Early Success For Napier Hill Urban Biodiversity Programme

 

A bird survey has confirmed what Napier Hill residents had already happily realised - bellbird and tui populations across Napier Hill have increased significantly in the past season following the urban possum control operation carried out by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Napier City Council last year.

Ornithologist Dr Brent Stephenson has provided preliminary results to the councils on the bird count survey he did in early January this year which shows a general boost in the bird population.

With the reduction of possums across the hill there is more food available for the birds.   Possums not only compete for food with birds, but are a major predator on eggs and nesting young birds. 

Significant increases have been counted in tui, bellbirds, blackbirds, greenfinch and goldfinch numbers.  Silver-eye and kingfisher numbers have remained about the same, and there are small increases in native pigeon, fantail, song thrush numbers. 

However some birds have struggled with the cooler, damper spring and summer, and their fledglings have not done as well.  For example, grey warbler and chaffinch numbers across the hill are lower than last year. 

The bird population was first surveyed by Dr Stephenson in January 2009 before control operation was begun.  He has been able to compare results with that early survey.

The urban possum control operation was coordinated by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and involved Napier City Council doing work in reserves and Regional Council contractors working with residents to do control work on their properties from February to June.

“These early results are very positive and reflect the excellent support from the residents of Napier Hill. It was the community and Napier City Councils strong support for the pest management programme that allowed contractors to get such a good pest reduction across the whole area” said Campbell Leckie, Regional Council biosecurity manager.   “What’s also great to see is that many residents are now carrying on maintenance control on their properties to keep possum numbers low”. 

“The increase in bird numbers, especially the honey eaters such as tui and bellbird, is an extremely pleasing and positive outcome of this joint operation, and clearly demonstrates the benefits of such a pro-active campaign,” said Tony Billing, Napier City Council’s Parks and Reserves Manager.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council now has a similar operation underway around the outskirts of Havelock North using the Napier Hill operation as a model, this time working with Hastings District Council.