Ahipara couple Doug and Jackie Klever could not have wished for a better Christmas gift than the egg laid by one of New Zealand's most endangered birds on the beach at Ahipara.
The NZ dotterel, one of an estimated 1700 in the North Island, had already laid two eggs in the days before Christmas, and at last report all was going well.
"This is the sixth time we've had dotterels breed here," Doug said, although some of the earlier efforts were unsuccessful thanks to a cavalier public attitude towards the birds' property rights. This nest was within the reserve area (the birds nest in almost exactly the same spot every year), Doug and Jackie using debris from under nearby pine trees to mark the nesting and protect it from people and vehicles.
"Everyone's being really good this year," Doug said, "so it looks as though the family is going to grow."
The pair were now living at Ahipara year-round, he added, while two more pairs were believed to be breeding further north, perhaps in a paddock above the beach. Their nests had not been sighted.
