An Open Sanctuary; Part 3- Tieke & Tiri

Real-time

Not only did I get to see the Banded Rail while we camped at Shakespear Park but I was also lucky enough to have a close encounter with not one, but two rare and endangered North Island Saddleback/Tieke. 

Tieke have only recently (May, 2018) been introduced to the park; 40 were relocated from Tiritiri Matangi Island, an island sanctuary just off the tip the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and across the water from Shakespear Park. Tieke spend alot of their time on the ground and nest in the cavities of trees which make them extremely vulnerable to introduced predators; they can only survive longterm on the mainland within a predator proof fence (although some do escape over the fence and set up home, their survival rate is not great).

I happened to be walking along an open track near the other camp when I thought I recognised a bird call a distance away. Tieke have a very distinctive sound and once you have heard them, you'll always recognise the call.

I hadn't known they were in the sanctuary so it was a thrill to check out the nearby bush and find two birds flitting about and calling to each other. In fact there was a third bird nearby and I suspect that was why there was a lot of  noise and they were out in the open. The male of the pair (I'm thinking that's him above) was challenging the other bird at every call, his mate (that's her in the first photo) was coming in to reassure him, often tapping bills and following him around.  

I was pleased to get some lovely photos of the birds, we've seen tieke on several predator free islands and other mainland sanctuaries but they are usually in the dark bush and moving fast as they forage along the ground and around fallen logs, this makes it very hard to get any decent photos.  

I love the contrast of the red wattles against the sleek black feathers in this shot. Tieke belong to the same family as the beautiful and endangered Kokako, with it's blue wattles (and haunting song) and the extinct Huia which had orange wattles.

We were very impressed with the bird life around Shakepear Park, it was fabulous to see so many species; endemic, native and introduced, going about their business without a worry of being chased or eaten. 

The small flocks of Brown Quail/Kuera kept us entertained; like fluffy bumble bees, they hurried through the short grass when they were disturbed or were flushed from bush.

Some of the more common birds I photograph were (from the top, clockwise); the Variable Oystercatcher/Torea Pango, Pukeko, Feral Pigeon, Eastern Rosella, Peahen and a Skylark.

With many of the park's Kowhai trees in full bloom, the Tui spent most of their day- in between sipping the nectar- protecting 'their' tree from other tui and the Bellbirds/Korimako.

There are several tracks and trails of varying lengths throughout the park, some are loops, others join up, most are through a mix of bush and open ground. One of the longer trails allows mountain bikes. 

I decided to walk up through Waterfall Gully on the Heritage Trail (3.9km loop) hoping to find a Bush Robin or two (these have also been introduced to Shakespear), and while I heard a few none came down to the path. I even tempted them by scratching around in the leaf litter, this is usually a sure fire way to attract them.

Once through the bush, it was steady climb to the Lookout, sitting near the centre of the Park and a meeting point for most of the trails. There had been a very light drizzle which was much appreciated  as I climbed to the lookout but luckily it cleared soon after I reached the top which was great as I wanted to see the views and walk the Tiri Track (4.8km) back to Te Haruhi Bay.

The views from the Lookout platform were spectacular; this is looking to the east, out over regenerating bush to Tiritiri Matangi Island. The island that the many of the birds here in Shakespear came from. Some have even made their own way here across the water. On the far right you can see one of the Fuller Ferries that take tours out to the island from Gulf Harbour and downtown Auckland.

Walkers head back down to Te Haruhi Bay via the Lookout Track (2.5km loop). Rangitoto Island spreads herself along the horizon with Waiheke Island disappearing to the left.

Shakespear Homestead (now a YMCA Lodge) overlooks Te Haruhi Bay, with the houses of Gulf Harbour behind. You can't see our rig in the bay, it's hidden in the trees to the left of the small pump shed, centre left (click to enlarge).

After a pit stop at the lookout I carried on along the top, heading towards the coast and Tiritiri Matangi. The north east corner of the tip of the peninsula is NZ Defence Force land and a barbed wire fence stops intruders. I'm sure birds can't read so there must be alot over there too, they're still protected by the predator fence which starts in Army Bay, at the entrance to the Defence Force land.

There's a alternate track that cuts the corner off the Tiri Track, it heads down into this gully through bush and then rejoins back up the top on the other side. I decide to stick to the open ground; I'm loving the views. I can see the track way over the far side making it's way to the top of the headland; still quite a way to walk. 

It seems that many of the walkers I'm passing up coming towards me but I'm pleased that I'm doing the walk clockwise, the climbs are a little more gentle. This may not seem a steep climb but it is and there's another steeper one over that rise.

I had been following this couple who came out ahead of me from the alternate track; that's not a skirt, he has a yellow jacket tied around his waist. I'm following them along and then find out that we've both missed the turn down a fence line so we have to scramble down a steep slope to the track below.

They continue on and I take a short detour to check out Pink Beach, there's a steep staircase down to the rocks and a hidden beach (behind me). The tide is stopping access although I can report that the small amount of sand I could see did indeed have a pink tinge. This is often caused by broken shell and barnacle plates.

From the beach is was a gentle climb up the track past this lookout shelter. I'm not sure if it is one of the pillboxes left over from WW11 but it certainly looked like a lookout.

At the top of the next hill there's a quintessential New Zealand scene; a gathering of pukeko & sheep; the water trough, and not the views, are hot property here.

This little guy was keeping an eye on my movements, willing me to continue on my way so he didn't have to vacate his shady spot behind the trough.

I carried on up and over another hill until Te Haruhi Bay and home base came into view. 

And then I once again lost my way when I failed to see a marker post, and it's no good trying to follow what you think is the track because there are so many sheep tracks as well. I walked to the bottom and then back up two of those grass slopes (above) looking for the track down to the bay. It was in the third one! And the marker pole was on the fence at the bottom; I couldn't  see it from the top of the hill but I guess most people walk the other way and their pole stands out against the skyline.

So close yet so far! We're parked to the side of the caravan you can see in this photo, centre right. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Shakespear Park and would highly recommend it, the prolific bird life was a definite highlight. We'll return one day.

An Open Sanctuary; Part 2- On the Rail Trail

Real-time

I wonder how many people have seen this bird in New Zealand, let alone know of this bird?

That is a Banded Rail/Mioweka and it is one very shy and secretive bird. 

And it was a  'big wahoo for me!!!' < that's me jumping up & down. I have finally been able to tick the Banded Rail off my virtual 'Bird Life List'. It's only taken me five years of scanning every saltmarsh and estuary we've ever parked near or explored to find one! I keep my 'bird list' in my head not like genuine Birders who photograph & record every aspect of a sighting but it was pretty exciting all the same.

The road to Okoromai Bay

I knew there had been quite a few sightings of Banded Rail in Shakespear Park and that the birds were a little less shy due to the number of people that visit the area, so I got a heads up from an acquaintance on one of the Facebook birding forums I belong to. She lives nearby and spends a lot of time at the park bird watching.

Once I knew where to head, it was 'just' a matter of spending some time scanning the marshes with our binos and looking out for any movement along edges of the mangroves and grasses. David went along one side, I went up another. What a job that is; it's still not easy and you really do have to keep your eyes peeled. There are plenty of Pied Stilts/Poaka who are quick to give the game away as you approach.....

...and even more so if you are near a nesting Pied Stilt.

There's a Banded Rail in the photo below (click to enlarge), you probably won't see it, it's too far away but I've arrowed the spot so you can see (or not as the case may be) how far away we were from the bird spotted. And spotted by none other than my 'bird spotter extraordinaire' David, who has a very good eye (and patience) for this sort of challenge.

It came wandering out of the mangroves following the tide line along as it searched for snails, worms and crabs, along with anything else tasty it found. They are very well camouflaged amongst the mangrove pneumatophores (aerial roots).

Once David spotted it he had to try and grab my attention as I was away off down the road. I could see this little stick figure waving his arms about so I hurried back towards him (he'd sent a text but I had my phone on silent). As soon as the rail spotted my movement (and I was a long way away from it too) it shot back into the mangroves. The nearby Pied Stilt didn't help with it's high pitched alarm call.

We quietly waited for it to venture back out into the open and then watched it weave up and down a small open patch for quite awhile. Once it had finished and moved off out of sight we searched again, along both sides of the road but failed to find another bird. Not too worry, I was more than happy to have finally seen a Banded Rail!

But then a little niggling thought kept playing in my head for the rest of the afternoon and everytime I woke during the night. So there I was, up before the crack of dawn and back down at Okoromai Bay where it was like Piccadilly Station with at least 10 Banded Rail feeding on the grass verge along both sides of the road. As soon as they spotted the vehicle they were off, some across the road, others into the nearby undergrowth (and looking like little mini road runners as they streaked across the tarseal). A couple even flew off- they are strong but reluctant fliers. I've lighten this photo alot, it was still very dark outside.

And this one has been lightened too, this rail stood still in the saltweed. That was until I moved to get a shot out the window and then he was off too.

I watched as several birds, heads down snaked their way quickly through the weed until they reached the cover of the high scrub on the far side of the saltpond and disappeared.

And then I quietly watched from inside the cab with the window down as I scanned the edges waiting for them to reappear. Some even moved back out onto the grass verges beside the road, but always far enough away that I couldn't get a good shot. And then the morning influx of daily runners/jogger/walkers and dogs started arriving which put those ones back down for good.

On the far side of the wetland, two birds came out of the undergrowth together, can you see them? Their camouflage colours work really well here too.....all the time they have their heads down and weren't flicking their tails.

I think they were a pair, they stopped to say hello to each other when their paths crossed as they worked their way back and forth through the saltweed. 

Another bird, making it's way along the back edge, went to check out a bunch of reeds and wandered into their space, it was soon chased off. 

Banded rail  were once widely scattered throughout New Zealand. They have now disappeared from almost all of the South Island and only occur around Nelson and Marlborough. It's thought that they have now disappeared from the lower half of the North Island as well.

Rails spend much of their time feeding under mangrove cover when the tide is out and when it's in, in rushes, tall grass and scrubland in the upper reaches of estuaries. Habitat clearance and drainage has had a significant impact on the banded rail population nationwide. Over 90% of lowland wetlands have been drained and cleared for agriculture since Europeans settled New Zealand. 

I was thrilled to finally be able to say I have seen a Banded Rail and not just one Banded Rail, at least a dozen! Long may they survive in this special little bay (outside the Shakespear Park's predator fence) and not far from suburbia.

An Open Sanctuary- Part 1; Shakespear Park

Real Time

To try and keep up to date, I'm going to do a few more short posts rather than wait until I have a stack of photos to process and then have to spend a couple of days writing up a long post. We'll see, but you know how it is, it's very hard to change a habit of a lifetime (well 6 years of blog writing anyway).

From Ardmore we carried on heading north towards our next destination...

...timing the drive through Auckland just right as there wasn't too much traffic on the motorways. It's been five years since we last saw the Sky Tower loom up ahead of us. 

Once across the Harbour Bridge and through the northern suburbs we headed out along the Whangaparaoa Peninsula where the locals have this flash (fairly new) control system to ease congestion during rush hour traffic. The middle lane changes direction depending on the traffic flow. Outside rush hour it becomes, as the sign says, a flush median. 

You might wonder why this was of interest to me; we used to have this over the causeway on Chapel Street in Tauranga for a number of years (before the expressway was built). We didn't have flash lights and signs though; ours were just road cones that were moved from one lane to the other during rush hour- it fixed the problem though! 

Twenty kilometres later we arrived at the tip of the peninsula; our next camp is through that pest proof fence. The automatic gates open as we approach; of course we have checked we have no stowaways onboard- you know us and our mouse traps; they are permanently set in the rig.

This is the stunning Shakespear Open Sanctuary, a 500ha Auckland Regional Park that was once a large farm at the end of the peninsula.

This is a ideal site for a sanctuary, a relatively short 1.7km predator proof fence runs across the narrow isthmus between Army Bay on the north side and Okoromai Bay on the south side while water borders the remaining three sides of the sanctuary. You can see the fence snaking down through the gully here on it's way to Okoromai Bay. Gulf Harbour houses overlook the bay.

Mr WH Shakespear purchased the farm in 1883 and built the family homestead overlooking Te Haruhi Bay in 1910, it's now a YMCA Lodge. The farm was purchased from the Shakespear family by the Auckland Regional Authority in 1967. The end of the peninsula was also an important defense site during WWII and the army acquired (and still has) 130ha at the northeastern tip which is fenced off.

The farm woolshed used to sit right in the middle and to the front of Te Haruhi Bay; obviously for ease of shipping sheep and wool from the farm.

The historic woolshed has now been shifted back from the water and sited below the homestead, you can see it mid right in this photo (click to enlarge), the homestead is higher up to the left. Our camping area is on the right side of the road above the cars you can see, You can just see the end of a caravan below one of the trees.

The Auckland Council run a website booking system for all of their 26 regional parks; bookings for camp sites and camping grounds, for accommodation in houses & baches within the parks, for functions inside buildings (such as the woolshed) and outside for picnics & parties at the numerous BBQs that are dotted around the park.

It's quite a long-winded and often confusing website to use but once you get the hang of it, it does work. It just takes a bit of time to organise things, and to get your bearings if you're unfamiliar with the parks and their layout.

We initially wanted to book at the campground (basic) in the park where you can stay for 7 nights, but it was closed because of the ground conditions. This only left us with the CSC (certified self-contained) camping area, which was fine except that there was a maximum of 3 nights only.

Once the booking is confirmed ($15pp per night here) the combination number to the gate into the camping area is sent via email- so you do need to be organised before hand if you're wanting to stay (or risk sitting outside a gate for a couple of hours waiting for confirmations and emails).

There are 4 hard stand areas to park on the side of the drive in the CSC area or you can park on the grass if the ground allows it. We had the place to ourselves the first night and then 2-3 vans for the next two nights. In the end I decided that I liked this area probably better than the other camp which was at the end of the bay.

It wasn't too far to walk across the grass, pass under the large pohutukawa trees lining the sand dunes, to reach the beach.

Where another world can be seen far across the water...

Sky Tower & Auckland CBD

... and Rangitoto Island in another direction. 

The bird life throughout the park is amazing....but more on that in the next blog.

To be continued....