Unpredictable weather has shortened the breeding season for endangered dotterel in the Bay of Plenty.
Normally, the birds produced two broods of chicks in a season but this year they managed only one brood, says Tauranga Department of Conservation ranger John Heaphy.
"The unusual climate this summer will certainly havehad an impact," he said.
The final tally of dotterel numbers around the Tauranga area late last month was 129 birds.
Overall, there are fewer than 1500 left in the wild.
Matakana Island, one of New Zealand's most popular dotterel breeding grounds, has produced 28 chicks in the latest batch, from 42 monitored pairs of dotterel. There were 34 pairs in the 2001-02 season.
The population has been growing steadily, thanks to a successful recovery programme for the rare native birds. The Matakana project started 12 years ago. Mr Heaphy said although the number of chicks fledged was higher than last year, the percentage of nests lost was also greater.
Gill Palmer, the monitoring officer employed by the Matakana Island Trust, said human disturbance was still affecting breeding success.
The dotterels' preferred nesting site is open beaches where the speckled eggs - the colour of wet sand - make nests almost invisible to humans.
It was easy to trample on nests of eggs because they were so well camouflaged, Gill Palmer said.
Vehicles on the sand were also a danger. At least five chicks had been run over or trampled on this season.
The March census showed some of the Matakana Island-raised birds had already travelled as far as Maketu, on the coast near Te Puke.
Loss of coastal habitat and introduced predators such as cats, stoats and rats also make survival difficult.
