Chestnut Teal, Travis Wetlands

[FraserGurney]

John Kyngdon and I had a look for a couple of hours on Tuesday (09/08/22) but couldn't find the chestnut teal. There are lots of places at Travis and the general area where it could hide, so hopefully it turns up again.

[GrahameNZ]

Have a look at Horseshoe Lk.
I thought I saw it when passing on a bus last week.
It had it's head tucked in so all I saw was a glowing breast.
There was a female beside this bird also sleeping.
I may be well wrong, not the first time.
There's plenty of wetlands over this side of town for them to move to.

[Samsperdy]

Anyone seen the chestnut teal recently?

[NoahF]

Hi all - I went searching for the Chestnut teal this evening but no sign in the usual spot. I believe it hasn't been sighted since July 19th by Don Goodale. Perhaps it has resettled somewhere else within Travis, CHCH or NZ. Perhaps it got sick of the particularly bad weather that month and flew back to Aussie.

There has been also been a noticeable decrease in Grey teal within the particular paddock/pond where the Chestnut teal hung out in the late afternoons/evening - when the Chestnut was around there was Grey teal numbers of 75-130 birds, tonight there were only about 30. I wonder where they head off to?

[Jan]

Does anyone know whether the water quality in the poo ponds has improved yet? Grey Teal will be nesting now and they used to frequent those settling ponds.

[andrewcrossland]

Just to answer Jan's Q about the Bromley Oxidation Ponds. The water quality is slowly improving but there aren't many midges so not much food.

I did a census on 18 Sept and recorded a reasonable number of NZ Scaup for the first time (although <10% of the normal population), but few Grey teal or Shoveler, and no Chestrnut Teal.

totals were: 14 Black Swan, 658 Canada Goose, 3 feral goose, 3 Mallard, 51 NZ Shoveler, 36 Grey Teal, 291 NZ Scaup and 7 Harrier.

[Michael Szabo]

Is anyone going to submit a UBR for this birds/s?

[FraserGurney]

One has been submitted and accepted (2022/059), I presume by Noah.

[Michael Szabo]

Thanks Fraser

[Colin Miskelly]

Kia ora Michael and all

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Ngā mihi
Colin