Waiau-Uwha Braided River Birds Field Day

30 November 2022

Our Braided River Birds field day on Wednesday afternoon, 30 November, was a great outing, with the weather cooperating despite a dubious forecast as we visited two sites along the Amuri’s Waiau-Uwha River, near Mouse Point. Our group of around 50 gathered first at the Culverden Rugby Club rooms to learn from Prof Ken Hughey about Canterbury’s braided-river bird species, particularly the endangered black-fronted terns, wrybills, black-billed gulls and banded dotterels, then from ECAN’s Zipporah Ploeg of the efforts to protect them by a team from ECAN and their contractors from Wildlife Management International, Keegan Miskimmin and Marcia Welch.

We observed the black-fronted tern nesting colonies on the Sharkstooth island, which had been cleared of weeds and separated from the main bank by a deepened channel to prevent predation. We then visited diary farmer John Faulkner’s impressive revegetation site on the river bank, which has been designed by local native-planting consultant Sue McGaw. We ended a most enjoyable afternoon with a BBQ provided by Farmsource.

This field day event was timely as it marks the culmination of the 5-year Hurunui and Waiau Uwha Braided River Bird Project, which you can read more about on ECAN’s website.

Waiau Uwha Braided River Birds Field Day

© 2023 Hurunui Biodiversity Trust