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B T Godwit Tagging , Manawatu Estuary

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2019 9:58 pm
by jfmbirds
I was at the Manawatu Estuary yesterday and today , looking again for the Little Egret that has been a frequent visitor.
On both days the Little Egret was there ; also on both days was a big group from D O C , Massey University and others , keen to tag some of the juvenile Godwits that have been there in good numbers - 2-400 being some estimates .Yesterday , the attempt was aborted as the gulls would not cooperate , mixing with the Godwits and upsetting them .
Today , Wed 13 / 11 , I arrived just after 10 am , tide had turned and was on the way out .Again Gulls were with the Godwits but the crew had obviously decided it was all or nothing . The cannon and the cameras were in place and then BOOM , it was all on .
Hopefully the ful story will be in the journals , giving all the details .I was on the viewing platform , opposite the Beach Motels , taking plenty of pics and enjoying the action . I was impressed with their organisation and it appeared all went well .I put a few panoramas together , ( quite easy in Lightroom ) to show the team in action .

Re: B T Godwit Tagging , Manawatu Estuary

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2019 10:03 pm
by jfmbirds
The net went out .
Pic 3 , - they all came racing .
Pic 2 , the measuring station . big team .

Cheers John ,

Re: B T Godwit Tagging , Manawatu Estuary

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 1:33 pm
by philbattley
Hi John,

Yes, that was us out there, a combined group from Massey Uni, Max Planck Institute (Germany), Univ of Groningen (Netherlands), BirdsNZ, local Iwi, Hong Kong and Denmark. We were putting out satellite tags on juvenile godwits to study how they move around the non-breeding range before they settle at a site they'll use for the rest of their lives. It took two attempts to make a catch. On the first day we were foiled by SIPO too close in front of the net, Black-billed Gulls in front of the net, Rock Doves taking off nearby disturbing the flock, and strangest of all, a Kereru plunging into the estuary nearby! On the second day we had young gulls investigating the jiggler (bits of cloth tied to a string that can be "jiggled" to move birds away from a net - they seemed to think it was dried fish!), adult gulls in front of the net, adult gulls mating in front of the net, godwits too close to the net, a Rock Dove taking off nearby, but eventually we had safe and settled birds and had a lovely catch of 29 godwits including 21 juveniles, and 6 knots. I'm glad our swift efficiency was obvious from afar! We had put out tags on both adults and juveniles at Pukorokoro Miranda a fortnight ago so had good systems in place.

There was a single Common Tern present on both days.

Cheers, Phil

Re: B T Godwit Tagging , Manawatu Estuary

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 2:10 pm
by boneywhitefoot
"a Kereru plunging into the estuary nearby"

Only in Foxton could such a thing happen lol