Tata Beach shag spectacle creates nationwide interest
Helen Kingston is one of half a dozen dedicated locals who have been observing and counting the shags at Tata Beach. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
For the last year or two, a dedicated handful of Golden Bay residents have made it their intermittent habit to get up before dawn and head out to Tata Beach, where they sit just to the left of the boat ramp and wait quietly in the dim light for the first spotted shags (Stictocarbo punctatus) to fly in from their roosts around the Tata Islands.
At first the birds come in groups of twos and threes, increasing until the groups relentlessly flying in number two dozen or more. The daily gathering of the shags is underway, and by the time they all leave to feed out at sea, some 20 to 30 minutes later, between 1000 and 5000 birds have congregated along a 200-metre stretch of beach. The spectacle is at its peak in winter; in the height of summer only 100 shags may make the dawn muster. Just sit quietly along the scrubline where the sand finishes and they won’t mind your presence.
Currently, around 1400 shags are turning up daily at Tata. The estimated New Zealand population is between 10,000 and 50,000 birds.
It was keen Tauranga ornithologist Ann Graeme who revved up local interest in the birds, suggesting Golden Bay’s Forest & Bird join Ornithological Society members in a co-ordinated study. John Barraclough became the meticulous record keeper for the project, his methodology with resulting graphs and tables giving the project some scientific status. Others put in many hours of observation and counting, including Melissa Skipworth, Rosemary Jorgensen, Jenny Treloar (local F&B chair), Bob Kennedy (until a few months ago) and Helen Kingston.
Last Queen’s Birthday weekend, Helen shared some of the group’s early morning experiences by way of a PowerPoint presentation to delegates of the New Zealand Ornithological Society at their annual conference in Nelson.
“It went down well, generating lots of interest but also further questions to be answered. Why the shags congregate like this is not something that even a lot of experts know very much about. But what we’ve collectively seen may put some light on the subject. Tata of course isn’t the only place shags congregate like this; locals here often talk of similar sights at Patons Rock and Taupo Point. Pakawau is named after shags, after all. Whariwharangi is another place they’ve been seen in big numbers. Banks Peninsula is a main breeding area for them, but Tata Beach is definitely up there when it comes to these displays. ”
Tata’s spotted shags are nothing new. In his reminiscences, Rev Ray Blampied, now in his 90s, remembers them “standing like soldiers” on the beach. At least one log of passing sailing ships is said to refer to them in their thousands at Tata.
Exactly what the birds do on the beach is intriguing. At first they shuffle about, calling croakily and making flapping noises with their wings. Huge numbers make quite a din. They become increasingly restless, with many waddling in the shallows to splash and dive, presumably to peruse the bottom for gizzard stones. Back on the beach, many individuals dry retch a small pile of pebbles up on the beach, a move preceded by a fluffing and throwing up of their tails. Opportunist red-billed gulls stalk through the melee, cleaning the little pebble mounds of their slimy stomach content.
Soon, usually around sunrise, their ritual is over and they fly off in groups out to sea, where they swim and dive for their diet of small and post-larval fish.
Helen believes the reason the birds go to Tata Beach is not only because they roost nearby and it’s always reliably sheltered, but because the pebbles there are probably the perfect size for the birds.
“They’re still fussy about exactly which stones they pick up,” she says, “and by just looking at all the piles after the birds leave, it’s obvious that some of them prefer swallowing bluey-green stones. The average size of all the stones is around one centimetre across. But you do find the odd one that’s around three centimetres. That’s big to be carrying around in your gut. Some ornithologists believe the purpose of the stones is for ballast, while others say it helps the birds with digestion of fish. Another group thinks the stones cleanse their stomachs of parasitic worms, which we sometimes find in with the regurgitated stones. It’s not a question that can be answered simply.”
Entirely marine but rather sedentary when not fishing, shags come in to occupy the roosts in fissures and ledges of seaside cliffs, which is why the Tata Islands—and to a lesser extent the high cliffs around Tarakohe—have always been preferred habitat.
Helen is only too happy that others hear about the shags. “It’s quite a moving thing. You just don’t often see this level of natural spectacle, especially so accessible; it’s a totally absorbing thing to watch. Maybe one day we’ll understand exactly how these shags live their complex lives. I hope so, because they are such beautiful birds.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
