for his annual transmitter change he was 2005g and in reasonable condition considering that he 3 successful nests last season – that’s 9 months of nesting!!!.
Charlie – At McNamnara’s at Craig Road – high activity of 12hours.
Bill – Has moved to the south end of the Kauri Mt coast and settled in a large area of pampas at Zac’s. His transmitter dropped off as the taped band that holds it on his leg got worn out in the pampas.
July saw the end of 2010 “Annual kiwi call count” – when volunteers brave the cold and listen at fixed locations for 8 hours over 4 nights to record the number of kiwi calls. We do this to monitor overall trends in the kiwi population at the Heads. This year our overall call count averaged 4.1 calls per hour over 17 listening stations – slightly up from 4.0 calls per hour in 2009 and well up from 2.4 in 2007. For more detail, click below.
Thanks to the ‘smart technology’ of the chick timers we have on eight of our adult kiwi in the Whangarei Heads, we know that they are ‘getting up’ at around 6.00pm, and are active for 11 to 12 hours at the moment. This is not all that unusual for this time of year.
We also know that they are tending to hang around in the gullies and damper areas, where insect numbers have held up. Not surprising.
And finally we know that it won’t be a good year for kiwi chick numbers, with most kiwi only having a single clutch of eggs, and none of the monitored birds having the possible 3 clutches. The young kiwi are probably being pushed out to the drier, tougher environments where they are more at risk from uncontrolled dogs and other predators.
Kiwi and chick
But with the huge cricket population brought on by the drought conditions, some of those kiwi will be in lush ‘pasture’. In fact, results from kiwi chicks monitored by DOC in Northland show that one bird reached 1200g at a little under 6 months old – the only one to have done so out of hundreds of chicks over the years. Another reached 1kg at 139 days old (record to 1 kg has been 131 days, it wasn’t far behind).
So, as long as we keep on with the predator control, and people continue to keep their dogs under control, and we watch for kiwi on the roads at night – our kiwi populations will continue to grow despite a bit of a trough of kiwi recruitment this year due to the bad drought conditions.
Todd Hamilton
Project Manager, WHLF
021 1145 385
© Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum. Kiwi illustrations & design © Heather Hunt
Web by Jeremy Warne. All rights reserved.
