Dotterels around New Zealand are thriving in areas where communities watch out for them, and are in decline otherwise. No dotterel chicks were seen to survive here at Te Henga since 2011 but a steady regime of trapping around the area by Greg Hoskins and others helped lower the numbers of predators in the area. Since the community began to watch out for them in 2018 we have seen seven dotterel chicks survive right through to fledging. (**See numbers below.)

Six of the chicks which have fledged have been tagged and sightings of them have given us valuable information. We now know that many of our dotterels gather in the Manukau Harbour around March and April to feed on the rich pickings of the mudflats and to find a mate if they are young or have lost their previous mate. JAL, JAM and JAN have all been spotted on west coast beaches south of Te Henga Bethells.

We also heard recently that one of the dotterels from Te Henga Bethells (JAM) was seen with a mate and 3 chicks all the way down in New Plymouth - a distance of around 350 km which is much further than dotterels were thought to venture. Emily Roberts from Wild for Taranaki photographed JAM at Pungaereere Stream near Rahotu (on the coast south of New Plymouth).