Brown Teal chicks

[phil hammond]

I realise that there are records of Brown Teal breeding in just about every month, but I think that most occurs from now until about November, hence this report

There was an adult with chicks about the size of a softball [5 I think] on the pond at Puhinui Reserve today.
As you might expect in the middle of a bright sunny day, they were well hidden for most of the 45 or so minutes I was there, but they made one tightly packed swim across the pond

I have not seen Brown Teal on that particular pond before

Phil Hammond
Wrybill Birding Tours NZ
"Great Birds, Real Birders"

[Kevin_Evans]

Hi Phil,

Interesting sighting, and is the standard time of the year for our wild birds to breed. I haven't heard of any pateke in this area before, but the spill over from our reintroduction's onto Mototapu Island are likely as more birds are displaced from the island each year. Had a new sighting reported to me a few weeks back of what looks like a pair with a near fledgling at Waiatarua Reserve wetland in Remuera, which is also a new location for pateke.

Regards
Kevin

[Chris Bindon]

Hi Kevin,

Good spotting.

I've also sighted Pateke at the Waiatarua wetland recently. There were 3 birds there last Saturday morning and were very visible from the nearby walking track surrounding the wetland. A F&B contact Jacqui Geux had noted 4 Pateke at the wetland the week before this and advised that she thought she could see possibly more skulking away in amongst some of the Carex and Cyperus plants but she wasn't absolutely sure.

The only disappointing part of the visit was seeing a completely out of control black Lab bounding at speed through the wetland disturbing and putting up a number of birds as it went and with absolutely no visible owner in site. An absolutely fabulous wetland with usually great and easy views of a number of species including Shoveller, Scaup, Grey Teal which isn't bad for a wetland almost completely surrounded by suburbia but uncontrolled dogs going into the wetland are a notable issue on virtually every visit there.

Thanks,

Chris

[Kevin_Evans]

Hi Chris,

I was told it is right next to a designated no lease dog area, so not ideal. Great to hear there could be more pateke hanging out in the area, luckily Kara Goddard (ex pateke keeper from Hamilton zoo) now works for Auckland City Council working with community groups so is going to arrange for a bit of predator control etc in the area. The cat numbers must be quite large in the area being surrounded by suburbia. But still very positive and lets hope the numbers increase as the recovery program has been hugely successful over the past 20 years being the species back from projected extinction to now in "recovery" with numbers up around 2500 - 3000 birds in the wild. Been a long hard road to travel, but getting to our 10,000 birds in the wild target is looking to be just as hard.

With the captive release program still producing 150 - 200/year for release back into the wild and 3 - 4 release sites/year on the go, I hope we have lots more birds popping up around the country. I do releases every Feb, May & Aug and the sites we currently have on the go are: Arthur Valley (Fiordland), Project Janszoon (Nelson), Lake Rotokare (Taranaki)

Thanks to everyone on this site that reports sightings as I do keep an eye out on here and is always good to see where birds are popping up.

Cheers
Kevin

[phil hammond]

Great work, well done