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MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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Mangawhai Sandspit home to precious wildlife.jpg "fairy tern Sioux Plowman(copy)") Over the summer holidays we are very lucky to have fairy terns nesting on the Spit in the middle of the harbour. There are only 35 or so left in New Zealand, so with your help we can help them survive. DoC shorebird warden, Rangi, is keeping an eye on them five days a week and volunteers are out there the other two days.If you wish to see the fairy terns, talk to these bird carers and maybe you can look through a telescope as the chicks are just little bumble bee sized balls of fluff when first hatched and very hard to see with the naked eye. Please keep well back from the enclosure fences put up for the birds’ safety as they sit on eggs or care for young and do not go inside the fence as this may frighten them off the nest. If they are off eggs for even a short time, the eggs may become too hot or cold and not hatch. If you are dive bombed by the parents you know you are too close, so please carefully walk back. There are also variable oyster catchers, quite big black and white birds with the long orange beaks that shriek and dive bomb you if you are too close to nests or chicks. Northern NZ dotterels are small with orange chests and pretend to have a broken wing and lead you away with pitiful cries. Pied stilts hover about crying piteously, or flap about on the ground sounding like a small baby. Sounds a bit dangerous doesn't it, but just remember they are parents doing their best to keep their babies safe. Just carefully walk away and they will leave you alone. Caspian terns may also dive near you with loud cries, often carrying small fish long distances for their chicks. On the harbour flats when the tide is out you may see small flocks of our annual Arctic visitors. Godwits, knots and turnstones depend on the excellent food of our harbour to get them fat enough to fly all the way back to breed. They visit here from September until early March. Please make sure dogs do not chase them and watch out for red billed gulls which are also declining. With your help and consideration the birds of Mangawhai can continue to raise their young as they have done for thousands of years, and enhance the pleasure and quality of Magical Mangawhai.
From Jane Vaughan, fairy tern volunteer coordinator |
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