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Speaker 1: Now you know how we like to tackle the big

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Speaker 1: issues on the show. One has come from good buddy

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Speaker 1: Adam who lives over in Timold. Last week he said

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Speaker 1: to me, hey, Loke, have you noticed this year that

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Speaker 1: there's no gals nesting around the Ashburton Riverbridge? And I

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Speaker 1: hadn't really noticed because I live on the north side.

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Speaker 1: So I've made a point over the past week of

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Speaker 1: taking a drive over. Was no sure on the weekends

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Speaker 1: to go and play a bit of golf at the

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Speaker 1: at the Timble course. Jesus got dry, hasn't it, But yeah,

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Speaker 1: sure enough in probably six excursions I've made to the

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Speaker 1: south side of town, sure enough, no sign of the gals.

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Speaker 1: What's going on to help pull us in Donna Field

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Speaker 1: is from Environment Canterbury and we started with a bit

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Speaker 1: of a lowdown on these black build.

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Speaker 2: Gals now only found in New Zealand, so that endemic

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Speaker 2: the one of three of our native gulls. The other

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Speaker 2: one the big black back gal that you often see

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Speaker 2: flying around, and then the red build gal which is

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Speaker 2: the one you often see scale. And that's one of

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Speaker 2: the differences of the Tarapoka poker or the black build

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Speaker 2: goal isn't really a scavenger, so you're less likely to

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Speaker 2: see it around your fish and chips.

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Speaker 1: The fish and chips are safe yet.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, safer than with the red build goals anyway,

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Speaker 2: sadly to say they are one of the most threshing

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Speaker 2: goals in the world, Like.

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Speaker 1: I've heard that, but I struggle to believe it because

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Speaker 1: in previous years, around about this time you drive across

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Speaker 1: the Ashburton Bridge and they're everywhere. There's what feels like

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Speaker 1: thousands of them parked up. Yeah, it's such a scene

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Speaker 1: from an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

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Speaker 2: They are a bit like they've imagine how Harvey Norman

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Speaker 2: felt when they're all on their roofs. But even that's

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Speaker 2: saying that. You know, you sort of think because we've

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Speaker 2: had colonies of three thousand that the Esperson River Bridge.

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Speaker 2: But there's only sort of seventy thousand birds in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand is what we estimate, And that sounds a lot

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Speaker 2: of birds. But considering that there's been a huge decline

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Speaker 2: from two hundred thousand just sort of basically in the

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Speaker 2: last eight years down to that number, people are really

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Speaker 2: worried about what's happening with them. Like many of our

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Speaker 2: species yea.

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Speaker 1: So that includes that Donner. So I'm wondering whether or

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Speaker 1: not they've moved on by design, because there was a

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Speaker 1: bit of talk a couple of months back about how

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Speaker 1: they were trying to move the gals away from what's

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Speaker 1: going to be a construction site soon as we put

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Speaker 1: in the second bridge. So I asked a donner, is

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Speaker 1: that the case.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it is by design that they're not there.

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Speaker 2: I think it's probably their choice because we've improved so previously.

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Speaker 2: We've improved the islands around the State Highway bridge to

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Speaker 2: help them, particularly make them a bit higher or one

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Speaker 2: of the biggest problems is that they get covered with

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Speaker 2: education and then there's they like clear gravel to nest on,

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Speaker 2: so sometimes we'll just clear them. So this year use

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Speaker 2: because of the bridge, a combined CAN and NZTA got

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Speaker 2: to work clearing some of the vegetation off both big

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Speaker 2: gravel banks and have been waiting in anticipation, and not

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Speaker 2: one bird is right, not one well, not one gal.

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Speaker 2: We've got some we've got some New Zealand oyster catchers

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Speaker 2: there and we've had some turns, some of our black

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Speaker 2: skid of turns circling around so there are some birds,

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Speaker 2: but not the colonies that we so often see as

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Speaker 2: those black build goals.

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Speaker 1: If you're a regular commuter across the Ashburton River Bridge,

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Speaker 1: you may have noticed that things are a little quieter

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Speaker 1: than we would usually expect to this time of the year.

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Speaker 1: There'd usually be thousands of these black built gulls hanging around.

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Speaker 1: Donna Field is our experts from Environment Canterbury, and it

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Speaker 1: turns out that she hasn't been able to find them

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Speaker 1: that no.

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Speaker 2: And you know, I've been looking at all the river

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Speaker 2: mouse on the one fill outdoor access cameras to see

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Speaker 2: if I can see them down there. Really haven't really

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Speaker 2: been able to walk delivers so much to see if

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Speaker 2: we can find them. For birds on the rivers because

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Speaker 2: of all the flood they will try nesting up to

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Speaker 2: three times, but it becomes hard work, I think for them,

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Speaker 2: and so it's often we've had the occasional year we've

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Speaker 2: disappeared into people's shingle pits or irrigation pond. It's highly

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Speaker 2: likely that they are tucked away on somebody's place and

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Speaker 2: just ready. For the statistics of knowing how many birds

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Speaker 2: are around this year, it would be useful if people

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Speaker 2: could let us know if.

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Speaker 1: Faceting, Well, why is it important that we know where

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Speaker 1: these gals have gone?

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Speaker 2: It's maybe not so important. We love gone though that

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Speaker 2: does give us an idea of how they work, you know,

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Speaker 2: like the are they having changing breeding habits because of

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Speaker 2: changes that we're doing. But it's particularly useful for a

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Speaker 2: consensus for the population, so we can see whether it's

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Speaker 2: trending flat down or up.

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Speaker 1: So if we do want to help you out and

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Speaker 1: keep an eye out for our black build gal friends,

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Speaker 1: I can't say if you ever been that close to one.

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Speaker 1: So what makes them distinctive? What do they look like?

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Speaker 2: Right? Well, I was thinking about that's how do you

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Speaker 2: describe them? Because you know, they're not that different to

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Speaker 2: our other small goal, the red bill goal. But what

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Speaker 2: they have is they're quite a fine They're quite slender,

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Speaker 2: the eyes white with quite distinct ring around it. So

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Speaker 2: and then they have this sort of like their black

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Speaker 2: tail is quite quite that has these white spots on it,

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Speaker 2: and they had a particularly black beak quite quite. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: But generally they'll be inland or in the river beds,

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Speaker 2: not around the town so much. It's ket On Harvey Norman, Yes.

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Speaker 1: But Harvey Norman. How interesting. If anything, the mystery thickens,

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Speaker 1: so I certainly hope there's some listeners out there that

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Speaker 1: can help track down our Black Build friends. And for now,

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Speaker 1: I guess those who freshly cleans their car or are

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Speaker 1: a little nervous driving across the bridge, well they can

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Speaker 1: breath the sigh of relief as things are a little

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Speaker 1: more vacant than they otherwise would be. It's been a

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Speaker 1: really fascinating chat. Thank you so much for filling us

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Speaker 1: in Dona Field from Ken.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much for your time, Lucan for putting the

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Speaker 2: word out there, not on the plague but the pleasure

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Speaker 2: of the Black Build gu