At the Lamb road quarry nesting in pampas. He has now hatched 2 chicks, the 1st at day 61 and a big gap until day 79 for the 2nd hatch.  The older chick is named Leo – after the late Leo Robertson who was a proud supporter of Backyard Kiwi for many years through Manaia Excavators.

At the Lamb road quarry nesting in pampas. 35 days nesting 25/8/17. His activity is around 2 hours per night but he had several nights of not leaving the nest at all.

At the Lamb road quarry in pampas. 11 days nesting 1/8/17 and his activity is down to 4 hours per night.

At the Lamb road quarry. His activity is still 12 hours per night.

Has moved back to the quarry. Did his annual transmitter change. He was in good condition ready for breeding season at 2270g. His activity is still 12 hours per night.

Unfortunately one of his recent chicks turned up drowned in a pool.  The chick was only 3.5 months old but had already grown to 910g – not far short of the magic 1000g where she could fight of a stoat. This is a very high growth rate, probably because of the wet autumn meaning she had plenty of food. We knew it was Darwin’s chick because I had ID chipped it at the nest.

Has moved away from quarry to bush beside Lamb road. High activity -11.5 hours/night.

Usual area Lamb road quarry. High activity.

Usual area Lamb road quarry. Has successful finished his nest beside Manaia Excavators truck yard. He hatched two chicks that I DNA sampled and ID chipped

2nd check in January shows Darwin nesting in pampas bush 5m from Manaia Excavators truck yard. His transmitter data stream shows that he has hatched his first chick and I’m waiting to see if there is a second before going into the nest. Hatch is due late January,

Usual area Lamb road quarry. Renested in pampas bush 5m from Manaia Excavators truck yard. Hatch due late January.

Usual area Lamb road quarry. Activity is lowish at 7.5 hours a night so it looks like he is renesting.

Has finished nesting –he really put his back into it and was still in the same pampas bush over a month after hatching the first chick. I had a trial camera on the nest that took hundreds of 30 second videos of the activity there.
Heather Hunt and Mereana Wilkie have taken that footage and skilfully created a short video story of Darwin’s nest- Have a look, it is pretty cool.

Nesting in pampas at Lamb Road quarry. After 78 days nesting he had hatched two chicks. I DNA sampled and ID chipped the chicks. Both are girls by their bill size: 310g and 47.7mm, 46.5mm and 290g. A trail camera set near the nest got some fantastic footage of the chicks feeding, dad coming and going for his nightly break and mum wandering past sometimes. Heather is planning to use the shots to make a video story for BYK. I took the opportunity to do Darwin’s 6 monthly band change and he was healthy but has lost at bit of weight as is expected after nesting.

Nesting in pampas at Lamb Road quarry. Nightly activity is a good low 2.5 hours after 51 days nesting. Hatch is due mid-September.

In pampas at Lamb Road. Activity slowly dropping so may be starting to nest.

In pampas at Lamb Road. 12 hours activity per night.

In pampas at Lamb Road. 12 hours activity.

In pampas at Lamb Road. Bernie and Ian gave me a hand to do his transmitter change – he was a healthy 2300g in weight.

His nest in the pampas at the Lamb road quarry failed after 60 days, which is unusual.  Usually if a nest gets that close to hatching (at around 70 days) things are looking pretty good. I couldn’t locate the nest in dense pampas so am unsure of what happened.

On his second nest of the season in the pampas at the Lamb road quarry. He had done 52 days on 26 Feb and had a good low nesting activity of 150 minutes per night.

In the pampas at Lamb road quarry. He has renested – up to 30 days nesting on 4/2/16 and 110 minutes activity per night – which is good and low for nesting.

Paura Bay School named his recently hatched chicks “Rocky” and “Rusty”. Darwin is now feeding up in the pampas at Lamb Road quarry recovering from his nest efforts.

At Lamb Road quarry. He has hatched 2 chicks, his nest was in a pampas bush in an old dump area and had a sheet of corrugated iron for a roof keeping him super dry for the last 3 months.  By the time I could safely go into his nest his first chick had moved on (it had hatched 35 days before) but I managed to catch up with Darwin and his second chick who Parua Bay School are going to name.

At Lamb Road quarry. He has hatched 2 chicks and has just about finished nesting. We have got some good video of mum, dad and the chicks, all separately, from a nearby trial camera – Heather is will edit this for a website video.

At Lamb Road quarry. As suspected he has started nesting with 2 hours nightly activity at day 34. Hatch is due late October.

At Lamb Road quarry. 8.5 hours nightly activity, down slightly so may be looking at nesting.

At Lamb Road quarry. 9 hours nightly activity, down from 11.5 hours so may be looking at nesting.

At Lamb Road quarry. 11.5 hours nightly activity.

At Lamb Road quarry. 12 hours activity.

At Lamb Road JR- Still no signal from this guy –looking more like transmitter failure all the time

At Lamb Road quarry. He has finished nesting. He hatched the 1st chick “Murdoch” after 64 days but his second egg was a dud. I did his annual transmitter change – he was 2050g in weight.

At Lamb Road quarry. Nesting in the pampas there, he hatched 1st chick after 64 days – it has been ID chipped and DNA sampled. At 11 days old he was 275g and has been named Murdoch by Lamb Road locals, in honour of Murdoch Ross. Darwin is still on a second egg which should be hatching any day now..

Nesting in the pampas at Lamb Road quarry. Hatch is due late February.

In pampas at Lamb Road quarry, feeding up after nesting. Activity 9 hours per night.

Finished nesting in the pampas at the Lamb Road quarry. He hatched 2 chicks named “Frank” and “Harold” after Frank Lamb who recently passed away. Both these chicks had feather samples taken for DNA records and ID chips inserted before going back into the nest with Darwin.

Nesting in pampas at Lamb Road quarry. He hatched his 1st chick after 69 days nesting on the 26 September. This chick is named “Frank” after Frank Lamb who recently passed away. I will monitor him to see if there is a second hatch.

In pampas at Lamb road quarry. Nesting 10 days on
 29/7/14. Activity is good and low for 10 days nesting at 4 hours.

Usual area at Lamb Road, high activity.

He went for a wander but is back at the Lamb Road quarry. His activity is high – 12.5 hours per night.

In pampas at Lamb Road quarry – did his annual transmitter change change, now CT 78. He was a healthy pre-breeding weight of 2250g, and his activity is high at 12 hours per night.

Was nesting at Lamb Road quarry but the nest failed and his activity has increased again.

Nesting at Lamb Road quarry.

At Lamb Road quarry in the pampas – high activity.

Has moved back to the Lamb Road quarry in the pampas.

Was nesting at Lamb Road but the nest failed after approximately 60 days. Did his six monthly transmitter band change while there was Bittern booming away beside him in the wetland at Lamb Road.

He is nesting at Lamb Road. 3 hours nightly activity – nest will reach 65 days approx 27 October.

He has just started nesting at Lamb Road – 5 hours nightly activity. Nest will reach 65 days approx 27 October

In the Lamb Road quarry. His nightly activity is varying a bit but still high – 11 hours nightly.

In the Lamb Road quarry – activity of 11 hours per night.

In the Lamb Road quarry – false alarm on him starting to nest last month as his activity has increased.

Back in the pampas in the Lamb Road quarry – his activity has dropped a bit and he may be starting to nest.

After Darwin left his nest I DNA sampled and ID chipped his recently hatched chick – he was named “James” by the landowners at Lamb Road. No second egg in nest. After multiple unsuccessful visits to the pampas in the Lamb Road quarry I finally caught up with Darwin in the wetland beside the road for his annual transmitter change, he was in good condition and weighed 2005g.

Nesting in pampas at Lamb Road – 1st chick has hatched. Now waiting on his activity to increase before doing transmitter change on Dad.

Is in gorse at Lamb Road, and as suspected he started his second nest in mid December and it is due
to hatch in late Feb.

Is in gorse at Lamb Road. His activity is dropping, hopefully meaning that he is starting his second nest…

Is showing high activity – hopefully feeding up for a second nest at Lamb Road