Though more common in New Zealand, this species was first discovered in
New South Wales, whence specimens were described in 1827. Edgar Stead is
the one writer who has written most eloquently about this delightful
endemic bird, although it is now not so plentiful as it was in his day.
“The banded dotterel is the most plentiful of all the plover that breed with us,
being found commonly throughout the South Island in suitable localities, and also, but more sparingly, in the North. ‘Suitable’ localities from a dotterel’s standpoint are areas
covered with very short vegetation, or, better still, with no
vegetation at all. Such places as shingle river–beds, the shores of
both lake and sea, and more or less level patches in ‘tussock’ country
are favourite resorts; as also is newly ploughed land, provided it is
flat.
“Their call at all
seasons is a staccato, high–pitched ‘pit’, sometimes repeated twice
quickly, but often uttered as a single syllable at intervals up to
thirty seconds, though much more rapidly when in flight. If a bird is
standing still, it gives its head and body a little upward jerk every
time it calls, the effect being exactly as though it had an attack of
hiccups.
“The breeding
season commences early. I have found young dotterel during the last
week of August, but by the second week of September, most of the birds
are building, and quite a number will be already sitting. The nest is a
very simple construction, yet wonderfully well adapted to the bird’s
needs. It consists of a little hole about three inches across with
small pieces of moss, grass, wood or seaweed. I found a nest once in a
ploughed paddock, where the hollow had been made in the top of a
freshly turned furrow, and filled with wheat husks — a whole handful of
them and nothing else. The eggs when laid are buried in the ‘lining’ of
the nest, being always about half covered, and sometimes completely so.
The result is one of the most inconspicuous nests that I know of. Three
is the number of a full clutch of eggs, sometimes two, but never, in my
experience, four. Both sexes take part in incubating the eggs.
“The young when
hatched are covered with short down, the upper parts a golden brown
speckled with black, the under parts creamy yellow, the tiny wings
having the down longer, and white on its outer edges. They leave the
nest within a day of hatching and accompany their parents in search of
food, but at the slightest sign of danger the watchful old birds give
the alarm, and the chicks scatter, run a few feet, and squat, their
legs doubled up underneath them, and their head and neck stretched
straight out in front, and pressed tight to the ground. They remain
thus motionless, and, harmonising as they do to an amazing degree with
their surroundings, are very difficult to detect. When so posed, they
will allow themslves to be caught, and I have touched them, and
sometimes moved them slightly with my finger, and they have made no
attempt to run away. Yet when they do run, they are extraordinarily
fast for their size, and if pursued, spread their little wings to give
them better balance, and dodge with much skill.
“Young dotterel
take readily to the water, and are good swimmers, using their legs
rapidly and carrying their head and neck upright with a comical
self–possessed air. They grow fast and are fully fledged in about six
weeks from hatching. When feeding, the young do not cluster round the
parents as do chicks around a hen, each trotting along by itself, and
each, to a large extent, finding its own food., the old birds being
nearby and supervising the proceedings. Until they begin to get their
feathers, the young ones, on cold days, gather together at intervals
and are brooded by the parents for awhile. For some time after the
young are able to fly, they keep with their parents in the vicinity of
the nesting site, but soon the family joins with others to form flocks
near good feeding grounds. Their food consists chiefly of flies, grubs
and insects, of aquatic larvae which they get by wading in the shallow
waters at the edge of streams and pools; and the wire–worms and
caterpillars which they get on ploughed land.
“In the back
country of Canterbury there are many old river flats, where the shingle
has been covered with a carpet of mosses, lichens and cushion plants,
sparsely interspersed with tussock. During the hot summer months these
places are parched and dry beyond belief, the sun strikes mercilessly
on them so that the heated air from their scorched surfaces rises in
shimmering waves. Most unlikely places, one would say, to find banded
dotterel, yet strangely enough these birds are to be found there in
numbers, even in January and Februrary; and stranger still, their food
consists chiefly of the fruits of two plants of mat–like growth — Coprosma
petrei and Muhlenbekia axillaris.
“Towards the end
of January, a few dotterel begin to migrate; the main departure takes
place in April, and by the beginning of May, most of them have gone to
their winter quarters — some to Australia, and some to the northern end
of the North Island. Of the birds that inhabit the South Island during
the summer, a small proportion — I should say less than ten per cent —
stay with us during the winter. In June and July and the first week in
August, they may be seen flying in densely packed flocks, wheeling,
rising, falling, or sweeping swift and low along the ground, always in
unison as if at the dictates of a leader, now with their white breasts
flashing in the sunlight, anon almost invisible as they turn their
backs to the observer. During these flights, for the most part they
maintain a constant ‘pitting’, but sometimes, when at a height, they
will swoop at a speed angle towards the ground, and then fall silent,
as if devoting every ounce of their strength to the attainment of
speed. Close along the ground they will travel for a short distance,
and then, all unexpectedly, settle, each bird standing tall for a few
seconds with head raised, as if in a state of suppressed excitement
Towards the end of July the winter residents are joined by the
returning migrants.
“In the years
previous to 1908, great numbers of dotterel were being shot by market
gunners during the last few days of July, when the migrants returned,
and the flocks still retained their close formation. In 1908 these birds
were placed on the ‘protected’ list of New Zealand and have not much
been shot since then.
“The birds which
leave New Zealand in the winter go to Australia, where they occur in
the coastal regions of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South
and West Australia. It has not been recorded as breeding anywhere in
Australia, nor indeed as spending the summer there; the route
these migrants follow is most interesting, for apparently they go via
Auckland, Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands to South Queensland and South
Australia, whence they work south along the coast to Victoria,
Tasmania, South and West Australia.
“Banded
dotterel moult twice a year, beginning to lose their breeding dress in
December. By the end of the month most of them have lost the two bands
across the breast, and the black and white frontal bands, but are still
moulting the wings and tail. By March 21st they have again begun to
grow their red and black bands, and many of them are in full nesting
plumage by the second week in May.
“The banded
dotterel is able to more than hold its own against all the natural
enemies that have been introduced up to the present (1932); so unless
the future sees the introduction of some more potent enemy than those
already here (which God forbid!), it should continue to thrive”.
