The track between Stillwater and the coast
Summer, what summer you may ask? It’s been a fairly wild and wet time but the recent spell of calmer and dry weather allowed me to get out and walk through from Stillwater to Okura along the coast. I was surprised that the track from Stillwater to the Weiti chénier was more-or-less mud-free, given the wetness of the summer. Kererū were flying around and tui and riroriro were vocal, but overall there were few birds about. I guess that many are still moulting/chilling out after the breeding season.
There must have been over a hundred kuaka roosting on the chénier, some of which were colouring up nicely in preparation for breeding. It won’t be long now before they start their return journey to Alaska via the Yellow Sea. The torea flock is building and numbered around two hundred. The poaka have long fnished breeding and the adults and this year’s young are also starting to form winter flocks.
Bar-tailed Godwits. The bird on the right is starting to moult into breeding plumage
On the breeding front, the flagged female tūturiwhatu (CXE) has produced two fledged young this year, and a tōrea pango pair have raised a single chick. Added to this, the Karepiro pair of tōrea pango also raised a chick and one of the two pairs of tūturiwhatu nesting in the housing development also successfully raised a chick this year, which was quite an exciting development given that the beach nests were once again washed away this year. So, a total of three tūturiwhatu and two tōrea pango chicks raised in the 2025/6 season, which is about average.
One of the birds I love to see is the Brown Quail (kuera), which can often be found around Dacre’s Cottage. These small brown birds were introduced from Australia between 1866 and 1880 and have established themselves in the North Island. They were very similar to a native quail that became extinct in the 1870s. They are much smaller and lack the little topknot of the commoner Californian Quail. These birds are surprisingly pretty with their palette of browns and greys, and I’m always amused by the way they skitter about in front of you before diving off into the cover of long grass or undergrowth.
Brown Quail