Round Two for Bream Head Robins

Media Release

2 May 2016

Another ‘round’ of robins is planned for release onto Whangarei’s iconic Bream Head Scenic Reserve this month, in the culmination of a translocation programme that has been many years in the realising.

This is the second release of 20 North Island robins, or Toutouwai, onto the Reserve, following a very successful trial release onto the eastern end of the Bream Head peninsula on 8 April 2016.

Chairman of the Bream Head Conservation Trust, Greg Innes, says the organisation has been working towards both these events since it was first formed in 2001 with the aim of returning the dawn chorus to Bream Head.

“We wanted to restore the Reserve to its original healthy, noisy, bird-filled state, which has meant years of intensive predator control over the entire Reserve, extensive replanting and careful management by the Trust’s rangers and volunteers,” Greg says.

“Many species, such as kaka, have self-translocated in that time, but bringing the North Island robins back to the Reserve was going to be a bit more complex.”

Aside from creating a supportive natural environment, the process involved securing Department of Conservation (DOC) Community funding, writing and presenting a translocation plan to the Bream Head community and then seeking DOC permission for the translocation.

Bream Head Scenic Reserve head ranger, Adam Willetts, describes the next part of the process, the pre-release preparations necessary to ensure the robins would settle successfully in their new home, as equally important and just as challenging.

“The first batch of 10 male and 10 female robins came from the Pureora Forest and required a number of pre-feeding visits to accustom them to us before we could translocate them to Bream Head,” Adam says.

“For genetic diversity, the 20 robins being released this month will come from Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf where they have been pre-fed to create an association between humans and food, making it easier to monitor their post release survival and breeding by supplying them with food from time to time.

“After capture on Tiritiri Matangi the birds will be weighed, sexed and banded before each is placed into its own box, complete with a supply of mealworms and water, and kept in a cool, quiet location on the island until we have sufficient numbers to translocate.”

While in the boxes, the birds will be monitored as part of a Massey University research project looking into the relationship between behavioural patterns whilst the birds are being translocated and on their release.

When enough birds have been captured, processed and boxed, they will be driven to Bream Head in the cool of the night for release at approximately 10am on the 12th, 13th or 14th of May, depending on how well the collection process goes and the birds are standing up to it.

“It is standard procedure to release the birds from their boxes after no more than three nights, so if we capture the birds easily and quickly we’ll be able to release them earlier,” Adam says.

“However, if the capture on Tiritiri is slower or more difficult for any reason, the release of some or all of the birds could be delayed until Saturday 14 May.”

The birds will be released just below the summit of Te Whara/Bream Head, a steep, two-hour forest climb.

“They will be blessed by local kaumatua, and then translocation consultant and project leader, Kevin Parker, will give a short talk before the birds are carried to the release site by volunteers,” Adam says.

“They will be released from their boxes two at a time, and we hope to be able to livestream both the release and what happens next to Trust members and others gathered at premises below the release site.”

Adam says he hopes the May release will be as auspicious as the first when the birds received a fitting avian welcome.

“We arrived with the birds at 2am on release day at a house bordering the Reserve, to be greeted by close and loud kiwi calls, both male and female,” he says.

“The robins had never heard kiwi before as there were none in the area they came from, so this was something special.

“On the way up to the release site we were piped along by a very vocal bunch of bellbirds, and then a rare red-crowned kakariki made a guest appearance on our return, flying all around us as if in blessing.”

Bream Head Conservation Trust members feel equally as fortunate to have finally been able to release both ‘rounds’ of robins, Chair Greg Innes says.

“We’ve had huge support from our sponsors, in particular Refining NZ, the Department of Conservation and the community to get to this point, and we are grateful to all of them for helping us realise this dream of releasing robins back into the Bream Head Scenic Reserve where they were once an integral part of the eco-system,” Greg says.

“By maintaining our intensive management of both the Reserve and its pests, it is to be hoped that very soon these robins will once again be functioning in that essential role.”

ENDS

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