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Like most or all properties at Waikawa Beach we have a septic tank. Waste water disappears into it and that’s that (except for getting it regularly serviced, and triggering the pump manually if it gets stuck). Hmmm, a bunch of black domes, and a white box with a red light on it… But what’s actually going on down there? The…
In 2015 Horizons Regional Council produced a report on water quality in the Waikawa Stream: “Waikawa Stream and Manakau Stream Faecal Source Tracking Report”, August 2015, Horizons Report 2015/EXT/1460, authored by Michael Patterson, Research Associate and Logan Brown, Senior Scientist. The data was gathered during the period December 2014 to April 2015 but since then a lot of work such…
It's winter so lots of rain, gales, high tides and big swells out in the open sea are only to be expected. On 13 July 2022 a quick tour to all the beach entrances at high tide showed a full bay, with water right up to the dunes. Along the coast near the south track off Reay Mackay Grove the sea had been…
On 04 April 2022 I wrote River nutrient study. Recently I followed up about results. David Brown, with a Horizons Regional Council email address, replied: Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I had been trying to find out some more information. What I can report is that a large amount of data was collected for this project including:…
One of the emails I received from The NZ Garden Bird Survey team around the time of the 2022 Survey had handy info about Dunnocks and Sparrows: We’re not sure if this is happening with your whanāu, but we’ve noticed ours have definitely caught the birdwatching bug and they haven’t stopped looking for birds! Although there has been a bit…
An excellent 8 minute video by Dr Becky Smethurst, astrophysicist, explains how the Sun, Moon and Earth contribute to the tides: We all learn that the tides are caused by the Moon pulling on the Earth’s oceans. So how come there’s two high tides per day but we only have one Moon? Watch the video on YouTube: Why are there…
Like everywhere else in the country we have our share of pests. One to watch out for is the stoat. Some folks have had success trapping them. When I’ve spotted stoats they’ve looked very handsome. Unfortunately they’re killers. I lost several quail to one and neighbours have lost chickens. Who knows what damage they’ve done to native birds! DoC say:…
Kezna Cameron let me know about something that happens in June — a Gossamer Event: where spiders coat our wet land in cobwebs This is when thousands of young spiderlings climb the stalks of plants to play out silk that is caught by the breeze. This allows a spider to take to the air and disperse to new areas and…
25 June to 03 July 2022 is the week for the Garden Bird Survey. Why do we do the survey in winter? Aren’t birds less likely to be seen? And besides which, it’s freezing! Birds are active all year round, but in winter, when wild food is more scarce, they will tend to come into gardens to feed. This means…
An interesting thing about the Electra Outages site is their map of Waikawa Beach, which shows us the streams and drainage ditches in the area. There’s a stream that emerges from Lake Hurutini (bottom right corner of the map). It flows into the Strathnaver area, and then branches to go across Strathnaver Drive (by number 123) and into the Miratana…
Every summer from 1 November to 30 April Horizons Regional Council monitors the water at the Waikawa Beach footbridge for E. Coli, and just offshore for Enterococci. They also keep an eye out for potentially toxic algae (cyanobacteria). While the water by the footbridge is suitable for swimming only 46% of the time (a historical average), we don't seem to…
I recently became aware of a new publication — Life in the Shallows The wetlands of Aotearoa New Zealand by Karen Denyer and Monica Peters: Featuring wetlands to visit all around the country, descriptions of the rich bird, insect and plant life that can be found there, and some of the innovative ways we can protect and restore them, Life…
Get in touch with Miraz Jordan
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