Catching flighty whio

[Dave Houston]

Catching whio on the wing – The responses to an email sent by Abby Butler to L/Whio on July 1st 2009

Original email:

“Hi everyone,

We have just completed our whio catching for the next breeding season and we had some difficulties. As most of our birds have been caught in the past they are becoming increasingly flighty and it is very difficult to keep them on the water to get them into the net. As a result we have had several instances in the last couple of seasons when whio were caught on the wing. Although we haven’t had any serious injuries to birds (one had a slight nick to skin by the nostril, and another had a minor cut to the skin on the side of the beak) I would like to find out:

a)   if this is occurring at other sites (i.e. is it a nationwide issue)
b)   if this is a bird welfare issue
c)   if there are any innovative ideas about how we can catch flighty birds

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

Abby 

Abby Butler | Ranger - Whio Recovery | Department of Conservation
Motueka Area Office | PO Box 97 | Motueka 7143
Ph 03 528 1810 | VPN 7625 | abutler@doc.govt.nz “

Summary of the responses:

a) Does this occur at other sites (i.e. is it a nationwide issue)?
Other sites seem to be having the same problem and some birds are just more flighty than others. We have left birds for a number of years and then tried to catch them and they aren’t any easier (i.e. they don’t forget!). It is a cost vs. benefit thing and perhaps we need to leave pairs that are particularly flighty. There is the option of monitoring without transmitters but it is more time consuming.

b) Is it a bird welfare issue?
It doesn’t appear to be a bird welfare issue which is good. Setting the net tension to be softer may be the way of the future to ensure birds are not injured if they fly into it. Others have also encountered damaged bills but these injuries should heal ok. Wings shouldn’t be damaged or broken by flying into a net.

c) Are there any innovative ideas about how we can catch flighty birds?
Using decoys, painted like whio, placed below the net could be worth a try. Spotlighting at night could also be an option although it carries a lot more risk for staff. Ensuring experienced people are doing the herding can also make a difference.

Thanks for all the replies.

Abby

Responses in full:

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Summary of a phone call from Murray Williams:
- Murray didn’t think the Motueka catching technique was the issue. (We follow best practise and have past experience working at other Area Offices)
- Murray didn’t think that it was a bird welfare issue and any damage to the skin around the bill should heal ok. He also said that wings are unlikely to be damaged or broken and that we can continue on catching the way we have been.
- Murray discussed the option of monitoring without transmitters. This is more time consuming but may be the last resort if birds cannot be caught.


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From: Alison Beath
Sent: Tuesday, 7 July 2009 12:16 p.m.
To: Abby Butler
Subject: RE: Catching whio on the wing

Gidday Abby. Here in Tongariro Forest we've got pretty flighty birds too- some of these birds have been caught every season for the past 7 years or so. Having said that, yesterday we tried to catch 3 birds who have never been caught before, and they flew on every attempt. It is not uncommon for our birds to hit the net flying, fortunately we have not yet seen any injuries from this, but it is a concern.
 
We feel like we see a wide range of behaviour in our ducks, not dependent on whether they've been caught before, but on the individual bird- some are flighty, some are calm. Our ranger Bubs says it's a bit like people- some need a large personal space and others don't!
 
Sorry, no wildly innovative ideas for catching particularly naughty ducks- just the usual caution when herding them downstream- using experienced staff who know how to read duck behaviour, and stationing people at various points upstream of the net. With some of our ducks we need to keep them in the water when herding downstream- cos once they jump up on a rock they think about flying- but then push them too hard and obviously they fly off the water anyway.
 
Best of luck, sorry I can't be more help,
Regards,
Alison Beath
Whio Recovery Group- North Island rep. DDI: 07 892 3483
Department of Conservation Ruapehu Area Office
State Highway 48, Whakapapa Village, Mt Ruapehu 3951


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From: Andrew Glaser
Sent: Thursday, 2 July 2009 5:49 p.m.
To: Abby Butler
Subject: RE: Catching whio on the wing

Hi,
We will quite often catch whio in flight however have not had any incidents.  The net tension is general lose enough that it forms a pocket and absorbs the birds impact.  I have not heard of any incidents as you have described but have found one of our birds with an old cut lip injury which may have been a result of a stoat, falcon or harrier attack.   How sure are you that it was a net cut?  I don't think that it is a significant welfare issue but certainly one to try and mitigate harm, i.e. lose net.
 
A couple of suggestions; Hunt them, Set well down river with person watching the net and stealth fully let them think that they are escape you by drifting out of sight. The only other suggestion that I would have is to catch at night using a spot light however this in its self can be riskier for both concerned and very dependent on your river. 
 
Modified behaviour is a bit of an issue.  What it can do is influence our results and cause the birds to be more nocturnal therefore you have to ask is the impact on the birds such that our monitoring result has such a variable due to behavioural change that we aren't able to define the true answer?  Cost versus benefits.
 
Stealth like a ninja
 
Andrew Glaser
Whio Recovery Group Leader, PO Box 326, Opotiki Area Office
Ph (07) 3151 003, VPN 6733, Mob. 0272 448 079


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From: Kerry-EnviroResearch [mailto:kerry@enviroresearch.co.nz]
Sent: Wednesday, 1 July 2009 6:11 p.m.
To: Abby Butler
Subject: Re: Catching whio on the wing

Hi Abby,
yes I've had the same thing happen a couple of times, also involving nicks around the nostrils. I haven’t experienced "flighty" birds as a result of catching though, and I've been catching them for rather a long time now.
 
One innovative idea that we used some years ago to try and hold birds for photography on the water was to buy a mallard decoy, paint it up to look like a bluey, anchor it in a pool and Bobs Ya Aunty! Worked a treat!!
 
Might be worth a try? Duncan Cunningham was considering using it to hand net birds in difficult habitats, but not sure if he ever got round to trying it?
 
Cheers – Kerry


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From: Chris Golding
Sent: Wednesday, 1 July 2009 11:49 a.m.
To: Abby Butler
Cc: Gavin Udy
Subject: RE: Catching whio on the wing


Maybe you want to ask a few other bird nerds about catching birds on the wing as I imagine there are plenty that are. Mist nets are used to catch most bird species and most of them fly into the net, whio are probably one of the few that can be caught by just herding them. Try Terry Greene or Peter Dilks for kaka. I know there is morepork research going on as well (not sure by who) and I imagine they are caught in flight. Parakeets - Talk to someone like Jack van Hal or someone on the Hurunui team.  Wood pigeons- talk to Les Moran.  I’m not sure if it is much of an issue for the smaller birds, being lighter etc

The net we used to catch Connie had quite a bit of give to it so wouldn’t be as bad for the birds as the usual net we use.
Perhaps catching in flight may be our only option, not a good one but…   perhaps there could be conditions put in place like ‘ the birds must be closer than xxxx metres to the net before they are able to be caught in flight’

C.

[Steptoe]

Cuts, nicks, bleeding  in our aviaries we use a sliver nitrite stick, pressed briefly onto the cut to cortorise...quick effective

Capturing birds:
Could look at something like the early settlers who caught kakariki for pets and export to pet markets around the world....
A mix of honey and Cinnamon spread on a log with a tame kakariki in a cage as a 'bait'.   Thu  look at something else more attractive for the target bird species.

Or if we have a kariki escape, we use rat traps , small versions of the spring gate possum traps, with food inside, and put on top of the avaiaries...
Early Maori used tame kakariki in cages as 'bait' to attract their next dinner.  And I believe DoC used similar methods for capture of lorries in resent years.

I know with many species of bird, if a 'stranger' comes into their flock territory, it attracts the flock to it..Using tame birds that are used to handling transportation and cages, when put out into a paddock, they are quite unperturbed and carry on in a natural un stressed behavour...which in its self doesnt cause the target birds to be cautious

I have never been a fan of nets, which I saw in action many yrs ago with Sulphur Crested parrots... It not the damage, but the sheer panic and stress the birds get into.

With all Due respect to Luis and capturing kakariki for relocation...I did suggest several yrs ago to use a kit set portable aviary divided into 2 sections, with the bait side coting 4 or 5 captive kakariki. The target wild birds enter the other side, cant get out...put in a couple days food supply and go home for 48 hrs
This would be epec effective near breeding time as 1 of the pair gets trapped, the other investigates and presto, a breeding pair.

But this would not be suitable..it would take several yrs for DoC to think about it, another couple yrs to trial it, another yrs to analyse all the scientific data, and discuss again...then put it on a shelf to be forgotten because the idea comes from a non DoC source who doesnt have a PhD so must be wrong....

[Dave Houston]

Hi Abby,

I meant to get back to about this. Yes we have had issues with birds that have been caught multiple times flying away when they see us. Seems to be more of an issue with birds that see us only when we try and capture them. So basically birds in places that don't see so many people (say the Cleddau or Sinbad Gully) tend to fly (if they have been caught a couple of times before). Birds in places that see a lot of people e.g. around Dumpling Hut are generally reasonably easy to capture over a number of seasons. These birds see heaps of people who are just keen to take their photo and therefore don't associate people with necessarily being captured.  We find it pretty easy to capture adults in family groups with juveniles, just before the juveniles can fly.

As far as injuries go, we have had no confirmed injuries, although we have had one adult female with a detached retina, I'm not sure however if this was caused by the capture (she did not fly into the net) this may have been an existing injury, but it was first observed after she was captured. She lived for about another two seasons after this injury was first picked up and was in good health when she was last captured. The retina injury looked just the same 12 months after the first time it was observed. We have had a few birds fly into the net, though we do try to avoid this as much as possible, just by simply backing off.  Having the net reasonable loose helps as well as having an experienced person to do the herding. I often use the dog also to help with the herding. The ducks are really interested in the dog and it keeps them occupied - doesn't always work, but can help and you need to have good control over the dog. We have had the net collapse (once) when four adults flew into the net at once. There was a group of seven adults and three of them flew over the net. They started flying about 75 metres before the net and had built up quite a head of steam. There were no injuries. Our anchorage points weren't the best in this case (due to the terrain/vegetation), but would have held up fine with just two adults.

The decoy idea sounds interesting. We have done one capture after dark (more to do with the time when we found the pair) and it worked well, but you would want to be very careful using this technique. In our case it worked well  - but we had a really good spot. A lot of it does come down to individual pairs and what their history is with people. With some birds it is sometimes better to set the net up pretty close to them, others you can herd for ages. So it's just a matter of knowing your birds and managing them accordingly. I'm imagining that it could actually be more difficult for you guys as you do your captures mid winter which means that you haven't got the benefit of non-flying juveniles.

Anyway I'd better get going. Not sure if any of this helps,  but that's our experience down here.

Cheers

Max.

Andrew "Max" Smart
Ranger - Biodiversity
Te Anau Area Office
Department of Conservation
Te Anau

[rickchik]

Hi,

I have caught captive-bred reintro'd pateke successfully using clap-traps baited with pateke pellets... probably only work with birds used to being fed though. And lot's of hiding out being patient was needed.

J.

[DuncanMC]

Hi Abby
I've just stumbled across your blog on catching whio on the wing and noticed a mention via Murray Williams about my thoughts of catching with a hand net. 

For various reasons, mostly to do with funding, I never got to doing that.  However, I too had the same problem with catching flighty birds that had been caught before.

Not all previously caught birds got so flighty that they coud never be caught but a couple of them did and maybe there's nothing to be done there.  I did manage to catch a few flighty birds by stealth and patience which involved:
- stealth and patience
- knowing when the birds are getting"twitchy" and you need to hold off andkeep low
- knowing when they are getting so twitchy that they are about to fly - head flicks
- having a well-schooled team with one spotter between the driver and the net who can see and understand the small signals from the bird(s) and the driver.

All these factors never guaranteed success but I found that every bit helped.

Murray has probably already asked if you have tried streching another net above the one in the river.  Or is that the way you have been catching them on the wing?

Please feel free to email or phone, I'm still interested in these lovely birds - they are what brought me to NZ from Scotland in 1974!

Finally, I am moving to the Nelson area in December 2010 and have every intention of getting invloved with whio again. I will also be on holiday in Nelson in January and could call in.

Regards
Duncan

Duncan Cunningham
Wellington, New Zealand
+64 21 922 401
duncan.cunningham@paradise.net.nz