Between November 2023 and March 2024, Natural History curator Colin Miskelly is walking the length of Aotearoa New Zealand on Te Araroa Trail – counting every bird seen or heard along the way. In this 15th blog in the series, Colin describes birds encountered while walking from Nelson province into North Canterbury via Nelson Lakes National Park and the Waiau Pass through to Boyle Village (on State Highway 7 south of Lewis Pass).
Nelson Lakes National Park and beyond
From St Arnaud, Te Araroa Trail passes through the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project area on the east side of Lake Rotoiti, then up the Travers Valley and over the spectacular Poukirikiri/Travers Saddle into the Sabine River catchment.
After a 5 km dogleg down the east branch of the Sabine River, Te Araroa Trail continues up the west branch to Rotomairewhenua/Blue Lake and Rotopōhueroa/Lake Constance before the steep climb over and down Waiau Pass. At 1870 metres above sea level, Waiau Pass is one of the highest points on Te Araroa Trail.
After descending from Waiau Pass, Te Araroa Trail continues down the Waiau River before going up the Henry River and Anne River to Anne Saddle, then it follows the Boyle River down to Boyle Village.
Birds of Nelson Lakes National Park
After the empty forests of Richmond Forest Park, I was looking forward to an abundance of endemic forest birds at Lake Rotoiti – and came away perplexed and disappointed. The Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project is one of the Department of Conservation’s longest running ‘mainland island’ projects, where introduced predators (including wasps) have been under sustained control since 1997. We walked through the area in the afternoon (when birds are generally less active), following rainfall in the morning, and found a forest bird community dominated by silvereyes │ tauhou.
Silvereyes are ecological generalists that are abundant when endemic forest birds are scarce or absent, but occur in low numbers at sites with a diverse and abundant endemic bird community (where they are outcompeted by endemic birds). I counted 80 silvereyes | tauhou in the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project area, and only 5 fantails│pīwakawaka, 5 bellbirds│korimako, 2 South Island robins│kakaruai, 2 tomtits | ngirungiru, and a single tūī (though I did see four kākā from Lakehead Hut the following morning). Unfortunately the DOC biodiversity staff were all away for Nelson Anniversary weekend when we passed through the area, so there was no-one knowledgeable on hand to explain why this former biodiversity showcase had turned into an apparent basketcase.
Fortunately the numbers and diversity of endemic forest birds improved as we headed further into Nelson Lakes National Park. ‘Friends of Rotoiti’ maintain stoat traplines in the Travers and West Sabine Valleys, and we recorded the following endemic forest birds between Lakehead Hut and Waiau Pass: 62 tomtits│ngirungiru, 41 New Zealand fantails│pīwakawaka (39 pied & 2 black), 38 bellbirds│korimako, 22 riflemen│tītitipounamu, 19 South Island robins│kakaruai, 8 grey warblers | riroriro, 7 brown creepers│pīpipi, and 5 weka. As is often the case, riflemen became more abundant in higher altitude beech forest as we approached Blue Lake Hut.
We heard a single kea below Upper Travers Hut – our first encounter with this iconic South Island mountain-dwelling species on Te Araroa Trail. The Nelson Lakes kea population has declined to perilously low levels (likely due to stoat predation) in recent years, and so we were not surprised to record so few of them.
Birds of the alpine passes
There were few birds on either Travers Saddle or Waiau Pass, though there was a strong cold wind blowing over Travers Saddle. The combined total for the two passes was 17 silvereye│tauhou, 8 dunnocks, 4 New Zealand pipits│pihoihoi, and one each tomtit│ngirungiru and chaffinch│pahirini.
Birds of North Canterbury river valleys
The river flats of the Waiau, Henry, Anne, and Boyle Valleys were a mosaic of beech forest and recently-retired farmland (rank grass), and we could often hear forest birds singing from nearby forest as we walked through open areas.
The bird communities of the river flats were dominated by five species: bellbird│korimako (endemic, 209), chaffinch│pahirini (introduced, 208), Canada goose│kuihi (introduced, 175), tomtit│ngirungiru (endemic, 166), and silvereye│tauhou (native, 108).
The bird species that caught the attention of other Te Araroa walkers along this section was South Island robin│kakaruai, of which I recorded 28 seen or heard. These confiding birds often approach people within a metre or two, and many walkers capture great images or videos of them on their cellphones.
One final bird
As I tallied up the summary statistics for the section, I was intrigued that the total number of birds seen or heard since leaving Cape Reinga exactly 3 months ago was 79,999. Then a ruru │ morepork called at 5 a.m. at Boyle River, becoming the sole bird in the eBird checklist #1,231 and the 80,000th bird for the trail.
Bird species added since the previous section
Kea.
Summary statistics for section 14
Cumulative totals for Te Araroa sections completed are given in parentheses.
- Days on the trail = 6 (87)
- Kilometres travelled and surveyed = 126.5 (2,239.2)
- eBird/Atlas checklists completed = 73 (1,231)
- Number of bird species = 39 (101)
- Total birds seen or heard = 1,964 (80,000 exactly!)
- Most abundant species = silvereye │ tauhou (284), followed by chaffinch │ pahirini (262)
- Most abundant endemic species = bellbird │ korimako (251), followed by tomtit │ ngirungiru (230)
- Most frequent species = silvereye │ tauhou (73.1 % of checklists)
- Most frequent endemic species = tomtit │ ngirungiru (70.1 % of checklists), followed by bellbird │ korimako (62.7 %)
- Endemic bird score = 44
Other blogs in this series
- Every Last Bird – the Birds of Te Araroa Trail
- Birds of Te Araroa 1 – Cape Reinga to Kaitāia
- Birds of Te Araroa 2 – Kaitāia to Kerikeri
- Birds of Te Araroa 3 – Kerikeri to Whangārei Harbour
- Birds of Te Araroa 4 – Whangārei Harbour to Auckland
- Birds of Te Araroa 5 – Auckland to Hamilton
- Birds of Te Araroa 6 – Hamilton to Te Kūiti
- Birds of Te Araroa 7 – Te Kūiti to Taumarunui
- Birds of Te Araroa 8 – Taumarunui to National Park
- Birds of Te Araroa 9 – National Park to Whanganui
- Birds of Te Araroa 10 – Whanganui to Palmerston North
- Birds of Te Araroa 11 – Palmerston North to Wellington
- Birds of Te Araroa 12 – Cook Strait to Havelock
- Birds of Te Araroa 13 – Havelock to St Arnaud
- Birds of Te Araroa 15 – Boyle River to Rakaia River
- Birds of Te Araroa 16 – Rakaia River to Twizel
- Birds of Te Araroa 17 – Twizel to Wānaka
- Birds of Te Araroa 18 – Wānaka to the Te Anau Highway
- Birds of Te Araroa 19 – Te Anau Highway to Bluff
- Birds of Te Araroa Trail – Every Last Word
Last week I rewalked the St James walkway partly to reexperience the best ever Dawn Chorus I have heard from Christopher Hut and ruru calling and answering from the deep valleys.
I was very disappointed. No dawn chorus anywhere, no ruru either. I did see several stoats, Can Geese, SI robins, tomtits, fantail, rifleman, and heard 3 tui. No pest control seen till after Boyle Flat Hut to Boyle Village. This area needs a lot of work done. No Forest and Bird magazines in the huts to educate TA walkers, but plenty of Hunting magazines. A very sad situation.
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Thanks
Colin, your comments on RNRP echo my concerns. I keep going back to the work of Kelly Whitau at that site where she showed trapping provided a meso predator release for rats – fewer robins where there was trapping than elsewhere. Little uptake of this concern that I am aware of. Have tried to find evidence of the long term advantage of wasp poisoning for birdlife – no outcome monitoring for birdlife with this that I know of.
cheers
Peter
Thanks Colin, yes, a basket case, like so much of our whenua. I was in the Botanic Gardens Thursday morning and counted six Kaka. Something of a contrast.
Re the “mainland” project, I have tramped in this area since I was a teenager and so, being a birder, have watched this project with interest.
I think the problem is that it has no fence and even with the intensive trapping more predators come in from the outside to replace the dead ones.
BTW, well done with your walk, and all the best for finishing it.
Thank you Colin for your efforts. A friend of mine, Roger Frost, at Murchison, showed our family a burrow where kea chicks were nesting in the mid 1990s. My daughter Megan was able to call down young male kea at Arthur’s Pass. Frosts garden was often raided by young males who uprooted and tossed plants in the air! So it’s sad that the kea population is depleted. Is global warning another contributor? Awesome work, Colin.