Just four surviving Waihī Beach dotterel chicks but it’s still Dot Watch’s best season yet

The first two surviving dotterel chicks. Photo / Stu Attwood

The Dot Watch team of Waihī Beach are flying high.

They have had their most successful native dotterel breeding season yet.

The Dot Watch team managed 11 nests from October which consisted of 28 eggs with four surviving chicks.

This may sound grim but they are usually left with no survivors.

“All nests/chicks are usually destroyed by cats, rats, dogs, hedgehogs, mustelids, avian predators, and human interference.“

They’ve had some setbacks - with vandals destroying nests at Christmas and a swamp harrier taking out a full nest.

Volunteer Chris Sloan says that as far as they are aware, this was the largest breeding colony in New Zealand at Brighton Reserve “with birds nesting close to each other, and banding together the fend off any threats to the nests, including human advances“.

Sloan says this could not have occurred without the support of residents.

The survival of the chicks, once they leave the nest, has been the focus of Predator Free Waihī Beach. The parents take the chicks over south to the Bowentown area once hatched from Brighton Reserve.

Predator Free Waihī Beach co-ordinator Susan Lean says trapping lines have been deployed from Bowentown to Albacore Avenue and around the known nesting sites.

‘’This year has been the first season where there has been no evidence of the nests/eggs/chicks being destroyed or dispatched by our target predators. This is a testament to the effectiveness of the local predator control measures.”