Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

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andrewcrossland
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Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby andrewcrossland » Sat Nov 03, 2018 10:58 am

Hi folks,

There's a series of braided river surveys being undertaken in Canterbury currently, organised by Environment Canterbury, with with participants from DoC, CCC, BRAID, OSNZ, WMIL and other groups & volunteers.

Some interesting sightings are:

Black-fronted Dotterels on the Waiau, Waimakariri and Selwyn Rivers

a pair of Black Stilts (both reportedly banded) on the Waiau

Increased Wrybill numbers on the Waiau River and good numbers on the lower Waimakariri

At least 6 White-winged Black Terns on the mid Waimakariri including 3 birds in full breeding plumage and 3 others in varying stages of acquiring BP (so all are following a Southern Hemisphere moult cycle - so watch this space!)
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Michael Szabo
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby Michael Szabo » Sun Feb 10, 2019 5:05 pm

Hi Andrew,
Has there been any further news of these WWBTs seen on the Waimakariri since your post?
Michael
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andrewcrossland
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby andrewcrossland » Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:13 pm

Thanks to some incredible work by Environment Canterbury and its contractors managing anti-environmental human activities and reducing populations of both mammalian and avian predators there was a sizeable black-billed Gull colony and an impressively large est.150 pair Black-fronted colony in the Weedons-Ross Rd area of the Waimakariri River. Also nesting were at least 8 pairs of White-fronted Tern (28 km upstream of the sea) and possibly 1 pair of Caspian terns. At least 4 of the 6 WW Bl terns we'd found on the Nov census were hanging out in this area, including 1 bird in full breeding plumage and 3 adults either going or, or coming out of breeding plumage. They were under observation mainly by Niall Mugan and myself, and the ECAN ranger team also kept an eye out for them. But, although associated with the B/F Tern colony and acting defensively at times, we couldn't prove they nested, and so far no juvs have been seen. Unfortunately we couldn't really publicise these birds too much because the area was the site of Black-backed Gull control operations and there was a lot of sensitivity around that.

We'll be out in force again next spring, chasing the holy grail!!

WW bl tern.JPG
WW bl tern.JPG (36.95 KiB) Viewed 2926 times
3130birdie
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby 3130birdie » Wed Feb 13, 2019 2:05 pm

Hi Andrew, I was at the waimak braided river area end of weedons ross rd thursday 7th feb and amongst the BF Tern i saw a smaller type of Tern.
I took photos of a white-winged black immature?sitting on its own without adult.
3130birdie
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby 3130birdie » Wed Feb 13, 2019 2:16 pm

attaching photos taken at waimak on 7th feb of white-winged Black Tern
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P1040772.JPG (529.61 KiB) Viewed 2893 times
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P1040769.JPG (304.26 KiB) Viewed 2893 times
Hypno
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby Hypno » Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:21 pm

Wow that is cool
Davidthomas
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby Davidthomas » Thu Feb 28, 2019 12:50 pm

Bird was present again today at the end of Whedons Ross Road. Stood out obviously from the bfts by how overall white it was, smaller size, and entirely black bill and legs.

It was associating with a large roosting flock of blackfronted terns (163 of them) to the right of the road end (downstream). There were however a smaller flock of approximately 25 slightly upstream of the road end that it could also associate with. I suggest just wandering out along the river hoping to find the roosting flock and it being there. Otherwise you’ve got a lot of territory to check out.
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boneywhitefoot
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby boneywhitefoot » Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:05 pm

wow that is awesome
Davidthomas
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby Davidthomas » Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:32 pm

Would have been more awesome if we could have found one of the breeding plumage adults!! I’ve still never seen one.
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boneywhitefoot
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Re: Interesting sightings from Braided River surveys

Postby boneywhitefoot » Thu Feb 28, 2019 10:02 pm

be patient, young fulla, I have never seen one in breeding plumage either.
Hope springs eternal lol.

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