NZ Dotterel update

Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 1, 1 February 1991, Page 9

NZ Dotterel update

AFTER TWO SUCCESSFUL breeding seasons, Eastern Bay of Plenty Forest and Bird’s dotterel project on the Ohope Spit has run into new problems. Forest and Bird members have protected the nesting birds from people with dogs and motorbikes through public education and a fence around the breeding area. But nest predation remains a problem, and this year it was much worse. Wild cats and stoats live on the Spit, and plentiful rabbits were a major part of their diet. However, in the 1990 winter the native sand dune plant pingao was planted. Rabbits,

known to have a taste for pingao, were poisoned to protect the plant, but an unforeseen consequence has been a surge in predation of New Zealand dotterel nests by hungry stoats and cats. With the assistance of Doc, one of our chief dotterel protectors Adrian Harrison has set traps throughout the dunes, and built a low netting frame to divert predators into tunnels which conceal Fenn traps. So far he has caught feral cats, hedgehogs and rats, all of which eat eggs, but the wily stoats elude the traps. As the summer advances, tracks indicate that the stoats are becoming fewer in number, perhaps moving away as the pickings get lean. No chicks had hatched by December, but re-nesting will occur and it may be second time lucky for the birds. At the river mouth of the tiny settlement of Otamarakau, Forest and Bird member Bill Te Brake is keeping an eye on two pairs of nesting New Zealand dotterel and variable oystercatchers. At the start of December he phoned local Forest and Bird officer Basil Graeme, anxious that the oystercatcher nest had been nearly swamped by the high tide. The next tide was to be even higher, indeed the highest spring tide for three years, and he was sure the nest would be flooded. Basil, a natural improvisor, suggested he lift the eggs, build a mound of sand and driftwood, and re-fashion the nest depression and eggs on top. Bill did this and was delighted when the bird returned immediately and sat upon the raised nest! The following day revealed where the tide had flowed around the nest, but it remained secure (and the three chicks hatched).