Reef Herons and Red Finned Bullies
No, not some violent comic book character:
Red Finned Bully or Gobiomorphus Huttoni is one of the most common and widespread NZ freshwater fishes, and yet the very handsome males of this species are virtually unknown to the general public, who usually express surprise when they see them.
Two of us went “fishing” on the spur of the moment one evening recently. Took torches and went down to the stream at the bottom of the garden.A short walk along the shallows had us finding freshwater crayfish(koura), shrimps, two more cryptic coloured bullies and the beautiful Redfinned.Both the male and the female are stunning, but the female has a much more subtle combination of patterns and colours.
The male at this time of the year is in his “breeding plumage”. His striking red/orange diagonal stripes across the cheeks and gill covers and orange flecking on his dorsal fin is offset with an iridescent greenish-blue band. His belly is tinted with a deep but not intense violet. He also takes on a dark overall colouring of olive green. He grows to 100-120mm with the female slightly smaller. Like other NZ fishes that spend part of their lives at sea it is found NZ-wide in coastal localities. It can penetrate upstream many kilometers in rivers and streams which are not too fast flowing and with a stable bottom.
So take a good strong light one warm winters evening and go and have a look for yourselves. You will not be disappointed.
Many thanks to those who contacted me with regard to Reef Heron sitings.
We have one siting at Waikawau Bay and at least one bird has been seen in recent months around the islands off Amodeo Bay. One was also seen at Tararu two weeks ago. So there are still some around, although the folks at Amodeo Bay say there have been less sitings in the past couple of years. Same for Waikawau Bay. So if you happen to see one please let me know as it will help to ascertain whether there are less in our area overall than the recorded sitings of five years ago.
MEG gets Honda Tree Fund grant.
The Honda Tree Fund has given MEG 215 eco-sourced trees for planting around the Waikawau wetlands project on public lands. Thanks to Environment Waikato River and Catchment services this generous grant will help to enhance the general area and increase foods trees for a variety of bird species. A ‘volunteer planting day’ will be advertised once the planting sites have been surveyed and prepared.
Watch this space: we would love your help!
Contact: Wayne Todd 07 866 6928 or wayne@meg.org.nz if you would like to help with any of our projects.
News from the plains…
Standing alone, surrounded by productive dairy pasture and wafting Waikato fogs is Maungatautari. Actually, the 3,400ha forested ex-volcanic mountain is also surrounded by 47km of pest-proof fence, and it is this which brought me here from the beautiful Coromandel, working for the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust.
The fence initially surrounded two smallish patches of forest (total 100ha) which were cleared of all introduced pest mammal species from goats right down to rats and mice during 2004. Since then these enclosures have become home to several species of wildlife not seen on the mountain for decades, such as kiwi, takahe and giant kokopu. Several tracks have been developed and a 16m high viewing tower gives people a chance to get right into the canopy of tawa, rata, rewarewa and rimu.
Late in 2006 the Trust and contractors Xcluder completed the round-the-mountain fence and carried out two operations to eradicate pest mammals, combining poisoning with ground hunting. To date staff and volunteers have monitored 2,600 tracking tunnels every two months and have detected no evidence of mustelids, possums, hedgehogs, pigs or rats. The two cats tracked in January have since been trapped, and we are now trying to deal with about 20 remaining feral goats (hunting with dogs), some rabbits and hares around the inside of the fence (carrot baits and a .22 rifle), and mice. Mouse tracking rates rose from a low of 0.9% in January to 6.8% in March and then, in response to some boundary control, dropped to 4.3% in May.
Mice are proving the hardest to detect, contain and eradicate, but we are hopeful that a further aerial operation in June/July, combined with intensive dog handler searching, tracking tunnel monitoring and follow-up control will allow the last mouse to be removed.
Plans are already well underway for kaka, robin, tuatara, hihi, kokako, kakariki and several other species to be returned to the mountain over the next few years, combined with a research and monitoring programme to document changes. One such study has been comparing things like tree density, bird abundance and invertebrate communities between Maungatautari and the nearby unfenced Mt Pirongia.
Anytime you are travelling near Cambridge, Te Awamutu or Putaruru why not visit Maungatautari and check it out for yourself? Find out more: www.maungatrust.org.
Cheers, and good luck with all the Coromandel conservation work
Pim de Monchy
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