Ask Phoebe: Birds on verge of nest success near motorway

Dotterels have nested by the Northern Motorway. Photo / Greg Bowker

Some years ago there were works (when aren't there?) on and around the Northern Motorway near The Warehouse headquarters. At the time there were concerns around the nesting habits and requirements of a rarish species of sea bird, and little mountains of shells were built up to provide nesting sites amongst the mangroves. As we don't seem to have had any updates on the birds and their habitat, have they taken to their new arrangements and are they nesting and raising chicks successfully? What were those birds anyway? A species of tern mayhap? Graeme McDermott, New Lynn.

The birds were New Zealand dotterels, Caspian terns and variable oyster catchers. They have all been breeding successfully, and the NZ Transport Agency will continue to monitor them and control predators (read: rats) for the next four to five years, as part of the consent requirement.

New nesting sites were created for these endangered shore birds back in 2003. In the past, some dotterel pairs had attempted to breed near the motorway verges around the Esmonde Rd interchange. The verges were not safe from disturbance or predators, but some of the nests were successful with one or two chicks fledging.

The City of Cork shell bank, alongside the motorway just south of Esmonde Rd, had been used by two pairs of dotterels during the breeding season but due to king high tides the area couldn't cater for more nesting sites.

Five new nesting sites were established. The creation of new nests does not involve a physical relocation of the birds, which would be unlikely to succeed, but an inducement to nest. The new sites were designed to encourage the birds to move, and grass mowing around the Esmonde Road interchange was stopped in the breeding season.

The conditions created by construction activities e.g. bare areas, rock and hay mulch, replicated the preferred dotterel nesting habitat, to the point where, during the breeding season, construction workers often found they were sharing their work areas with amorous dotterel pairs.

In many situations the birds were left to nest - the noise, vibration and nearby activity seemed to have little effect on them. In a very few areas, methods to dissuade nesting activity were used, including flame sticks (stakes with silver/red metallic streamers), hawk kites, and shade cloth fences to break up sight lines and reduce the 360 degree vision essential to nesting birds.

I often hear on the radio traffic reports, references to traffic build-up or queues from St Lukes, from Western Springs, and from St Lukes Rd. Are these names synonymous? I once heard there was a hold-up between St Lukes and Western Springs - are they not one and the same? Could just one name be used, to avoid confusion? Brian Millar, Titirangi.

Ah, good old radio. Actually, they are right, to a degree. St Lukes Rd is the interchange where you get on the Northwestern Motorway westbound. Western Springs is where you get off the motorway westbound, and on to the motorway citybound.

There's maybe half a kilometre between the two. But yes, it would be helpful if there was just one name, and either would do, in my mind.