It was with some trepidation that I visited the coast yesterday (15/11) to see what damage the spring high tide and howling northeaster had done. The water had swept over the chénier at Stillwater, so any dotterel/tūturiwhatu or oystercatcher/tōrea pango nests would have been swept away. There are still two dotterel pairs and an oystercatcher pair in residence, so hopefully they’ll nest soon. The pāteke pair are gone – we suspect the cat may have got the ducklings and the adults have abandoned the site. Let’s hope for better luck next year when Council have taken over regular live trapping to protect these rare ducks. There were 108 godwits/kuaka and 35 South Island pied oystercatchers/tōrea pango resting up over high tide.

Young tūturiwhatu on the beach
By some sort of miracle the dotterel nest at Okura survived and has now been joined by nesting oystercatchers.