• Our Story
  • The River
  • The Birds
    • Overview
    • Wrybill
    • Black-Fronted Tern
    • Black-Billed Gull
    • Banded Dotterel
    • Pied Stilt
    • Black Stilt
    • SI Pied Oystercatcher
  • Videos
  • Reports
    • Annual Reports
    • Other reports & publications
  • Traps for sale
  • News
  • Calendar
  • Contact Us
ashley geology
June 11, 2020

Aspects of the Ashley Weed Problem

It is well established that birds that breed on braided rivers require bare gravel for their nests, and for many years members of the ARRG have understood that weeds pose a major threat to birds nesting on the Ashley. Exactly when weeds became a threat on the river is uncertain, but from the memories of various people, the fairway was essentially weed-free in the 1970s. Historic air photos have recently been obtained and will help in clarifying this. Efforts to clear weeds have been made since at least 2004 – these are documented in the full report.

Unfortunately, this has met with only mixed success and for some time weed pulling was done as a team building exercise rather than with real hopes of creating significant nesting habitat. Some years little or no weed clearing was done because floods had created plenty of bare gravel.

In early 2017 work was done that appeared to show that areas of past gravel extraction were preferred by nesting birds – however this needs to be revisited in more detail. Also, at this time areas of bare gravel were measured from air photos and satellite imagery for the length of the river, there appeared to be a strong correlation between bird numbers in the annual (November) surveys and bare gravel area. This work has led to further efforts to clear weeds. The outcome of that and the relationship between weeds and bird nesting success plus the future prospects are now available in this report.

Black-fronted Tern and Black-billed Gull colonies, 2019 – 2020 Season Weed Removal Report

Related Posts

4x4Jan2021

4X4, bird kills, black billed gulls, black-billed gulls

Gull disturbance

blog logo ARRG

4X4, management, research, Trapping, weeds, wrybill

Group update Jan 2021

2020 Ashley bird survey

annual survey, black-billed gulls, management

2020 Annual Bird Survey

Search

Recent Posts

  • Gull disturbance January 19, 2021
  • Group update Jan 2021 January 17, 2021
  • 2020 Annual Bird Survey November 28, 2020
  • Creating bird habitat October 8, 2020
  • Group update September 20, 2020
  • Weed Removal Report August 5, 2020
  • Aspects of the Ashley Weed Problem June 11, 2020
  • Black-fronted Tern and Black-billed Gull colonies, 2019 – 2020 Season April 18, 2020
  • Overhead Line Bird Kill February 11, 2020
  • Fire and trapping update February 11, 2020
  • Drying river rewards birds February 3, 2020
  • Survey of the lower part of the Okuku River: November 2019 January 21, 2020
  • Lees Valley – Okuku and Ashley-Rakahuri Rivers: 2019 Breeding Season January 21, 2020
  • Ashley River & Estuary trapping update January 9, 2020
  • Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group update December 13, 2019
  • Ashley River & Estuary Trapping Update December 3, 2019
  • Annual survey (Nov 16, 2019) results November 24, 2019
  • Black-billed gulls looking to nest October 24, 2019
  • Ashley Update: October 2019 October 13, 2019
  • Use of the Ashley-Rakahuri berm September 5, 2019

Pages

  • Home
  • Wrybill – ngutupare
  • Banded Dotterel – tuturiwhatu
  • South Island Pied Oystercatcher – tōrea
  • Black-fronted tern – tarapiroe
  • Projects
  • Pied Stilt – Poaka
  • Black-Billed Gull – tarapuka
  • Black Stilt – kaki
  • Traps for sale
  • News
  • Videos
  • Annual Reports
  • Other reports & publications
  • calendar

Visit us on Facebook

  • Facebook
  • Facebook
Photos: Grant Davey, Steve Attwood, Lynley Cook, John Dowding and Nick Ledgard © 2019 All Rights Reserved