Photo by Suzy Barlow

The highlight of the last month or so was the release of “Ngakau” at the Hunt’s property on Taurikura Ridge in late January. Over 200 people were there to wish him on his way. Since being released, Ngakau has had a good walk around Taurikura ridge and into Bream Head and is proving tricky to keep up with. Below, also find the updated map of monitored birds in the Whangarei Heads.

On the down side “Jen” from the Kerr Road/Kauri Mt area, died of natural causes. All the other kiwi are going well and have had a great summer.

Whangarei Heads Monitored Kiwi Activity:

Jen – This is the Kauri Mt bird we found dead last month – Massey University found no toxins or injuries, leaving natural causes as reason for death

Jackies Boy – Ok –high activity – as the nights get longer the dads not nesting are being very busy.

Darwin – OK – high activity

JR – January’s nesting attempt failed – did tx change (after 2 days trying to find him!)– he is at the top of the big slip on the south end of Taurikura Ridge.

Waka – OK-high activity

Charlotte – 6 monthly check done: Weighs 2510g and has a 121.5 mm bill length. (This is a wild bird I found last year – her bill was 118.6mm on 8/8/11 – so this tells us she is still growing and relatively young bird). Charlotte was in a burrow in the backyard of the Utting’s Bach at Mckenzie Bay- I took the opportunity so show the landowners their kiwi and they were stoked.

Lambert – OK –high activity.

Whitu – OK -activity high

Charlie– ok-activity high

Dallas – Started 2nd nest at Hills next to school

Ngakau - photo by Kate Ward

Ngakau – After being released at Hunt’s he has travelled Taurikura ridge and walked into Bream Head – but is off radar now. Pete and Cathy checking Bream Head for him, I will check Taurikura ridge to see if he has walked back.

Things are still ticking over nicely for the new year. The two monitored Whangarei Heads kiwi’s that are on their second nests have hatched chicks. The damp conditions are great for new chicks and recovering dads – with plenty of easy pickings of bugs and grubs about.

In December, we had planned a serious search for kiwi to transfer from Limestone Island (James Fraser and Natasha Coad were up with their kiwi dogs) but the wind and rain severely limited opportunities. We had one day there, but didn’t come up with any of our chicks. Hopefully we will get another opportunity in the next month or so.

What the monitored birds were up to as of December:

· JR –completed nesting.

· Dallas – has finished nesting now – he hatched 1 chick – who has been named “Dallson” by the Hill’s Grand daughters. This was the first breeding effort by Dallas who was released back in 2009 as a 1 year old.· Jackies Boy – has settled back down in his usual area at the Kings.

· Jen – no sign of nesting

· Darwin – has moved back to the pampas at the Lamb road quarry.

· Charlie – has settled north of Mcleods.

· Lambert- transmitter shows recent hatch – now monitoring activity for possible 2nd chick.

· Whitu- hatched 1 chick for Christmas – see photo. The second egg was infertile.

· Waka and Charlotte- ok activity still high

Todd with Whitu and "Christmas" chick

The kiwi nesting season has had a very successful and early start – mainly due to kiwi getting into good condition last autumn with the good rainfall then. 4 monitored nests have already produced 6 chicks with more on the way from other nesting dads.

The bad news is that dogs have killed 2 adult kiwi on the roadside at the Nook in recent weeks. One was a wild adult male and the other was our old friend “Jackie” who we have monitoring since she hatched 7 years ago. This is a reminder that uncontrolled dogs are the biggest threat to kiwi.

Dead Kiwi At Nook

Monitored Birds Update:

·Lambert – At Taurikura Ridge, after already successfully hatching 2 chicks, Lambert’s transmitter is indicating that his activity is dropping and that he is looking to start another nest.

·Whitu –Has beaten Lambert to the drop and is already on his second nest.

·JR – At the southern end of Taurikura Ridge has finally had a successful nest on his 3rd attempt this year and has hatched 2 chicks.

·Waka and Charlotte – Are still hanging around the beach houses at Mckenzie Bay.

·Dallas – Is still nesting at the Hill’s property next to the Whangarei Heads school – he has just hatched his first chick according to the data stream from his transmitter and hopefully will have a second shorterly.

·Jackie’s mate Jackie’s Boy – Not only did this guy recently lose his mate to a dog he has given up on his nest at the Nook- bad news all round.

·Jen– Is still showing high activity in the area between Kerr Road and Kauri Mt road.

·Darwin – Is nesting at Lamb Road and chicks are due to hatch shorterly.

·Charlie – After being released in McLeod Bay back in August he has moved north to Craig Road and seems to have settled at the McNamara’s at this stage.

·Tiaki – This is the young kiwi released at Capey’s in conjunction with the Bream Head Conservation Trust. Tiaki is being monitored by BHCT and has moved up the steep slopes of Mt Lion.

Below is the monitored kiwi update for mid-September – including a map of the location of the monitored kiwi.

· Lambert – At Taurikura Ridge, has successfully hatched 2 chicks (giving him a grand total of 9 for the past 3 years!) Understandably Lambert has lost a bit of condition after nesting for over 80 days with only a few hours feeding each night but he is healthy and will soon get back up to weight.

Lambert's Second Chick

· Whitu –at Reotahi, successfully hatched 1 chick and is in good condition to breed again this season.

Whitu's Chick September 2011

· JR – at the southern end of Taurikura Ridge is having his third attempt at nesting since March so hopefully this will go better than his last two attempts..

· Waka and Charlotte – are still hanging around the beach houses at Mckenzie Bay . See news story on home page about Charlotte.

· Dallas – has started a nest at the Hill’s property next to the Whangarei Heads school – this is his first nest and as he is still quite young (coming up on 3 years old) it may just be a bit of a practice before the real deal.

· Jackie’s mate Jackie’s Boy is still sitting on a nest at the Nook.

· Jen– is still showing high activity in the area between Kerr Road and Kauri Mt road.

· Darwin – is nesting at Lamb Road. This is exciting news because Darwin has been by himself for the past 5 years and this means that he has finally found himself a girl!

· Charlie – has settled in well at McLeod Bay after his release there a few weeks ago – see news story on home page about his release.

· Tiaki – this is the young kiwi released at Capey’s last month in conjunction with the Bream Head Conservation Trust. Tiaki is being monitored by BHCT and has moved up the steep slopes of Mt Lion.

Here’s the monitored kiwi update for mid-August, with a map showing where the kiwi are located, below.

Unfortunately we have had a problem with a batch of radio transmitters with premature battery failure. We have been flat out (no pun intended) changing the transmitters over to new ones on our monitored kiwi but have lost contact with 4 of the transmittered kiwi – Xmas and Ari at Mcleod Bay and Dan and King at Kauri Mt. The attachment bands on the radio transmitters are designed to fall off the kiwi after about 6 months so the flat transmitters are not a problem to the kiwi it just means we have lost contact with them. Other happenings with the transmittered kiwi are:

Lambert – Our “dad of the year” for the past 2 seasons – hatching 7 chicks – is nesting and due to hatch eggs in late August on Taurikura ridge.

Whitu – is also well into his nesting session at Reotahi.

JR – Unfortunately JR gave up on his second nest of the season before it hatched – he now has a new transmitter and is 1850g and in good health.

Waka – Is still hanging around the beach houses at Mckenzie Bay and Todd found him cuddled up with a wild female recently – see news story on home page. He was 2150 g and has a new transmitter.

Dallas – Is still in the pampas SW of Whangarei Heads Road below the school – he had a transmitter change and is in very good condition at 2375g.

Jackie and her mate Jackie’s Boy have started a nest at the Nook – dad has nearly 3 months of sitting ahead of him.

Jen– is 1800g and is also sporting a new transmitter- He (Jen is a boy!) is well settled between Kerr Road and Kauri Mt road.

Darwin – is due his transmitter change but is playing hard to get in deep burrows at Lamb road.

Below you will find the update for each monitored kiwi, and the monitored kiwi map.

We have successfully released two more kiwi into the Heads in the past month. “Te Rata” was caught on Limestone Island by ranger Ben Barr who heard him calling nearby while he was cooking tea. Ben snuck out and nabbed him. He was released by a good crowd of locals at Zac Smith’s place on the south side of Kauri Mt. On his way there he paid a visit to the Whangarei Heads School and Parua Bay School to be welcomed to his new home. Te Rata was one of last season’s chicks and was a healthy 1725g in weight.

One of the kiwi chicks from the Department of Conservation 1080 trials in the study block at Rarewarewa (just north of Purua) reached transfer weight last month so was also ready to come to the Heads. He/She has been named “Robin” by Moria Pagan and Wayne Burchall who are one of WHLF Backyard kiwi’s Foundation sponsors. Robin visited the Papakarahi Landcare nursery team at the Nook and Parua Bay School before being released at Grant and Raewyn Fabers on the north side of Kauri Mt.

The “smart” radio transmitters on our kiwi are telling us that male activity is dropping at the moment as they start to nest. These Dad’s activity drops from over 12 hours a night down to only around 3 hours as they sit on the eggs.

Some happenings with the transmittered kiwi:

– Lambert: Our “dad of the year” for the past 2 seasons – hatching 7 chicks- has started to nest again in the pampas on Taurikura ridge.

– JR: Is at the North end of Urquharts Bay has started nesting again after a practice start back in April, hopefully he will see this nest through.

– Waka: Is still hanging around the beach houses at Mckenzie Bay – letting the locals know that he is about with some loud calling.

– Dallas: Has spent time around the eastern side of the Whangarei Heads School and even right down to be within 5m of the foot path on Whangarei Heads Road below the school.

– Ari and Xmas: No radio signal from either of these guys this month so hope they are tucked down in rock guts at the back of McLeods.

– Jackie and her mate Jackie’s Boy: Spending plenty of time together at the Nook – hopefully there will be some eggs produced soon.

– King: Is at Kauri Mt has settled into his nesting area from last season

Violet Having Her Transmitter Removed

We had a very successful kiwi release on Easter Friday with 120 locals and visitors meeting on the Dudin’s property in McLeod Bay. We released two new kiwi to the Heads – a chick named “Harding” in honour of Peter and Betty Harding for all the hard work they do for our community, and “Ari” named by the Jaggers after the famous Finnish rally driver. Ari was fitted with a radio transmitter and has settled into an area at the back of McLeod Bay.

We will be releasing more kiwi at the Heads in the next month or so – subscribe to our electronic updates if you would like notification of release dates.

The “smart” radio transmitters on our other kiwi are telling us that the kiwi are very active at the moment. Most are “getting up” at around 5pm in the evening and are active for 12 hours plus – feeding up for the upcoming nesting season.

We are carrying out our annual kiwi call count at the moment as a measure of the kiwi population at the Whangarei Heads. We have trained volunteers at 21 listening stations throughout the Heads listening for 2 hours on 4 different nights. Initial numbers of calls are encouraging and their timing also reflects our radio transmitter data with call counts being high in the early evening as kiwi call to find their mate, and then call rates dropping off after that.

Some happenings with the transmittered kiwi:

– Jackie’s Boy – at the Nook – has been playing hard to get sleeping in hollow Puriri trees ( a great place to keep safe from dogs during the day) but he spent one day sleeping in some bracken so I caught up with him for his 6 monthly check and he was a healthy 2050g.

– Violet – This is the adult female who used to hang around the Manaia Club before the pine harvesting there and now spends most her time in the scrub on Mt Aubrey at Bay View Road. She has proved to be very jumpy since the logging operation and has become hard to catch so when I finally caught up with her this month I removed her transmitter (see photo above). She was in good condition and weighed 2700g with a bill length of 137mm. With good dog control she should have another 50 years of life there.

– JR – Who is at the North end of Urquharts Bay had a practice start to nesting back in April but gave up this month. Hopefully he will try again soon.

– Waka – Is still hanging around the beach houses at Mckenzie Bay – letting the locals know that he is about with some loud calling apparently.

Summary of kiwi monitoring Mid April:

–Funded by Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi Trust–

Summary of kiwi monitoring Mid March:

Funded by Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi Trust

Summary of kiwi monitoring for January:

Funded by Bank of New Zealand Save the Kiwi Trust

• All monitored birds checked OK for the month – one unmonitored kiwi death reported.

• Have located and rechecked most monitored kiwi since the flooding and their data streams indicate that they are doing well. No doubt there will have been some chick losses with the downpour and possibly deaths of unmonitored adult kiwi in the slip areas. However the rain may also kick start another round of nesting.

Graph Kiwi population at Whangarei Heads

• An adult female was run over on the road just north of McLeods – unfortunately this is the area that our backyard kiwi crossing sign used to warn motorists to be careful of kiwi. That sign was recently stolen – broken off above the concrete at ground level after a serious effort with a vehicle and chain by thieves. The silver lining to this kiwi death is that once again it was a “wild bred” bird with no ID chip – birds like this can only reach adulthood if our trapping network is working.

• Lionel Sands (one of our foundation sponsors) has named Whitu’s most recent chick “Wally” in honour of Captain Wally Wordley of the 28th Maori Battalion who spent time at the Heads.

• Lambert is still on his second nest at Taurikura ridge and the egg(s) are due to hatch in the next week.

• Waka –biometrics done – he is growing well 1790g (up from 1325g in September) and has settled in bush above Taurikura Bay .

• JR- above Mckenzie bay – annual tx change – 1900g

• Dan- at Kauri Mt –annual tx change -1840g.

• Violet due transmitter change but still proving elusive at Mt Aurbrey –will not replace her transmitter when we finally catch up with her as she has become to difficult to monitor.

• Sleepy due biometrics but still hanging out in various hollow Puriri.

• Xmas is due transmitter change but is also proving hard to locate in Mcleod bay and his data stream is indicating nesting behaviour.

Kicking Kiwi