Some of you may have realised that there is no Waikanae Estuary Newsletter from Mik Peryer in your inbox this month! After 16 years of writing Mik has decided it is time to stop, Mik’s first newsletter was in 2007 and was three
pages with wonderful illustrations. So there has been many years of
commitment!

After being away for a while the white-fronted terns are back in numbers. These birds are often called “the swallows of the sea” because of their swift flight and
their forked tail feathers.

Covid has put paid to lots of things!
However it has made New Zealanders think about their own country! I had a lovely couple on a tour the other day, they had spent most of their retirement house sitting around the World

After a dreary week with wind and rain the Sunday of our book launch dawned beautiful and the crowd came. The result being a wonderful afternoon and a successful book launch of “THOMAS”.

The rainbow relationship of Thomas the goose and Henry the Black Swan received world -wide fame in February 2018 w

It has taken me quite a while to get the up and going to produce this book, it is based on true stories
that were preformed over a period of thirty years, with one of the birds
making it to forty years of age.

Aston has an affinity with the birds and can be found talking to them and feeding them out of his hand even when the swans are on the nest.

The local council has been lowering the water level of the lagoons to reduce the weed as the sun helps to keep it in check, also, they have been doing some maintenance to the weir and need the water level to be reduced to assist this

Going back to my last newsletter, I told of the death of the male swan just as its mate was hatching their brood of seven eggs. Well as a single mum, she hatched five on the first day and two the next,

Our swans are again nesting in the Waimanu lagoons. This time on the western bank – which they have never done before!