A fence was erected on Westshore Beach to help save the endangered banded dotterel.
A fence was erected on Westshore Beach to help save the endangered banded dotterel.
A fence erected on the beach at Westshore as a trial has been hailed a success by members of the Save the Dotterels, Hawke’s Bay group which has been monitoring the endangered birds for a few years.
Paddy and Glynis Cooper, long term Ferguson St residents, had been observing the banded dotterels, tūturiwhatu, attempting to breed on the beach adjacent to where they lived and noticed the many adversities these birds faced - especially with vehicles on beaches and dogs off lead, says group member Lynne Anderson.
“They set up a Facebook page and through that Marilyn Scott, who had been monitoring banded dotterels at the Clive / Waipureku site, made contact - hence Save the Dotterels, Hawke’s Bay came about. The original working group has since expanded as have the volunteers.”
Lynne says the group then made contact with Napier City Council about erecting a ‘trial’ fence and received a positive response.
“The council realised the adversities the birds faced and agreed to erect and fund the fence.”
The fence, around 300m long and about 30m wide, was put up in the first half of 2022.
“We estimated there were at least 30-plus breeding pairs of birds on the stretch of beach adjacent to the Rotary pathway between the end of Ferguson St at the Bayview end and the Esplanade at the Westshore end. The number of nests within the council fence was estimated to be nine.”
Lynne says the fence did receive some damage during Cyclone Gabrielle which is reparable. She believes before it being erected, most members of the public would have been unaware of the dotterels living there but were interested in the birds when they were educated about their situation.
“Most members of the public also showed interest and were only too willing to cooperate. We gave out pamphlets and talked to people. We put up signs - the Westshore school children did posters and we chose some of them to be turned into signs. It was very much spreading awareness and education.”
Signs were erected along Westshore Beach to educate the public about the dotterel nesting area.
The birds have evolved to protect themselves against natural predators such as harriers, New Zealand falcon and black-backed gulls - all aerial predators.
“Hence they are highly camouflaged, including the eggs and chicks. Now they also have to cope with vehicles on beaches, people disturbance, dogs off lead, domestic and feral cats, rats, stoats and other mustelids and magpies, etc.”
Although the fence is only erected in one area, the birds breed on the entire length of the beach and in many other areas.
“This just happened to be the area we chose to monitor. Before the fence, there were far more vehicles on the beach and the fence really helped to spread awareness with the general public.”
Monitoring of the nesting site was undertaken by volunteers most weekends and sometimes twice a week between July 2022 and February this year. The first sighting was of a pair of dotterels at the northern end of the monitored area. Dotterels continued to be sighted at the beach until early August when a falcon was seen in the area. The first nest was identified on September 4.
A male dotterel is seen nesting.
“The first small chicks were sighted on September 17, which indicates the first nests were laid around August 20,” Lynne says.
There were 23 identified nests and at least eight unidentified nests, with the number of nests inside the council fence being six identified and at least three unidentified.
Most nests were at the southern end of the council fence.
“There was a total of at least 62 adults, with 59 eggs confirmed in identified nests. From 31 nests, we can predict about 90 eggs were laid - usually three per nest. The last sighting of banded dotterels on the beach was on February 8 - one adult and one chick were seen at the southern end of the council fence.”
Lynne says while there was no clear evidence of a difference between nesting and survival rates within and outside the fence, it was very effective in raising public awareness and reducing the vehicle use of the shingle bank along the whole length of the beach.
“Overall, it was thought that the fence has been a great success and the observers were even starting to think that the birds were using it as a haven. It has been observed that prior to the NCC fence being built this area would have few, if any, nests as quad bikes used to frequently cover the whole area.”
