Whangarei Heads School Visit

Reminder – Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum AGM

Wednesday June 17 at 7.30pm at McLeods Bay hall.

WHLF is a crucial platform that allows many of our community groups to carry out their important work at the Heads. Please come along and invite any interested friends and neighbours. Hear what the local Landcare groups (including Backyard Kiwi) are up to.

Backyard Kiwi visits to Parua Bay and Whangarei Heads Schools

We recently visited both our local schools with kiwi on their way for release as part of our community engagement work. We visited Paura Bay in late April as reported last month. In May we went to Whangarei Heads School.

Thank you to all those involved in the huge team effort that make these community engagement releases possible. Particularly thanks to Ngati Hine and the Purua farmers and DoC where these kiwi originally came from for the gift of the kiwi, they are treasured!

We transfer some young kiwi chicks to the FOMLI/ Te Parawhau managed Matakohe/Limestone Island where they grow up before we re-catch them for release.

Instead of a weekend public release this year we went to the schools where over 430 keen students got to meet their kiwi up close and personally.   This was after first learning about the science of kiwi recovery, the biology of kiwi, the history of community kiwi work and in particular the importance of good dog control. Students then got to quietly see the kiwi under strict conditions to ensure the wellbeing of the kiwi.

Thank you to the students of both Parua Bay and Whangarei Heads Schools for their patience; excellent behaviour and respect for these kiwi.

After the visit to the school the kiwi were released at Owhiwa Road in a dog free and pest managed block.

Our newest kiwi residents are:

• Kua tae– Named by the Whangarei Heads School after their school song – in honour of Laurence Berry who wrote the song and recently passed away. Kua tae is a male of 1900g and bill of 106.8mm. He has cruised around the release block at Owhiwa Road with a good average nightly activity of 12 hours. (see pics)
• Owhi– Named by Parua Bay School.  An adult female kiwi released in April. She spent 3 weeks checking out her release area before heading north to Ross Road. I have visited local dog owners there to reinforce how crucial good dog control is.   Her average nightly  activity is 12 hours.
• Tumanako– a young kiwi of 2000g who was named by Proud BYK supporters Sue and Wayne Morris.  Tumanako has been steadily working his way south through the pines on his release block at Owhiwa Road.  Average activity of 12 hours.
• Flaxy– A young female kiwi of 2100g.  Flaxy has moved north from her release spot but is still in the same safe pine block. 12 hours nightly activity.

With good community dog control these kiwi should have up to 50 years of breeding ahead of them helping the kiwi population increase and expand inland and northwards from Parua Bay.

Whangarei Heads/Parua Bay  Radio monitored kiwi:–

• Teina– In his usual valley of pampas and pines at the northwestern end of Martins’ pine block. 12.5 hours of activity.
• Beach Girl – In the pampas in the logged area on Halses’ block, Ross Road.  11.5 hours activity.
• Murdoch  – He is in the regenerating native on the Halses’ block at Ross Road. 12 hours nightly activity.

• Humphries –  North-eastern end of Martins’ pine block.  Kerry, Jess and I did his transmitter change as part of Jess’s training. He was 2050g and PM condition (ses pic).
• Wally –The logging of his pine block has paused because of the weather. He has moved back up out of the wetland and into the pines. 11 hours nightly activity.

Kiwi that have walked to other areas:

• Whareora Landcare area/NRC pines:  Te Motu Manu Hine–   12 hours of nightly activity.  She is still in the NRC pine block behind the money factory but slightly north of her usual area explaining why we couldn’t find her last visit. Rolf and I caught up with her this time and did her transmitter change. She weighed 2350g and was in good condition ready for breeding – but no sign of a male.
• Tamaterau/Waikaraka: Kim– She gave me the run around.  After being settled in the valley behind Waikaraka for over 6 months she went walkabout. I spent 4 days looking for her before I found her way back at the Martins’ pine block at the start of Owhiwa Road – almost exactly where she was released over 12 months ago. She has a pretty good GPS and may have made the over 5km journey in search of calling kiwi for the breeding season.
• Whanui Pine Block: Ping – .  Carl from PNLC monitoring – she is still in a similar spot in the Whanui Block.

Trapping/ toxin pulses

May catches: Stoats 1, weasels 9, cats 4, rats 90, hedgehogs 5 and possums 4.  Planning for kiwi saver pulses continues.

 

Kiwi Coast-NRC Pest workshop

A few BYK folks attended this excellent community workshop with a range of speakers from heavy hitting scientists, community groups and our old mate Steve Allen (who was also on RNZ recently talking about his traps).  It was very pleasing to hear the majority of the speakers stressing the importance of controlled 1080/kiwi saver pulses to deal with trap shy predators. Community led bait station kiwi saver pulses are becoming far more common and are the cornerstone of successful stoat control in Northand kiwi areas.

Kiwi Count at 19 official sites to assess the kiwi population

The first listening window was a bit of a shocker for us with many of the coastal sites either not being able to be done with the strong easterlies and high surf noise or the counters battling on as best they could.

Hopefully the weather is better for the second window (June 3- June 22) – but I suspect calls will be down with breeding well under way now.

We had two recorded kiwi deaths in May:

• 16/5/26- A long dead adult female on the side of a driveway at Kerr Road. There were just feathers and bones left. The landowner hasn’t seen any wandering dogs recently and visiting dogs are well controlled but it is unlikely to be a car hit in the spot that it was so dog kill is definitely a possibility. No ID chip.
• 21/5/26- Road kill adult male – “Waka” –  this guy hatched at Purua back in 2009 before being released at the Heads in 2010. We monitored until January 2026 and he had successfully nested.  He was last monitored in the pampas on the side of the road between Taurikura Bay and McKenzie Bay.  He was road killed very close to that same spot over 10 years later. Due to a slip there has been a one lane zone there slowing traffic. The slip was recently repaired and the road went back to two lanes.  Car speed would have picked up again – maybe this caught him out. He was 17 years old and in very healthy condition weighing 3050g.(see pics)

See you at the AGM,

Todd Hamilton

Backyard Kiwi Project Manager

Whangarei Heads Landcare Forum