Welcome to another edition of the WekaWatch newsletter. We hope to bring you all up to date on some of the things that have happened since the start of the year.
WekaWatch picnic
Our January social picnic was held at Waitawa Regional Park on a wonderful summer’s afternoon. The brilliant weather lured out half of South Auckland but we managed to find a corner for ourselves and enjoyed meeting up with members and supporters. It is great to see our newest regional park being so well used and enjoyed.
AGM and committee matters
The Annual General Meeting of WekaWatch Kawakawa Bay Inc was held on 16th April. Our out going chairman Kevin Vaughan’s annual report was well received. We farewelled him with thanks for his patient leadership over 4 years and also thanked outgoing committee member Joyce Frost who has waved our WekaWatch flag so strongly around at Orere Point for several years. We are enjoying working with 2 new members of the committee; Steve Huggard lives along Coast Road and his oversight of weka pair Whitey and Suzie over their recent productive summer breeding was recorded so well on camera; Michelle Hollings is another enthusiastic resident of Orere Point and our message will reach that settlement under her watch. Rosemary Cotman is the new chairperson. A motion was put that Tony Beauchamp, our weka guru and for 10 years our constant guide and support, be offered Life Membership of WekaWatch. The proposal was carried by acclamation.
Since the AGM we have reluctantly accepted the resignation of our minutes secretary Yvonne Taylor. She and her husband Mike are leaving the Bay after 40 years. She has done great work in turning our meeting ramblings into intelligible notes. Thank you Yvonne! We are currently looking for someone to fill her place.
2016 counts
Our mid-2015 newsletter reported what looked to be an encouraging increase in weka numbers in the official count, up from 49 in 2014 to 67 in 2015. In the January 2016 newsletter we said there had been a significant drop off in weka observed in Te Papa Road over a 2 month period in June and July last year. We had had a special count last October that confirmed this. The El Nino over the past summer was not as severe as predicted so we were hoping for an encouraging result at this last autumn’s count. However we were very disappointed to record only 20 weka over the whole 11 count sites this year over the 3 nights. Apart from only 16 birds in August 2005, the very first count, when the population was just becoming established, this is the lowest tally ever. We continue to watch closely the birds we know about. We are pleased that there seems to be 4 pairs of weka in Te Papa Road at present. We hope that this includes in part the young birds hatched last spring at Steve’s.
Follow this link for a full report of the 2016 count.
Our banded birds
We are really pleased that our weka banding programme, now in its 7th year, enables us to follow the lives of a small representative group of weka. The banding is all centred on Te Papa Road and close watch is kept on the individual birds in this area. In January Cheeky Charlie was seen with a female. She has now been banded and has been named Charlotte. At the start of June Charlie was observed carrying food away and sure enough a few days later we got the first look at the single chick. In the past week Tony has captured this juvenile, a male, and it too now has bands. This is unusually early for breeding, an effect of climate disruption? There are three other pairs on the slopes of the Te Papa Road valley at present and evening calling is loud and vigorous. Charlotte and Cheeky Charlie feed their chick Whitey, is still in the next valley but with an un-banded female. His former partner Suzie is no longer around.
Whitey and un-banded female
Other weka reports
From time to time we get reports of weka in other parts of the Bay. Recently these have come from the area near the bridge just past the dairy in Kawakawa Bay proper and also from the houses near Nimon’s Bridge in the first or Turei Bay. We ask for photos to enable us to make a positive ID. No photos have come in from the main bay yet but we have seen a photo of a weka in a garden next to Nimon’s Bridge. On going round to investigate the “young weka” in one of these gardens, we saw a pair of banded rail scurrying down to the bed of reeds by the stream. So it appears that there are two species of rail being seen in that area. The number of weka in that area is unclear.
Community relations
Tony Beauchamp has issued us with a challenge. He has stressed to us that maintaining the weka population here will be nigh on impossible without buy-in and commitment from the whole Kawakawa Bay community. We have picked up the gauntlet he threw before us and are trying to raise the profile of weka locally even more than we have in the past. Committee member Steve has produced an excellent video compilation and this forms the central attraction at our occasional appearances at the local market. After a presentation to the KK Bay Community Association a number of suggestions have been made so we can keep weka in front of the whole community and raise their profile more widely. Watch this space!
Our local news bulletin has a WekaWatch article in it every month with a short pithy weka conservation message each time. We have stressed our recommendation to use weka-safe Racumin fo
r rat control, selling it to those interested at cost. and have outlined the protocol if a dead weka is ever found so we can get it sent to Massey University for necropsy if necessary.
We arranged for a mail drop to all letter boxes in the Bay to publicise our programme.
Our traps and trap lines
Over the last 6 months the trap lines have been walked as frequently as possible. There has been a steady capture of rats (126) and hedgehogs (23) but the number of mustelids, our target species, has been low, just 2 weasels and one stoat.
Stoats found on trapline D
Safety Seminar
Ian and Rosemary, representing WekaWatch, attended a seminar on volunteer safety. The health and safety requirements for a small volunteer group like ours have not changed with the new H&S act. However it was a great chance for us to review our practices both with our trappers and our counters. A number of changes could be on the way.
Woodhams Cotman Bush
John and Rosemary have had confirmation that 6.4 ha of their property has been placed in a QE11 National Trust Open Space covenant. This is to the east of Te Papa Road and comprises a piece of mature coastal bush largely untouched for more than 100 years. The management plan makes special mention of our weka and requires any future owners of the Woodhams Cotman Bush to do any predator control with weka safety in mind.
Facebook page
Denise keeps our Facebook page up to date and we recommend that you visit us and even like us!
We welcome your comments and posts. It is interesting to see how much further our message is reaching with comments and contributions from others from all around New Zealand who love weka as we do. Find us at https://www.facebook.com/wekawatch.co.nz
Your committee hopes you have enjoyed this short update on the happenings at Kawakawa Bay!
WekaWatch Kawakawa Bay Inc C/- Kawakawa Bay Postal Centre Kawakawa Bay 2138
wekawatch@paradise.net.nz www.wekawatch.co.nz Phone 09 2922 512