Australian Wood Duck - Mapua Nelson.

[Steve Wood]

Just an up date on the Wood ducks on the play house pond Mapua. Good news - 1 pair plus 4 juv.

[Michael Szabo]

Thanks for the update Steve. Can you give a more precise location please as I don't know where the Play House Pond is in Mapua. Also, any photos?

Michael

[Ian Southey]

Thanks Steve

That's a lot better than the last set of reports I saw.

Ian

[Amber Calman]

I may add that, at several OSNZ meetings, it has been stated there are, two adult males and one hen. This male is not always with the others, and to the best of my knowledge only really been seen with them a few times.

The juveniles are more adolescent . Photos were shown by Willie Cook last local meeting on the 7th.

Access to the Playhouse Cafe is off Westdale Road, which you can access from the Coastal Highway. Here is a map https://goo.gl/maps/MffGcagUdN42
The ponds I think are accually on private land, but easily viewed from the drive way.

[chris]

So this species now will be classified as native after breeding here I take it. Alongside the glossy Ibis. I think a little updateing needs to be done on the nzs bird website.

[SomesBirder]

So this species now will be classified as native after breeding here I take it. Alongside the glossy Ibis. I think a little updateing needs to be done on the nzs bird website.

Not necessarily; birds can just as easily die out after breeding here, which means that they keep their status as vagrants; e.g. chestnut-breasted shelduck. Those two species will probably only qualify as 'native' if they manage to survive and continue to increase their numbers.

[Ross Silcock]

Found an adult pair on the main pond today April 5 at around 3 pm. No young in sight, however.

[Hadden]

I checked out the Wood Ducks 10 days ago and saw the whole party fly off. There were definitely 7 birds.

[sophierose]

I went down on Sunday, and saw 7.

[sophierose]

I could not see any of the wood ducks when i went down this afternoon, but a lot of mallard pairs and the usual geese. Hopefully they are all okay, (not that I´m worried) but I´ll try and check on them again over the next few days.