White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

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sav
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby sav » Sat Mar 18, 2023 2:33 pm

andrewcrossland wrote:fingers crossed they're not migrants, but a nice little post-breeding flock of Aotearoa's rarest native tern species?!! haha


Hey AC,

Although the evidence is only circumstantial, surely the only rational explanation is as you suggest? If not, then why Cooper's Lagoon, and not a West Coast spot.

Breeding plumage WWBTs are seen virtually every year, and I would be quite surprised if they didn't breed somewhere in Canterbury or Otago each year.

Also, the timing is wrong for Northern hemisphere migrants to be appearing in NZ just now when they were not present earlier in the Summer.

cheers
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Michael Szabo
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby Michael Szabo » Sat Mar 18, 2023 5:29 pm

Niall Mugan reports 4 WWBTs in non-breeding plumage this morning at 80 McEvedys Rd near Coopers Lagoon:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S131151953
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby andrewcrossland » Sat Mar 18, 2023 5:36 pm

Niall was there as part of the Coopers Lagoon/Muriwai Bio-blitz event held today as a publoic event and organised by the Taumutu Runanga and Environment Canterbury, In the end he had 9 WW Bl Terns there. He was the ornithologist for the event so great he was allowed to show this species to so many people.

I visited the Rakaia Rivermouth (North side) at the same time - another regular site for 1-4 WW Bl Terns, but none seen there today.

For those not familiar with this piece of coastline - here's a map. RRM = Rakaia Rivermouth; CL = Coopers Lagoon; T = Taumutu Lagoon (an arm of Lake Ellesmere) and KST is the kaitorete Spit tip.

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Adam C
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby Adam C » Fri Mar 24, 2023 7:57 am

Visited Coopers yesterday. Its had a fair bit of damage again from the big Southerly! Lots of Flattened Raupo and shingle pushed right across and into the lagoon. Not a tern in sight on the lagoon or even any waterfowl for that matter. I tried Taumutu lagoon also but only 3 Black-Fronted terns and white-fronted working the coastline. Assuming WWBTs make use of the airstrip lagoon area from the spit tip area so birds could well have been just working Ellesmere itself given the influx of saltwater at Coopers at the moment. 3 cattle egrets on the way through on Lower Lake Road and 15 Peafowl in the usual spot (the paddock to the right off Inwoods Road just before Altonbrook road)

Looking at ebird this might be a high count. Crazy sight. Does anybody know if these are truly feral or free-ranging pets on the property?
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby andrewcrossland » Sat Mar 25, 2023 12:49 am

Just as an aside of peafowl, I ran into about 10 of the small pop at the Bromley Oxidation Ponds today and noticed a few downy fledglings, confirming another year of successful breeding.

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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby andrewcrossland » Thu Mar 30, 2023 11:18 pm

just back to the topic of WW Bl Terns. I came across the page in my field notebook of the Waimakariri river survey I mentioned in an earlier post.
The survey was on 1 Nov 2018.

We found 1 bird in dark dalmation plumage 1 km above the Harewood Crossbank (HCB on the map below). Thats out from the big bump in the road you drive over just past Isaacs on the way to Orana Park - known to all CHCH children as the place where dad's speed up and the car gets airborne!

we found 1 in full BP 3 km above Harewood Crossbank.

And a pair (1 in full BP, 1 in 50% BP 4 km above crossbank at a place where the main channels of the river merged into one big channel for several hundred metres and a colony of 105 B/F Tern and 2 WW bl Terns were strung out along its edge.

Two more birds were found 12 km above Harewood crossbank (1 in full BP, 1 in dalmation plumage).

So a total of 6 birds - 2 pairs and 2 singletons. 3 in full BP, 1 in half BP, 2 in dalmation plumage. We had a big team of surveyors stretched across the riuverbed, all listening in on radios. Everyone was aware of the WW Bl Terns and none of these birds sneaked past and was double counted - so 6 genuine individuals, and all showing Southern Hemisphere moult cycle.

As I said we went down to look for nests/chicks in following weeks, but a big flood washed everything away so tantalising close but no concrete evidence of breeding.

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Oscar Thomas
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby Oscar Thomas » Mon Apr 03, 2023 2:57 pm

Just a single Black-fronted tern visible at Coopers this morning, but I see three White-winged black terns and a Little tern were reported by Phil yesterday at Kaitorete Spit tip.
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby andrewcrossland » Mon Apr 03, 2023 3:12 pm

sorry, late in posting - we did a co-ordinated search for them yesterday - 1 at Coopers and 3 at kaitorete Spit. The full extent of Lake Ellesmere was covered but no other WW Bl Terns found.
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby rowey » Sun Apr 09, 2023 5:12 pm

Hi all.

Nothing on Cooper's Lagoon today but two birds were present at the lake opening at Taumutu. Lake is currently being opened and there were several large roosts of Terns and Gulls on the far side of the opening, but too far to ID.
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Re: White-winged Black Tern/s at Coopers Lagoon, Canterbury

Postby andrewcrossland » Tue Apr 25, 2023 11:09 am

1 winter-plumaged WW Bl Tern at the Ashburton Rivermouth, 44 KM SW of Coopers Lagoon, last night (24 April)

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