Te Koti Te Rato office for Rehua Marae administration, Te Kaitaka Tupuna o Rehua (kaumātua services) and offices for Te Puni Kōkiri, Te Rūnanga o Wairewa, Mahaanui Kurataiao Ltd, and Te Waipounamu District office for kōhanga reo will remain open for normal business.
Karakia for this closure will be held on Sunday, 19 April, which will be incorporated with Haahi Ratana at 11am. We wish to express our thanks and gratitude to the many supporters and whānau who have utilised Rehua Marae for the past 50 years, and we look forward to an opening soon after the renovations have been completed. Selwyn team members met in the morning for a briefing at Springston South Soldiers Memorial Hall, and returned there later in the day with their numbers, and to catch up with the other teams. Things were slightly slow to begin with, as there were patches of fog around the lake. Fortunately this lifted and didn’t significantly delay counting. The count is a snapshot of the birds present on a specific day and, for the species with large numbers, such as the ducks and geese, experienced counters estimate the numbers.
Te Waihora bird survey
On February 21, 2015 around 50 staff and volunteers from several organisations undertook a count of all the wetland birds present at Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere.
The total number of birds recorded is slightly over 13% down on last year, with just under 48,000 compared with around 55,000 in 2014. The numbers of waterfowl were well down again. However, it is hard to draw any conclusions with only three years of data to look at.
This year almost 48,000 birds were recorded around the lake. The numbers will be reviewed over the next few weeks and the table updated as necessary. The table shows the birds counted this year, and then in columns to the right, the corresponding totals from 2013 and 2014.
The birds are grouped into shags, herons, waterfowl, NZ waders, Arctic Waders, and gulls and terns.
The Christchurch City Council rangers took on the lake-shore, which falls within Christchurch City. They covered the area in four teams and counted around half the birds. The lake-shore in the Selwyn District, was covered by, nine teams. Each team included experienced Ornithological Society NZ birders, supported by staff and volunteers from the Department of Conservation, Environment Canterbury and Waihora Ellesmere Trust.
You can view photos from the bird survey on the WET Facebook page Visit the link below to view our 2013 bird survey page and the 2014 bird survey page to see full details of previous counts: http://www.wet.org.nz/.
Aliesha and Steve counting birds in Rennies Bay.
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