Waihi farmer clears his paddocks for dotterels

Merv Littlejohn with an unlucky rat found in one of the traps set up around the dotterel nesting area. The dotterels have made their home on his farm.

Merv Littlejohn hates plover birds with a passion.

"I'm gonna get 'em. Just wait 'til I get my gun fixed," the Waihi Beach farmer jokes.

He hates the spur-winged plover population because they're the main predator of the dotterel nests on his paddocks where about a dozen of the rare bird are nesting.

The beef farmer moved some 100 stock off three paddocks just to give the nesting dotterels a chance of survival.

The birds have been making Merv's farm their home since mid-year. Merv wanted to protect them so with help from Dot Watch volunteer group - they have cordoned off the dotterel area, set up cameras, provided pest traps and have given the one surviving chick Fluffy Bum a shelter for protection.

Dot Watch told Merv he could move his cows back after securing the area but Merv won't, just in case the cows do damage.

''The grass is growing of course but I don't care about that, I just want the little dotterels to survive.''

The group is facing this new threat from birds such as the spur-winged plovers and pukeko.

Merv says the plovers peck the dotterel egg shell and suck out the yolk — leaving empty shells behind.

''The plovers are terrible birds. The pukekos have also had a go ... that surprised me, I didn't think pukekos would do that.''

The dotterels on Merv's farm are facing threat from spur-winged plovers.

Dot Watch coordinator Doug Longdill says trail cameras have picked up evidence of pukeko and spur-winged plovers helping themselves to eggs, after attacks on the dotterel parents who are trying to protect the nest.

The birds would usually nest around the Three Mile Creek, North End and Bowentown area on the beaches. The farm is about a kilometre from the beach but Doug says the coastline is no longer a viable option for them.

''With huge tides and the degradation of their typical nesting areas, the dotterels have had to adapt quickly. It has been a great collaboration with Merv and Sandra. The threats posed to the birds have been overwhelming over the last two seasons with cats, rats, hedgehogs and dogs off leads as well as huge swells and very high tides that have displaced the birds this year.''