While it seems to have rained and blown for most of the past month, I was out and about last week on a gloriously sunny day (although the wind was cool enough) and was very pleased to see that the kuaka/godwits had returned.
New arrivals for the 2025/26 season: the kuaka/godwits return
There were forty something busy feeding at Karepiro Bay and I think they may have arrived as a group the week before. There was no sign of the ‘droopy wings’ of fresh arrivals (you try flapping your arms for eight days solid!), but they were very skitty and wouldn’t let me approach too closely. The flock will build up over the next month or so and we should get between a hundred and two hundred birds by November. There were still about eighty tōrea/pied oystercatchers busy feeding in the estuary. I guess a few may yet leave for their breeding grounds in the south, but most of them will probably give breeding a miss and over-summer here.
The tōrea pango/variable oystercatcher have paired up (and even getting amorous!) and both pairs south of the Weiti chénier are now on territory. There are two pairs of tūturiwhatu/NZ dotterel at Weiti and three pairs at Karepiro, but no serious signs of breeding apart from the deep brick-red colouration of the males. Jeremy tells me that the birds are using the grasslands at the Weiti development still, so hopefully there may be some breeding attempts there again this year. No sign of anything at the Okura shellbank, but it’s early days yet.