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A Kaikōura seabird advocate admits she had a few anxious moments when banded dotterels / pōhowera did not return as expected.
It was a nervous time as Ailsa McGilvary-Howard began watching out for the endangered seabirds to return to South Bay from the beginning of July.
After the July 7 flood event, she feared the birds might have been wiped out, until they began flying in at the end of the month.
She and her husband Ted Howard approached the Kaikōura District Council in March last year for help to protect the banded dotterels.
‘‘When I didn’t see the birds at the start of the season, I got some anxiety and concern for them.
‘‘Our birds have come back really late. Whether the storm impacted them or they found somewhere to hang out, I don’t know.
‘‘I put the word out, but I’ve had no indication they were hiding out in a cow paddock or anything like that.’’
In recent years, the trend has been for the birds to arrive back earlier each year, Ms McGilvary-Howard said.
Their later arrival could mean a later start to mating or the usual partner swapping rituals may end up being shorter.
The arrival of bird flu in New Zealand had also caused concern, she said.
‘‘We are not seeing carcasses of dead birds, so there is no sign the storm got them or of the presence of bird flu.
‘‘The only impact we can see is that they are late. The ones I’ve seen, they seem to be in good condition.’’
The usual threats from cats, dogs and other mammals are still there, but Ms McGilvary-Howard is hopeful the new animal bylaw, adopted by the council last year, will make a difference.
Traplines will be extended, while the new council rules mean vehicles are prohibited from known nesting areas between September 1 and December 1,
and dogs will need to be on a leash, along with desexing and microchipping of cats.
Ms McGilvary-Howard has been monitoring dotterel nests on the Kaikoura coastline voluntarily for more than a decade and completed a self-funded banded dotterel study in 2016.
While the dotterel can be found on braided rivers and coastlines in other parts of the South Island, Kaikōura is like ‘‘a whirlpool’’ which sucks birds in because there appears to be plenty of resources, she said.
She and Mr Howard monitor dotterel nesting sites at South Bay, between the Coastguard and The Caves, and further north between the West End shopping area and the New World supermarket.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
