North Canterbury News: May 11, 2023
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NEWS<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Canterbury</strong> <strong>News</strong>, <strong>May</strong> <strong>11</strong>, <strong>2023</strong><br />
13<br />
Action urged on gulls<br />
By RACHEL MACDONALD<br />
The dangers posed by people,vehicles<br />
and dogs to the nestingbirds in braided<br />
riversand estuaries are well known,<br />
and have beenwidelypublicised.<br />
Less wellknown,says the Ashley<br />
Rakahuri Groupoperations manager,<br />
Grant Davey, is the threattowards<br />
nesting birdsfrom native blackbacked<br />
gulls.<br />
The outlet of the Ashley Rivermouth<br />
has changed location, says Grant,and<br />
the colonies of blackbacked gullshave<br />
expanded to the north.<br />
‘‘In particular, theyare forcing<br />
endangered specieslike banded<br />
dotterills out of theirhabitat, and<br />
whitefronted ternsare taking a<br />
hammering,hesays.<br />
‘‘The gulls go through the nests and<br />
clean out the eggs,and eat the<br />
nestlings.<br />
‘‘Two of them can be disastrous —<br />
just imagine the damage 500 can do,’’<br />
Mr Daveysays.<br />
He says the Department of<br />
Conservation, Environment<br />
<strong>Canterbury</strong> and the Waimakariri<br />
District Council need to ‘‘step up, get<br />
together and sort something out’’.<br />
The gulls are not anew problem.<br />
There is documentation of the issue<br />
from the 20s.<br />
‘‘So they've been athreat for almost<br />
100 years.<br />
‘‘However, the populationhas<br />
expanded hugely since the onset of<br />
arablefarming.<br />
‘‘If you drive past apaddock after its<br />
been ploughed,they’re thick on the<br />
ground.’’<br />
He says the only birdsthat seem to be<br />
able to cope with the big blackbacked<br />
gull colonies are the wrybills.<br />
‘‘There’s aMasterofSciences student<br />
from the Universityof<strong>Canterbury</strong>,<br />
Causing damage ... Blackbacked gulls<br />
pose athreat to endangered river birds.<br />
PHOTO: FILE<br />
EleanorGunby, who has beenoffered a<br />
scholarshiptostudythe causes of nest<br />
failureinthe estuary,’’ he says.<br />
‘‘She is lookingatthe role of human<br />
disturbance,and also at the impact the<br />
gulls are having.<br />
‘‘She got abroad overview of how the<br />
last nesting season looked, so it willbe<br />
very interesting to see how the bird<br />
count data has changed, in terms of<br />
speciesdropoffaroundthese big<br />
colonies, as we go into the nextnesting<br />
season in spring.’’<br />
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