On 20 March, the transfer of whio fledglings took place and James York travelled as the iwi representative. The transfer went very well indeed and the weather was cracking.
We flew into the Clinton Valley at 10.30am and luckily found the pair we were looking for with their fledglings fairly quickly. Although the catching was not quite textbook it was nearly perfect, and we ended up with all the birds in the net – eventually.
I identified that this clutch consisted of two males and one female. The first release of fledglings in February consisted of two females and one male.
When caught, all the fledglings had transponders inserted and a four-band color combination fitted. When this was done we flew directly to the Rock Burn for the release and were back in Milford by 2pm.
A survey of the Upper Hollyford needs to be carried out to determine if the pair seen with four ducklings in February still has them. If they do, this transfer would have most likely occurred sometime around the last week of April. Nā Erina Loe, the Department of Conservation.
James York with one of the whio fledglings.