October was a pretty busy kiwi month with some highs and lows:

If you haven’t seen the story on Backyard kiwi Facebook about the large
female kiwi run over near Craig Road join the other 5,928 people who have!!
This is the third adult kiwi run over there recently so we will put up
another road sign and do a story for the papers about it.

What your monitored kiwi are up to:

Darwin – 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.

Whitu – Usual area Reotahi, he has re-nesting as suspected – nest will be
approx 65 days on December 9.

Dallas – At Hills’ by WH school. His activity has dropped slightly so he may
be re-nesting.

Lambert – Usual area Taurikura Ridge -transmitter data stream showed eggs
hatching but because he was in dense pampas I couldn’t risk getting a look
without disturbing him and his chicks. His nest finished after 90 days and
22 days after the first chick hatched. He is re-nesting already!

Waka – after hatching 2 chicks last month (which we need to name) he fell
for Charlotte again and is re-nesting already too! The nest is in a pampas
bush in a landowners back garden.

Charlotte – Usual area of McKenzie Bay.

JR – South Taurikura Ridge above Urquarts Bay – He has successfully hatched
two chicks. Unusually for a Heads kiwi his nest was in a burrow (not a
pampas bush) so Kane McElrea set up one of the NRC trial cameras and got
some great footage of JR and the chicks leaving the nest at night – we will
get it up on the website shortly. The Hunts came with me when I DNA sampled
the chicks and inserted their ID chips. One of the chicks had a head of
white feathers so they named it “Blondie”.

Charlie – At McNamnara’s at Craig Road – His first nesting attempt failed
(which often happens with a kiwi’s first nest – remember that this is just
his first breeding season of hopefully 50 or more!). The good news is that
he is back re-nesting already.

Kiwiana – Was at Blicks’ at the southern end of Mt Manaia but he managed to break a leg falling off a rock. So after some fantastic treatment by Sandra at Kamo Vets he was jet setted off to Massey University for surgery and is recovering well with a plate in his leg now.

Webb – This young lady seems to have settled on the Kauri Mt coast at this stage.

Clover – Still high up on eastern Manaia

Kiwi Predator Control Programme:
A very big month for stoats compared to our usual September catches with 5 stoats, including 2 mature females on the western side of Mania – catching a mature female in spring is great because it also means that you have also nailed her litter of up to 8 kits!

Traps for September: 5 stoats, 0 weasels, 1 cat, 36 rats, 33 possums and 2 hedge hogs.
Tally for season: 42 stoats, 15 weasels, 18 cats, 421 rats, 148 possums and 49 hogs.

Kiwi monitoring:

Waka won the race for the Dad to hatch the first chick of the season. Lambert also hatched a chick in September.

What your monitored kiwi are up to in September:

Darwin – He is nesting at Lamb road – 3 hours nightly activity – nest will reach 65 days approx 27 October.
Whitu – Usual area Reotahi, activity dropping – possibly renesting after his first nest failed.
Dallas – At Hills’ by the Heads school. A kiwi was reportedly seen during the day (3pm) in Dallas’s area in the storm of 24/9/13 and it ran under a car before running up the bank. I checked Dallas’s signal – and yes he was active during that afternoon!!!! – otherwise his activity has been ok since then.
Lambert – Usual area Taurikura Ridge – nesting – transmitter data stream shows first hatch.
Waka – Takes the title of first recorded hatch of the season- 1st hatched 13/9/13 and a second a week later. Both chicks were in the nest late September and I caught up with them to DNA sample and ID chip.

Charlotte – (Proud mum of Waka’s chicks) Usual area of McKenzie Bay.
JR – South Taurikura Ridge above Urquarts Bay – Still Nesting – 3 hours activity – nest 65 days on 1 October.
Charlie – At McNamnara’s, Craig Road – finally nested for the first time.
Kiwiana – At Blicks’ at the southern end of Mt Manaia. Activity up to 13.5 hours per night, which is very high.
Webb – After much searching for this young girl’s transmitter signal I found her over on the Kauri Mt coast at the Fabers’ place – a reasonable big move from Kerr road!
Clover – Still high up on eastern Manaia

Firstly notice of the upcoming WHLF meeting on Thursday October 24 at McLeod Bay Hall 7.30pm – all welcome.

Secondly congratulations to Don McKenzie and his team at the NRC for winning the Peter Nelson Biosecurity Award. This is a much sought after national award and it is great to see one of the WHLF’s key partners (and key funders) recognised for their success.

See details at:

http://www.nrc.govt.nz/News/Council-wins-coveted-Peter-Nelson-biosecurity-award/

“We see this very much as a trophy not just for us as a council, but also the many Northlanders from all walks of life who have worked closely with us over the past decade in a huge range of pest control initiatives both on land and in the water,” Don says.

Kiwi Predator Control Programme:
I’m still struggling to get enough rabbits for bait – if you have any can I have them please. I have started added in the extra traps funded by the Kiwi Coast – 1 has already caught a stoat. Some clever bugger managed to run over a big male stoat outside the golf club last week –well done! Can’t put this guy on our tally but every dead stoat helps!

Traps for August – 2 stoats, 2 weasels, 3 cats, 48 rats, 11 possums and 2 hedge hogs.
Tally for season to date 37 stoats, 15 weasels, 17 cats, 369 rats, 115 possums and 47 hogs.

Kiwi monitoring:
The nesting season is well underway with our 6 usual nesters unfortunately 2 of those nests (Dallas and Whitu) have failed for unknown reasons. There is still plenty of time for these guys to try again.

What your monitored kiwi are up to:

Darwin – He has just started nesting at Lamb road -5 hours nightly activity- nest will reach 65 days approx 27 October
Whitu – Usual area Reotahi, Nest failed after 45 days.
Dallas – At Hills’ by WH school, Nest failed after 36 days.
Lambert – Usual area Taurikura Ridge – nesting – 3 hours activity – nest will be 65 days on 15 September approx.
Waka – Usual area Mckenzie Bay – nesting – 3.5 hours activity– 65 days on 4 September approx.
Charlotte – Usual area of McKenzie Bay. I caught up with her for her annual transmitter change, she was a healthy 2600g and her bill has stopped growing showing she is now a fully grown adult (photo attached).
JR – South Taurikura Ridge above Urquarts Bay – Nesting – 3 hours activity –nest will be 65 days on 1 October..

Charlie – At McNamnaras’ at Craig Road – nightly activity is still high – 11 hours.
Kiwiana – At Blicks’ at the southern end of Mt Manaia. High activity of 12 hours as expected for a 2 year old.
Webb – Has dropped off the radar!!! I have covered a wide area looking for her but can’t find her radio signal.
Clover – Still high up on eastern Manaia -11.5 hours activity. Clover is in a tricky place to monitor and well away from any dogs so I plan to remove his transmitter.

Kiwi Call count monitoring for 2013

Every year we do a “kiwi call count” as a way of monitoring the kiwi population at the Whangarei Heads. During 3 weeks in June trained listeners sat at 22 designated listen sites and counted the kiwi calls over a 2 hour period on 4 separate nights – not as easy to do as it sounds! A BIG THANKS to those patient folks who braved the cold and strained their ears.

This season’s data has all come in now and the news is good. We work out the average number of kiwi calls per hour per site. Overall our call count is up from 5.9 in 2012 to 6.8 calls per site per hour. We also identify how many individual kiwi there are at each site by recording the location of each calling kiwi (using a compass bearing and estimated distance from the listening site) – remember that kiwi are territorial and tend to call from roughly the same area each time. The total number of individual kiwi identified has increased by over 10% this season from 183 to 206, which is heartening. Remember we only listened into 30-40% of our kiwi habitat so actually numbers of kiwi will be considerably more – well over 400 now and probably close to 500. Pretty good considering we were down to only an estimated 80 kiwi in total at the Heads back in 2001!!

The increasing call count is due to a combination of things:
Improved kiwi chick survival thanks to our ongoing stoat trapping network (without stoat control 95% of chicks are killed).
The release of new kiwi into the area each year from our BNZONE programme also adds to the population.
The significant improvement in dog control by local pet owners. Our community is to be congratulated on this crucial part of kiwi recovery as dogs are the biggest threat to adult kiwi.

Click on this link to view tables – one shows the trends in call counts from 2001 to 2013, the other shows the details or call counts at each site for 2013.

Keep up the good work Whangarei Heads!
WHLF 2013 call counts table(1).xls
WHLF kiwi call count summary 2001 to 2013

Monthly Update for December

Our WHLF kiwi project had some distinguished visitors during December.

The NZ Landcare Trust brought Stephen Tindall to see how the Backyard kiwi project works and visit the Taurikura Ridge Landcare rat control project. Stephen has been a funder of our work through The Tindall Foundation and WWF and it was very satisfying to show him the success of the work that he is supporting.

Our second special guest was Rod Morris (author and wild life photographer of “Wild South” fame). Rod was following up on Peter Hayden’s previous visit to take photographs for a chapter on Backyard kiwi in their upcoming book.

Visitors that we are not so keen to see our kiwi are holiday makers dogs – if you have visitors with dogs please make sure that they know that there are kiwi at the Whangarei Heads and that their dog could easily kill kiwi if not controlled.

Meanwhile the local kiwi dads continue their second round of nesting for the season.

· Darwin – Is in gorse at Lamb road, his activity is dropping hopefully meaning that he is starting his second nest..
· Whitu- Is still sitting tight on his second nest – due to hatch late December.
· Dallas- Still feeding up between nests near the main road below the Heads School
· Lambert- Holding tight on his second nest – due to hatch late December.
· Charlotte- Is back on the roadside in Mckenzie Bay
· JR- Is still due his 6 monthly check but is hiding in dense Kiekie at the southern end of Taurikura ridge.
· Charlie- This young fella is showing no signs of finding a mate and is quite happy in the scrub north of Craig road.
· Kiwiana – This the young male kiwi released at Mcleod Bay in November. He was named Kiwiana by the Whangarei Heads school students and to show
his appreciation of his new name climbed over Mt Manaia and then south around to the face above the school.
· JJ- This is the large female kiwi who we also released in November- she has climbed up and over Mt Manaia and has dropped her transmitter on the
steep slope there (her transmitter was only temporally attached to monitor immediately release).