Bird life will bloom over summer

 

While the guardians of the endangered and delicate fairy tern seek the utmost solitude, the arrival of the bar-tailed godwits is met with the peal of bells signifying the annual migration, albeit in dribs and drabs, back to the Waipu sandspit, and Ruakaka and Whangarei beaches.

Perhaps aided by some hefty tailwinds the first hundred or so touched down in the last few days of September to the sound of the now traditional ringing of the bells at the Waipu Anglican and Presbyterian Churches. The final number is usually measured in thousands.

From their breeding grounds in the 24 hour daylight of the Alaskan summer, this amazing little bird lives through an incredible variation in climate change. Then, imbued with an irre-pressible need, their radar system directs them to thin insignificant strips of sand in a place on

the globe like Bream Bay, making the non-stop 10,000km trip in eight days.

They then rest, mature and feed voracious-ly over our summer in preparation for the re-turn journey in the autumn to begin the cycle all over again from early March. Mother nature tells those too young to breed to remain until the following season.

The return flight is considerably longer taking eight days to Korea then another five (7,000km) to reach their northern destination.

Another visitor seen on the Waipu spit is the crested tern. This vagrant from Australia is believed to be the only one in New Zealand at the current time and has been seen at Waipu from the beginning of the year. It can be iden-tified by its size (just half the size of a caspian tern) and its yellow beak. Last one in NZ was seen in Wellington from 1981-95.

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