Slip destroys part of Cape Kidnappers' gannet nesting site

Hopeful he will attract a mate a gannet puts on a wing stretching display at the Cape Kidnappers' gannet colony. Photo / Warren Buckland.

Hundreds of Hawke's Bay couples have lost their homes, after several metres of Cape Kidnappers Te Kauwae-a-Maui gannet nesting slipped into the sea in a storm earlier this month.

The slip was noticed by Gannet Safaris Overlander driver and guide David Grace a fortnight ago, after the three-day storm which brought rainfall of well over 100mm to parts of Hawke's Bay.

He estimates about "20 feet" has fallen from the southern side of the Saddle Colony, at the eastern extremity of the cape, destroying its most unique feature — a plateau that enabled the gannets to take-off to the south as well as to the north, depending on the prevailing conditions.

Ironically, as Hawke's Bay Today arrived to photograph the damage the fog moved in and obliterated even what remains of the site, while an estimated 6000-8000 of the Australasian gannets, some trailing strings of seaweed dragged from the sea below, arrived and settled into the nearby Plateau colony for the mating and nesting season, and the thousands of visitors expected over the summer.

The Department of Conservation was unable to comment late yesterday, and the impact of losing some of the real estate was not clear.

But gannet behaviour suggests the dislocated birds will quickly find new digs within the colony, despite the seeming overcrowding of the four colonies on the cape, now known officially also as Te Kauwae-a-Maui with recognition by the New Zealand Geographic Board stemming from the Heretaunga Tamatea Treaty of Waitangi Settlement.

A small number appeared to be clinging to the remnants of nests at the top of the cliff face below the Saddle Colony, which is estimated to have more than 4000 birds at peak, but others would soon find more room.

David Grace, who is also a volunteer monitoring 40 traps as part of the Cape Sanctuary Wildlife Restoration Project, says the "prime real estate" in each colony is "in the middle," populated by mainly older gannets that have moved in from the outer.

Eventually they don't come back, their spots being taken by others moving in from the outer or by opportunists hovering above and looking for a new location.

"But if they were born on the Saddle, they will stay on the Saddle," he says, although the birds will take flight late in the summer to return later next year.

Hawke's Bay ornithologist Brent Stephenson, who did a PhD on the 'Ecology and breeding biology of Australasian gannets' at Cape Kidnappers, is understood to be overseas and was also unable to be contacted yesterday.

The busy visitor season starts next month with tourists from the first of about 70 cruise ship stops at Napier Port from October to April.