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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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January 13th, 2017

2017 – January

Summer report 

Hot and Dry!

This summer is proving to be very dry and hot which means the kiwi will be spending more time looking for food. Spare a thought for the kiwi dads sitting on nests at the moment. There was a second round of nesting this year because of the wet spring but now those dads on the nests are doing it hard trying to incubate the eggs and only getting a couple of hours feeding in a night so they are getting pretty hungry. The females and younger males that are not nesting will be active all night looking for food. With the kiwi being more active and covering more area to feed they are more likely to turn up in your backyard or on the roadsides so those of us with dogs have to take extra care. Please politely remind any visitors to control their dogs!!  One uncontrolled dog can very quickly kill a kiwi without the dog’s owner even knowing.

Road Kill

With the high kiwi activity and extra holiday traffic the risk of the two meeting is higher than usual.  Unfortunately a female kiwi  was killed by a car this week – if this happens please let us know so we can check the kiwi out. This girl was well and truly smashed but we can work out the sex from the bill size- the girls are much bigger. I also check for an ID chip – all released kiwi have them and many of the chicks from the monitored kiwi are chipped too. This female didn’t have an ID chip so she had successful grown to adulthood thanks to our predator trapping network, without the traps most kiwi chicks are killed by stoats.

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Upcoming Kiwi Release

We are planning a Kiwi release for Saturday February 12 –  4.30pm McLeod Bay.  This will be a great chance to get up close and personal with a wild kiwi in your backyard so invite your friends and neighbours to be part of it. Over the coming weeks check the backyard kiwi face book page for more details

Kiwi Predator Control Programme

The predator trap network has been working hard to protect the kiwi chicks. There was the expected influx of reinvading stoats in December with 7 being caught in our traps – 6 of them juveniles at the northern end of our trapping network.

December Tally: stoats 7, weasels 1, feral cats 3, rats 59, hedgehogs 7 and  possums 5.

What your radio tracked Backyard Kiwi have been up to:

Darwin – He is well into his second nest in a pampas bush beside the Manaia Excavators truck park. Hatch is due late January.

Lambert – Usual area at Taurikura Ridge. On his second nest in the pampas in the pines, hatch due late January.

Whitu – At Reotahi above the freezing works. Just in the process of hatching chicks after 80 days of nesting.  He is in a long hollow puriri tree so it is unlikely that I will be able to ID chip them.

Dallas – This the guy who hangs out at the Hill’s place beside the Whangarei Heads School and he is often seen on the main road there at night. His transmitter has failed but a trail camera by a rotten log there showed that he is still about and doing fine.

EB – This is the young male released at McLeod Bay back in February 2015. He is 4 years old now and has found a mate just north of Kerr road. He is nesting in the pampas there with hatch due early February.

Tindall – This young guy is moving around at on the McLeod side of northern Mt Manaia. I recently caught up with him in the scrub there for his annual transmitter change. He was a healthy 2000g in weight.(pic attached)

 

Cheers

Todd Hamilton

Backyard Kiwi Project Manager

Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum

M 021 1145 385

E   hamiltont@maxnet.co.nz

 

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