annual survey

October 13 2019

Ashley Update: October 2019

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Birds. It has been a slow start to the riverbed breeding season – possibly due to the persistence of cooler weather. I walk a section of the river every month and turn over rocks in the shallower braids looking for insect activity (the base of the food chain). Parts have plenty, others have virtually none (and usually fewer birds), but numbers are increasing. I reckon that there are currently 6 pairs of wrybill occupying territories on the AR, with nests found within three. Included in this lot is BW/BW, back in the usual site for his 10^th season. There are other likely and historically used sites which could well get taken up in the near future. The first nesters are nearly always banded dotterels. Some nests have been found, plus young chicks seen. Oystercatchers have also been observed on nests at a few sites, but the pied stilts have been slower off the mark. Of particular interest are 100s of black-billed gulls present not far above the Cones Road bridge. Last week two Twilight Walk groups visited them – they look as if they will breed there, but no signs of nests yet. Black-fronted terns are also gathering at a few sites, with 70+ up above the aerodrome, but like the gulls, they have yet to start laying eggs.

Annual survey. Hopefully, you have already received notification about this event on Saturday, November 16. Please be at the start site in the Cones Road river bridge picnic area before 8.30 am. This will mean that we can be on the river by 9 am, and all going well, be home again by midday. Bev Alexander is taking names, so will contact people if the river/weather requires postponement.

Predators. We now have 241 traps out on the riverbed, plus another 137 around the estuary. All told, there are 28 volunteers servicing them. Over late winter the catch rate dropped considerably but is now picking up – with the first hedgehogs emerging from hibernation. Weasels are the main pest being caught currently. Trapping co-ordinator, Peter Whitehead, has organised the establishment of a central ‘supply’ depot at DoC, where trappers can get bait and other essentials. He has also made and sent around tubes for poison baits, targeting rats which were in record numbers at the end of last season. In addition to all this, we have made a number of run-through trapping tunnels, which we will deploy in a grid formation around colonies of gulls and terns.

Trap making. Geoff Swailes continues to organise sessions in his garage, including one in which students of N. Loburn school will assist as part of establishing a local ‘library’, from which traps can be borrowed by local people.

Weeds. The invasion of clear shingle by weeds (yellow lupins, grasses, gorse, broom, blackberry etc) is arguably the biggest threat to long-term successful bird breeding – as we cannot depend on large floods to keep them at bay. We don’t want to use chemicals in the riverbed, so this year we have been involved in a trial using a tractor-mounted ripper, developed by Cresslands Contracting Ltd on Tulls road. The Mark 111 version is almost there, and cleared 14 ha during August. DOC and ECan have funded this work, and hope that the result can be a cost-effective way of maintaining weed control into the future – on more than just our river.

River-bed access. From Sept 1 to the end of January, we have an agreement with ECan and the Combined 4WD Club, that 4WD access into the riverbed be restricted. To this end, in August concrete blocks and barriers were placed across the main access ways. To be sure, there will always be those who challenge such restrictions, but by and large, the barriers have been accepted and vehicle use of the riverbed is way less than it was a few years ago.

Student study. A UoC PhD student, Sanaz Safavian (from Iran), is working in association with the ripper weed trial, monitoring weed successions following control, plus the use of the sites by birds (just a few banded dotterels to date). Members of the group helped her to establish plots which are now being measured regularly. [Photo: Sanaz getting close up to a nesting wrybill. Sanaz is studying weed succession on the river, following clearance by a tractor-mounted ripper. This photo was taken by Group member, Grant Davey, who is well versed in how to take such shots with minimum disturbance to the birds involved.]

Public awareness. The Group’s profile remains high, as we continue to be involved with schools, local groups, the Ohoka market etc. Plus we gave a couple of Ppt addresses at the very successful braided river seminar held at Lincoln on June 26 (fully booked out, with over 150 present). Our 20-minute video, ‘Rakahuri Rescue’ has been well received throughout the country. Please promote its viewing as widely as you can. Then there is Karakaas Dairy Products Ltd, our one and only sponsor. Please support them (and us) by purchasing their bird-marked and very tasty products.

What can you do? Needless to say, this is a frequently asked question. And it is not easily answered, as apart from trap checking (which requires special skills), occasions down on the river where many people can be involved are few and far between. There is the half-day survey on Nov 16 (see above), but this involves less than 20 people with the right bird ID skills. In the autumn, we had some volunteer weed pulling mornings, which went well but cannot be continued into the bird breeding season. There will be more of these next year. Right now during the breeding season, we try to keep people off the river for bird disturbance reasons, but we will attempt to organise more ‘twilight’ walks to sites where the birds can be viewed from a safe distance. Anyone can, of course, attend our meetings – a notice about the next one (prior to Christmas) will be sent around in the near future. For a full record of where we have been and intend to go, have a look at our annual 2018-19 report.

Nick Ledgard, October 2019

August 30 2019

Chair Report 2019

ashleyriver Trapping

Welcome everyone to this AGM. The Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group was formed in 1999 and became an Incorporated Society in 2005. This report is largely an adaptation of the summary from our 15th annual report for the 2018-19 season, which is just about completed.

Activities were focussed on management to assist the feeding and breeding of the threatened species in the river, particularly the wrybill (ngutupare), black-billed gull (tarapuka) and black-fronted tern (tarapirohe). To this end, the main actions undertaken involve habitat management (mainly weed control), monitoring bird populations and breeding success, predator control, restricting 4WD access to the river during the breeding season, and improving awareness by the public and river management decision-makers.

The Group’s finances are in good shape. We are now mostly self-funded, with finances coming from a trap making and selling project, donations and a sponsorship via Karikaas Natural Dairy Products Ltd – plus grants for larger specialist projects (such as weed clearing and video making) from DOC, ECan and its Waimakariri Zone Committee, and the Rata Foundation.

Habitat enhancement. The impact of weeds has changed considerably over recent years. After their increase between 2014 and early 2017 causing a major loss of clear gravel areas (essential for bird breeding), large floods over the 2017 winter increased clean shingle areas from around 30ha to over 250ha. However, these clear areas are now being reinvaded. So past weed clearing efforts have been continued, with a bulldozer used to rip and blade 10ha in July 2018, but weed regrowth over the subsequent summer was significant. Over this past winter, a trial using a tractor-mounted ripper was initiated, with early results indicating that this may lead to a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly means of maintaining weed control in the future.

Bird surveys. Although the bird population trend up to 2014 was a positive rising one, it reversed (declined) in the following 2 years – most likely associated with increased weed invasions. However, the survey figures for November 2017 and 2018 indicate that this decline in bird populations has stopped. Wrybill survey numbers (20) were the second-highest ever. Black-fronted terns and S. Is pied oystercatchers were also more frequent than usual, but numbers of banded dotterels and pied stilts were down on last season and the long-term average. Black-billed gull survey numbers were low but did not include a large colony of over 2000 birds which arrived after the survey date.

Monitoring of breeding birds. At least eight pairs of wrybill took up territories in the study area in 2018-19 – the same number as in the previous two seasons. A minimum of 6 chicks were fledged by six pairs, for a productivity of 0.75 chicks fledged per pair. Such productivity is above the previous season (0.63) and close to the long-term average of 0.79. Black-fronted tern breeding attempts remain fickle, with many nests abandoned, often for unknown reasons. As in the previous year, 70-80 pairs built nests, but productivity was only 0.25, well below the long-term average of 0.41. For the second time in 5 years, a black-billed gull colony returned to the riverbed. The first attempt by over 2000 birds below the SH1 bridge was flooded out, but the colony re-established at the Smarts site. This colony was closely monitored, mainly by aerial bird counts using a drone. Approximately 700 nests resulted in 450-500 chicks fledging, for a productivity of between 0.64 – 0.71. This is well above the long-term riverbed average of 0.32. Breeding productivity of other species was not recorded, but signs of success were noted at many sites.

Predator control. The number of trap-nights during the 2018/19 summer breeding season was 33,742 – the highest since regular trapping started in 2004, and 36% more than in the previous season. The overall summer catch rate was 0.41 per 100 trap nights, close to the previous season’s rate of 0.44, and well below the long-term average of 0.86. The main reason for this decline over the long period is due to fewer hedgehogs being caught. The outstanding feature of the summer period was the large increase in rat catch – 43 compared with 9 in the previous period. Weasel catch also was considerably larger – the reasons for both increases are unknown. The overall winter catch rate was 0.73 per 100 trap nights – the highest recorded since winter trapping began in 2014. It is mainly due to the large increase in rats and weasels caught. Moves are underway to increase trap numbers to cover the entire 21km riverbed margin on both banks, raising the total number of traps from the current 242 to close to 500. Rats will be specifically targeted by the deployment of poison bait tunnels, and colonies of breeding birds will be protected by a surrounding grid network of traps. Over the past year, the Waikuku Estuary Trapping Group has been managing over 100 traps around the estuary. The trap catch rate was 0.63 – close to the riverbed average of 0.59. As in the riverbed, the most notable feature was the high numbers of rats and weasels caught.

Meetings / members and awareness / education. The group has 45 members and 103 recipients of regular update emails. During the 2018/19 season, the Group held four meetings, with attendance numbering between 15-18. The Group also has an 8-person Management Committee for decision-making and funding approval of small tasks requiring immediate attention. Over the past year, many opportunities have been taken to ensure that the public were kept aware of the Group’s activities. Fifteen articles appeared in local papers. Powerpoint presentations were given to six schools, plus presentations were given to the Waimakariri Zone Committee, local scouts and four service clubs. An interview was given to the local radio ‘Compass FM’ and from October through to February the Rangiora cinema showed a ‘screen vista’ about the Group prior to every film showing. A regular email update was sent out during the breeding season. The Group’s 20-minute documentary/ video ‘Rakahuri Rescue’ was launched in the Rangiora Town Hall on March 21. It has been well received throughout the country, with some seeing it as a ‘benchmark’ record of a successful community group in action. A definite highlight of the past year, was the Group’s winning of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society’s ‘’Practical Management Award’ for 2018. We were invited to accept this award and present a talk at the annual conference of the Society, held in Hobart during December. Other highlight talks were given at the launch of the ‘Year of the Wrybill’ event at Miranda, south Auckland (March 10), and the BRaid-organised braided river seminar on June 26. Karikaas Natural Dairy Products Ltd in Loburn now uses our name, plus images of riverbed birds, on their premier cheese packages, in return for which we get a percentage of profits. Our website was upgraded and managed by Sonny Whitelaw, while Steve Attwood ran our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ashleyrivercare). Relative to the latter, Steve records ‘a record performance across the board’. Both social media outlets are vital as they serve as our ‘shop window’. The Group remained closely associated with staff from DOC, the Waimakariri District Council and local Zone Committee, Environment Canterbury (ECan) and the Ashley-Rakahuri Regional Park – plus contributed actively to the running of BRaid Inc, a group which aims to improve the ecological welfare of all braided rivers in Canterbury.

Conclusion. Relative to the future success of rare and endangered shorebird species breeding in the Ashley-Rakahuri river, bird populations and breeding success increased significantly from 2000 – 2014, but then declined through the subsequent 2 years – due primarily to a major increase in weed-infested areas. Over the past 2 years, much effort has gone into artificial weed removal and increasing predator trapping. It appears that the bird population decline has been arrested. The major challenges now involve maintaining adequate weed control, further improving predator control (particularly relative to climbing numbers of rats and weasels), and maintaining the interest and involvement of the local community and major decision-makers in bird management on the Ashley-Rakahuri River.

Last but never least, my heartfelt thanks go to all members of the Group for the work they have put in over the past year. I don’t like picking out individuals, but there are some I must mention: Joan Miles for her work as Secretary, Sue Mardon for her excellent work as Treasurer, Peter Whitehead for his organisation of the trapping teams, Geoff Swailes for all our trap making, and Grant Davey for his mapping and record-keeping skills. Steve Attwood also deserves special mention for his willing help and success in the promotion area. Ongoing thanks are always due to the likes of ECan and their Regional Park staff, the Waimak DC and DOC. We might be the body which makes passionate pleas on behalf of the public, but without their professional support, it would be very hard to make meaningful progress.

Nick Ledgard

ARRG Chair

August, 2019

April 19 2019

Trapping Report: 01 Feb-10 April 2019

ashleyriver Predators, Trapping, Trapping

We all interpret data in different ways. The latest Ashley Rakahuri trapping report from Grant Davey is an exemplar of how community-led trapping data can be presented and understood using a variety of infographics. These allow anyone to readily interpret what’s being trapped, when, where, and how the numbers and types of predators change over the seasons.

The importance of understanding the ‘who, what, when, where, how, and why’ of predators is crucial if we are to get on top of them, especially given the megamast. On face value, it may not seem that this would have a direct impact on braided rivers in the 2019 breeding season to come (ie, the ‘why’ part of the story) . In fact, once the expected plague of rodents (and in turn mustelids) begin to compete with one another for food, they will quickly turn to the nearest takeaway-meals: ground nesting birds, their eggs and chicks, including those on braided rivers. Grant’s report is available here:

March 7 2019

Film Premiere: “Rakahuri Recovery – saving the birds of the Ashley-Rakahuri River”

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Book your tickets here

The award-winning efforts of the dedicated volunteers working to save the unique but endangered birds of the Ashley-Rakahuri River are celebrated in this short film.

The birds evolved to live on Canterbury’s braided rivers, which themselves are almost unique in the world. They include the wrybill plover, the only species in the world with a sideways bending bill. Other specialist braided river birds are the black-fronted tern and the black-billed gull.

The birds are threatened by introduced predators, exotic weeds and human disturbance, so in 1999 concerned volunteers formed the Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group (ARRG) with the mission ‘of protecting birds and their habitat in the Ashley River / Rakahuri, while recognising essential river control works and sympathetic recreational users.

ARRG has been successful, and won awards for its endeavours – including the 2018 Practical Management Award given out by the Australasian Wildlife Management Society. Some say the Group has set an example of how conservation actions can be carried out by a community.

This 18 minute video by local film-maker Tony Benny follows a year’s activities, with stunning footage of the birds and their breeding stages, along with the challenges they face. It includes interviews with river users about how awareness by the general public is being improved.

The cinema will be showing this documentary free of charge, however as it will be on screen between between paid movies, attendees do need to be at the cinema by 6.00pm sharp.

January 14 2019

January 2019 update

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The last update was written in mid-November, and as that was mid-season, a fair bit has happened since then.

Annual survey. This, the key event of our bird year, went ahead on Nov 24, co-ordinated by Bev Alexander and Grant Davey.

As Grant says in his excellent report, “Eighteen volunteers took part, this was enough to do a quality survey. The weather was cloudy with some drizzle in the upper reaches. River flow was approximately 9 cumecs as measured at the gorge. A small flood reaching about 82 cumecs had occurred on 9 November and bird numbers may still have been recovering after this. A more significant flood soon after the survey (November 26), measuring up to 140 cumecs at the gorge, would have severely impacted bird numbers.”

Indeed, we were very lucky to get this survey completed when we did. If you want a copy of Grant’s report, I can send you one. In brief, total bird numbers were about the same as last year, so we have seen a couple of stable years, after the big declines in 2015 and 2016. This was due to weed invasion, and after last year’s major flood clearances we were hoping for higher numbers, but not so – probably because this has been a disrupted season. However, wrybill numbers were considerably up – from 9 last year to 20, with the long-term average being 13.

Interestingly, and demonstrating how dynamic are braided rivers and their inhabitants, if the annual count had been 2 days later (after the flood), wrybill numbers could well have been zero, as I have not seen a single wrybill on the river since that event.

Bird breeding. With a couple of exceptions, this season will probably go down as one of the poorest, due to the floods which occurred at sensitive times. Fortunately, 4 of our 8 wrybill pairs managed to fledge single chicks before floods intervened, but for other species virtually all eggs and non-flying chicks were lost to the Nov 26 flood. Also swept away by that event was a large black-billed (BBG) colony and some smaller colonies of black-fronted terns (BFTs). I thought that was the end of the season for them, but not so – the BBGs soon resettled not far up-river, with the BFTs a km or so further down. Needless to say, we have kept a close eye on them, with Grant drone-counting the gulls regularly. There are just over 1000 pairs, now at the stage of hatching chicks. The site is a good one, being a relatively weed-free island with good water currents on both sides. As the river flow declines, the terns are not so island protected, and the wet season means that they are in amongst rapidly growing lupins. Terns cannot be counted from the air (drone), but there appears to be around 60 present – so probably 20+ pairs, also now at the egg hatching stage. The gull and tern colonies are all that is left of breeding birds on the river, so we cross fingers for a successful outcome.

Predators. Despite having over 180 traps out on the riverbed, the predator catch over summer is often low, and such is the case right now. Catches increase in the autumn / early winter as young animals are kicked out of parent territories and food becomes more scarce. The Group is currently reviewing its trapping, with the aim of having all the riverbed margin covered from around the estuary right up to the Okuku junction – a distance of over 20km. This will require over 150 new traps – so Geoff will be approaching our trap-making team in the near future. Even though we will always rely largely on volunteers, we have to face the reality that servicing a large number of traps (well over 300) will require a new approach – involving some professional input.

Weeds. The 2017 major floods did a superb job clearing weeds, and vastly increased the areas of clean shingle which are absolutely vital for successful bird feeding and breeding. However, the floods brought down a new load of seeds, and these cleared stretches are rapidly being recolonised. Without doubt, our major challenge in the near future is how to keep the core bird breeding sites clear of weeds. Aerial spraying would be the most cost-effective means, but use of chemicals in waterways will always be controversial, and we do not want to go that way. This autumn we may well ask for volunteers to clear key sites. Although only small areas can be treated this way, it is almost the only volunteer-team exercise we can easily organise out on the riverbed – and if there is a good turnout, the results are always more impressive than initially imagined. Machinery options are being explored for larger areas.

Humans. As stated in the last Update, it is pleasing to report that disturbance by people and their machines has been relatively minor so far this season. Compared to 5+ years ago, it is relatively uncommon to see fresh vehicle tracks on the riverbed. All the same, there has been violations, one of which could result in a prosecution. I am sure that our signs and the access blockages are the major reason behind this good state of affairs. We are committed to removing the blocks in February, once the season is over.

Shingle extraction. We have always had great support from the major shingle extractor in the Ashley-Rakahuri riverbed – Taggarts Earthmoving Ltd. This year they have been working in the Hillcrest area, and we have spent much time monitoring bird activity within their concession site. Some of the nests found and followed have been within metres of regularly used tracks, so we have been able to collect useful data relative to how well-informed gravel extractors can work in close association with breeding birds.

Documentary video. Over the last year, we have spent some time compiling video material for documenting how the Group operates over a typical season. Tony Benny from Oxford (used to work on ‘Country Calendar’) was the film-maker, and has recently sent us a draft of the 20-minute product. This is in the final process of editing, and has impressed all viewers to date.

Meeting. We had a general meeting on Dec 10, with 13 folk in attendance.

Award. In the last Update, it was related how the Group had won the 2019 Practical Management Award offered by the Australasian Wildlife Management Association. In early December, I went over to Tasmania to accept this Award at the Society’s annual conference in Hobart. On the framed certificate we received, it is stated ‘In recognition of outstanding best practice in wildlife management’. The presenter commented that we won from a strong field of entrants. The following morning I spoke of ARRG activities to the 180 conference attendees. We are fortunate that the AWMS goes out of its way to support applied conservation research and management. Consequently, they liked what we had to say, and a couple of subsequent speakers referenced us as the sort of community group they wanted to support. A number of attendees came up to me afterwards with positive comments and interesting questions. The conference covered a wide range of conservation topics, but as many of the over 100 presentations illustrated, the conservation challenges in Australia are quite different to ours – mainly as there are many mammals involved, plus a different set of predators. They do not have any mustelids or hedgehogs (and foxes only on the mainland – none in Tasmania). The most talked about predator of interest to us was the feral cat, which is arguably their major problem.

Coming up. With the season coming to an end, the focus moves to writing up results and preparing presentations for a shorebird workshop up in the Firth of Thames area (organised by the Pukorokoro-Miranda Naturalists’ Trust) in March, and another braided river workshop (organised by BRaid Inc) out at Lincoln in June. We are also setting up to review our trapping and weed control systems. Relative to the latter, look out for notification about weed control workdays this coming autumn. This will be one of the few opportunities for many members to get out there and do their bit.