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Thanks to an active intervention program, at Whangarei Heads we really do have kiwi in our backyard.

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Archive for the ‘Kiwi stories’ Category

Whangarei Kiwi Heard in the UK

April 12th, 2010

Philip, who lives on the Nook peninsular, was chatting on the phone with his brother Mike who lives in Penzance in Cornwall. It was the last week of February 2010 at about 10.10 pm.

Their conversation was interrupted by the piercing call of a male kiwi close to the window where Philip was sitting.  “Listen to this he shouted” as he held the phone outside the open window.  Before the male’s call had finished a female ripped in with her raucous cry.  “Wa-who” it was Spratt and Jackie the local monitored birds.

Mike heard their calls clearly on his phone on the other side of the world.  Twice more during that phone call Mike was able to listen ‘live’ to the call of one of the world’s most precious and endangered species.

Mike now proudly sports a bumper sticker on his car which states ‘I heard a kiwi at Whangarei Heads’.

"I Heard A Kiwi" bumper sticker

Lambert – Dad of the year

March 30th, 2010

Lambert is one of the kiwi chicks that we have brought into the Whangarei Heads area from a high density kiwi population out at Purua (west of Whangarei).

Nick Edgar, CEO of NZ Landcare Trust, with Lambert

He was hatched by “George” the kiwi (it’s the dads that get to sit on the eggs for 80 days!) at McGraths’ farm at Purua in December 2006.  He got his name from George Lambert who was an old time farmer out there that protected the bush his dad “George” nests in.

We transferred Lambert to the Limestone island kiwi crèche in the Whangarei Harbour at a weight of 260g. 18 months later (July 2008) we re-caught him using a trained kiwi dog to find him, he had grown to 1760g and was ready to come back to the main land.

He was released at the Hunts’ farm on the eastern side of the Taurikura Ridge by a group of locals and special guests NZ Landcare Trust’s head office. We put a radio transmitter on his leg as one of a sample of 15 kiwi we track at the Heads to check on their movement, survival and breeding progress.

Lambert spent the next year wandering around the Taurikura Ridge. He must have found himself a local girlfriend in that time because in August 2009 Todd found him nesting in a hollow Mangeao tree above Mckenzie Bay.  Lambert successfully hatched both eggs from that nest and we named them “Marita” (after Marita Hunt who has been working on the possum and rat control project at Taurikura Ridge) and “Amber” (who was named by the NZ Landcare Trust head office in recognition of their support of the Landcare projects at the Heads.

To successfully hatch two chicks is pretty good going for a 2 and a 1/2 year old kiwi, as kiwi are the slowest growing bird in the world and don’t fully mature until around 5 years old.

As if that wasn’t enough, Lambert and his mate started another nest in November 2009.  We knew this because after his last nest Todd had changed Lambert’s transmitter for a ‘smart’ “chick timer” transmitter that measures the movement of the kiwi using a mercury switch and indicates when the kiwi settles down to incubate an egg (pretty clever  technology!)

This nest was in a pampas bush in a pine plantation and in January 2010 Lambert successfully hatched another chick, which we named Jeremy, after the computer geek that developed this web site.

3 chicks in one season (and its not over yet) for a young kiwi male makes him our “Dad of the Year”.

Dogs on Kauri Mountain

March 22nd, 2010

In 2006, a pack of pig-hunting dogs, uncontrolled by their owner, went on a rampage in the area of Kauri Mountain.   They killed 23 rams in just a few hours.  They also killed two kiwi – that we know of.  Two transmitted kiwi – Pete and Matakohe – were found “dogged” at the same time.

Pete and Matakohe "dogged" on Kauri Mountain

Kauri Mountain is the home to 2 kiwi listening stations, where volunteers listen for kiwi on an annual basis, and report their findings back to a national database.  Previous years on Kauri Mountain’s western flank, kiwi were so prolific that one listener even saw two kiwi in the road one night whilst he was listening for their calls.

In June of 2006, after the pig dogs had attacked, listening for kiwi was very hard going.   The dogs  and their owner had moved out of the area, but we knew that the two dead monitored kiwi were probably only an small percentage of the total kiwi the dogs had killed.

The first night (of four nights of listening) our volunteer heard not a single kiwi.  The second night, they thought they heard one male.  The third night – still no kiwi calls.  Six hours of listening in the cold and the dark – and only one kiwi call the entire time.  This was fairly conclusive evidence -the dogs had made a severe impact on the kiwi population in this area.

On the fourth and last night, in the second hour of listening – when our listener had almost completely given up – a male kiwi called.   And no sooner had the male begun his call, than a female cut him off with her cry.   So at least there was hope.

2008 Listening Chart - Kauri Mountain

By 2008, a total of 25 kiwi calls were heard at this same listening post on Kauri Mountain.   And in 2009, the count was up to 36!  Many of which were kiwi “couples” calling to each other.

The kiwi thrive in this area – with a little assistance from operation nest egg and with predator trapping – and by ensuring that dogs are not allowed off-leash!

T.T. the Wanderer

March 17th, 2010

TT was a male kiwi that was in the first batch of four kiwi released in the area by the Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum to supplement the local population here.

TT had been previously transferred to the Limestone Island kiwi crèche by a DOC Ranger. In July 2004 he was again transferred, this time to the Whangarei Heads and released on the Odys’ farm at the northern end of Mt Manaia.

He was 1,650 grams in size and had a radio transmitter fitted to his leg so we could track his movements and survival.

TT spent a month or so checking out the northern end of Mt Manaia before disappearing off our radar.

Todd (our local kiwi tracker extraordinaire) tried using the radio aerial and receiver to follow TT’s transmitter.

Todd getting maximum radio reception

We looked all over and around Manaia – nothing.

Luckily Pete Graham of DOC was going up in a search plane using radio tracking to look for DOC transmittered  kiwi lost on Bream Head- he tuned into TT’s frequency and found him all the way over at Harambee Road (Northern Kauri Mt) 6 km away form his last reading!

TT then settled down in the Harambee road area spending time in weeds on the Taiharuru Road verge, in pampas at a quarry for a while, in rank kikuya grass and rushes in paddocks. In fact he went every where except the native bush!

Tracking TT (and other released kiwi) taught us WHLF folks a lot about our kiwi.   TT showed us that not only do kiwi cover quite big distances at times, but also that they can live in all sorts of habitat.  Kiwi’s are quite happy in pampas and gorse, pine plantations and on farm land.

So you can expect to find kiwi anywhere in the Whangarei Heads area – keep an eye (and an ear out). Let us know if you see kiwi in your backyard.


Jackie — little chick to big “chick”!

March 17th, 2010

After we (the Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum) had been trapping stoats at the Whangarei Heads for a couple of years we radio tracked some kiwi chicks to see if they were surviving or not .  Without trapping, scientific research had shown that over 90% of kiwi chicks were killed by stoats.  If the chicks were surviving to a weight of 1,000 grams then it would be a good indication that our predator trapping programme was working. Once 1,000 grams in size a kiwi can fight off most stoats.

In October 2004 “Jackie” hatched in “Oscar’s” nest on the McLeod Bay side of the Nook peninsula.  Using a radio receiver we were able to track Jackie’s radio transmitter on her leg and find her for regular “Plunket”checks.

 Here’s a sample of Jackie’s “Plunket” checks until she reached the magical 1,000 grams:

Date Weight Bill length
Oct 2004 262g 47.8mm
Nov 2004 495g 55.3mm
Dec 2004 510g 58.5mm
Jan 2005 645g 63.6mm
Feb 2005 780g 67.3mm
Mar 2005 830g 71.0mm
Apr 2005 940g 73.1mm
May 2005 920g 76.6mm
June 2005 1050g 81.9mm

It is worth noting that none of the seven young kiwi chicks we monitored got “stoated” – so that is good indication for our trapping programme.

As for Jackie, she kept on growing and also started wandering all over the Nook.

Date Weight Bill length
August 2005 1140g 90.1mm
November 2005 1400g 95.2mm
February 2006 1505g 104.4mm
December 2006 1960g 123.5mm
May 2007 2100g 128.8mm
December 2007 2260g 133.6mm
December 2008 2220g 135.7mm
June 2009 2450g – as she gets older Jackie will continue to get heavier. Some female kiwi weigh close to 4 kg! 135.7mm – once the bill stops growing it is an indication that the kiwi has reached maturity.

So after 5 years our girl Jackie had grown up. Kiwi hold the distinction of being the world’s slowest growing bird – but on the up side they are usually very long lived once mature – over 50 years on average if dogs are controlled in the area.

Jackie has now settled down in the Nook at Tahunatapu Road and in 2009 Todd found her in a burrow with a mate at Philip and Jeanette Kings’ property.  Her mate was duly named  “Spratt” – as in Jack Spratt.

Jackie and Spratt have had two nests over the 2009/2010 nesting season. Unfortunately, like a lot of first time breeders those eggs have failed but the couple are still practicing and can look forward to 50 years together to added to the healthy Nook kiwi population.

WHANGAREI HEADS LANDCARE FORUM