Ailsa McGilvary | |
|---|---|
 McGilvary in 2022 | |
| Born | Ailsa Diane McGilvary |
| Education | University of Otago |
| Known for | Bird conservation |
| Spouse | Ted Howard |
Ailsa Diane McGilvary QSM (also known as Ailsa McGilvary-Howard) is a New Zealand bird conservationist, and photographer.
In 2012, McGilvary noted from casual observations at South Bay, Kaikōura that the banded dotterels or pohowera nesting there were having poor breeding success, with failures of all the nests that she had located. She launched a self-funded project, the Banded Dotterel Study, in the 2015/16 breeding season to systematically monitor the bird's breeding success. [1] Of the 20 nests studied in the 2015/16 season, there were only eight chicks hatched, and just one fledgling survived. [2] The study has continued over multiple breeding seasons, confirming the poor breeding success, with the leading cause being cat predation of eggs, chicks and adult birds. [3] Other predators and threats she identified include hedgehogs, dogs, and disturbance from human activities.
In addition to direct observations, including cat prints in beach gravels, McGilvary has captured multiple instances of cat predation using motion-activated nest cameras. [4] [5] The evidence from the nest cameras revealed the type of predators, their predatory behaviour and how prevalent they were. It became clear that the predators were not just wild cats, but also pet cats, dogs and hedgehogs. When cats visit the nests, the adult birds are often too frightened to sit on the eggs. Other evidence suggested that chicks had been taken and nesting birds had been disturbed by dogs that were unleashed or not under direct control of their owner. [6]
In the third year of the study McGilvary trialled the use of cages installed over the nests, to protect them from predators. [7] Ultimately, this initiative was unsuccessful, and led to several bird deaths that were attributed to cats learning how to catch adult birds as they left the cage. [8] [9]
McGilvary's studies have shown that the local breeding population of banded dotterels is critically endangered. [10] [1] The 2020 breeding season was described as the worst on record, with a drop of 40% in the number of pairs nesting in the study area, and heavy losses of chicks and adult birds. [11]
In December 2015, McGilvary obtained permission from Kaikōura District Council to erect signs on the beach at South Bay, letting people know that dotterels were nesting on the beach, asking beach users on quad bikes to keep to the established tracks, to keep their dogs on a leash, and to avoid disturbing nests or chicks. [12]
In 2017, McGilvary was interviewed on-site at South Bay beach for a Radio New Zealand programme. During the interview she described the threats to banded dotterels from predators and human interference, and her endeavours to raise community awareness and protect the birds. Her photographs of the birds were published by Radio New Zealand in an online gallery to accompany the story. [13]
In 2019, McGilvary criticised the Kaikōura District Council for permitting a freedom camping site to be established at South Bay, immediately adjacent to banded dotterel nesting areas, and not doing enough to protect the birds, despite having named the new area Pohowera after them. [14] The Council subsequently passed a Responsible Freedom Camping bylaw in November 2019 that prohibited freedom camping at the Pohowera (South Bay) site between 15 August and the last day in February of the following year, and limited the maximum number of vehicles to 15. [15]
In 2020, McGilvary featured in a short film Nest 38, about the difficulties faced by the banded dotterels at Kaikōura. [16] The film subsequently won the award for best short film at the International Wildlife Film Festival 2021. [17] McGilvary arranged for the Minister of Conservation, Kiri Allan to attend a conservation-focused event in Kaikōura on 13 February 2021, including the screening of the film Nest 38 at the Mayfair Theatre. [18]
In response to further predation of dotterel nests early in the 2021/22 season, McGilvary urged the local community to keep all cats contained. [4] [19] In an interview with New Zealand Geographic she said: [20]
There is a very significant fine for killing a native animal. But you can do it for free if you do it with a cat.
McGilvary was chair of the Kaikōura branch of Forest and Bird from 2009. [1] In addition to direct advocacy with beach users and other members of the public, McGilvray has made formal submissions about conservation of banded dotterels to the Kaikōura District Council and the Marlborough District Council, on behalf of the Banded Dotterel Project, and the Forest and Bird Kaikōura Branch. [21] [22] [23]
McGilvary is one of the trustees of The Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust, formed in October 2008 to promote conservation of the endangered Hutton's shearwater or kaikōura tītī. [24] [25] The bird's range is Australian and New Zealand waters, but it breeds only in mainland New Zealand. Its conservation status is Endangered, because there are just two remaining breeding colonies, located in the Seaward Kaikōura Range. [26] It is the only seabird in the world that is known to breed in alpine areas.
The work of the trust has included the establishment and maintenance of a protected area for Hutton's shearwaters to breed on the Kaikōura Peninsula. The breeding colony was established on the peninsula by translocating fledgling birds from the remaining alpine colonies into man-made burrows that are now enclosed within a predator-proof fence. [27] [25] [28] McGilvary was involved in this work prior to the first translocations, and became a member of the trust in 2014. [25]
In 2011 and 2012, McGilvary launched a conservation initiative for the native insect the wētā, a giant flightless cricket that is endemic to New Zealand. The genus commonly found in the Kaikōura township is the tree wētā. McGilvary offered to rescue wētā from residential properties around the town and return them to native bush in the local area. [29] [30]
In the 2022 New Year Honours, McGilvary and her husband Ted Howard were each awarded the Queen's Service Medal, for services to conservation, particularly wildlife conservation. [31] [32]
McGilvary studied the piano as a child in Dunedin, and had opportunities to play the Steinway instrument in the Dunedin Town Hall during school holidays. [33] She plays piano at church services in Kaikōura, [34] and is the resident organist at St Paul's Presbyterian Church. [35] McGilvary has been a local advocate for classical music. [36] She plays piano regularly, and says about her music: [33]
It's just become a love for me. It affects all parts of my life.
McGilvary has credited Honor Anderson, a friend and Vocational Guidance Service worker, for supporting her in her teenage years and encouraging her choice of studies. McGilvary says about Anderson: [37]
When it was time to choose a direction, she told me: "Do Science! We need more girls in Science." So I did and I thrived. It has sent me in some amazing directions.
In an extended interview recorded by KnowledgeAble Communities, McGilvary remarked that her parents had been "birders", but that she had chosen to study plant biology, rather than animals or birds. [9] McGilvary holds a Bachelor of Science in plant biology from the University of Otago where she studied under Alan Mark. [1] [25]
McGilvary is married to Ted Howard, and they are both long-term residents of Kaikōura. [1] Her involvement with banded dotterels at South Bay, Kaikōura came about as a part of a lifestyle change following her husband's diagnosis with cancer. He bought McGilvary a camera around this time, and she became interested in the dotterels of South Bay as photographic subjects on the beach. This led to growing awareness of the birds, and their breeding behaviour and her subsequent establishment of the Banded Dotterel Study. [9]
Procellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families: the albatrosses, the petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still called tubenoses in English, procellariiforms are often referred to collectively as the petrels, a term that has been applied to all members of the order, or more commonly all the families except the albatrosses. They are almost exclusively pelagic, and have a cosmopolitan distribution across the world's oceans, with the highest diversity being around New Zealand.
The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes, which also includes the albatrosses and the storm petrels.
The Manx shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. The scientific name of this species records a name shift: Manx shearwaters were called Manks puffins in the 17th century. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word for the cured carcasses of nestling shearwaters. The Atlantic puffin acquired the name much later, possibly because of its similar nesting habits.
Kaikōura is a town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 1, 180 km north of Christchurch. The town has an estimated permanent resident population of 2,360.
The red-billed gull, also known as tarāpunga and once also known as the mackerel gull, is a native of New Zealand, being found throughout the country and on outlying islands including the Chatham Islands and subantarctic islands. It was formerly considered a separate species but is now usually treated as a subspecies of the silver gull.
Farewell Spit is a narrow sand spit at the northern end of the Golden Bay, in the South Island of New Zealand. The spit includes around 25 km (16 mi) of stable land and another 5 km (3.1 mi) of mobile sand spit running eastwards from Cape Farewell, the northern-most point of the South Island. Farewell Spit is the longest sand spit in New Zealand, and is a legally protected Nature Reserve. The area is designated as a Ramsar wetland site and an East Asian–Australasian Flyway Shorebird Network site. Farewell Spit is administered by the New Zealand Department of Conservation as a seabird and wildlife reserve. Apart from a small area at the base of the spit, it is closed to the public except through organised tours. Conservation initiatives are in progress towards eliminating mammalian predators from Farewell Spit, including a proposal for a predator-proof fence.
The Westland petrel(Procellaria westlandica),, also known as the Westland black petrel, is a moderately large seabird in the petrel family Procellariidae, that is endemic to New Zealand. Described by Robert Falla in 1946, it is a stocky bird weighing approximately 1,100 grams (39 oz), and is one of the largest of the burrowing petrels. It is a dark blackish-brown colour with black legs and feet. It has a pale yellow bill with a dark tip.
The double-banded plover, known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, is a species of bird in the plover family. Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus, which breeds throughout New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands, and Charadrius bicinctus exilis, which breeds in New Zealand's subantarctic Auckland Islands.
The New Zealand plover is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand dotterel or red-breasted dotterel, and its Māori names include tūturiwhatu, pukunui, and kūkuruatu.
The flesh-footed shearwater is a medium-sized shearwater. Its plumage is black. It has pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a distinct black tip. Together with the equally light-billed pink-footed shearwater, it forms the Hemipuffinus group, a superspecies which may or may not have an Atlantic relative in the great shearwater. These large shearwaters are among those that have been separated into the genus Ardenna. Recent genetic analysis indicates evidence of strong divergence between Pacific colonies relative to those in South and Western Australia, thought to be explained by philopatry and differences in foraging strategies during the breeding season.
The streaked shearwater is a species of seabird. The adult bird averages 48 cm (19 in) in length, with a 122 cm (48 in) wingspan.
The black-billed gull, Buller's gull, or tarāpuka (Māori) is a Near Threatened species of gull in the family Laridae. This gull is found only in New Zealand, its ancestors having arrived from Australia around 250,000 years ago.
The fluttering shearwater is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is endemic to New Zealand and migrates to Australia and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitats are open seas and rocky shores. It has been known as Forster's shearwater in the past.
Hutton's shearwater is a medium-sized ocean-going seabird in the family Procellariidae. Its range is Australian and New Zealand waters, but it breeds only in mainland New Zealand. Its conservation status is Endangered, because there are just two remaining breeding colonies, located in the Seaward Kaikōura Range. Six other shearwater colonies have been wiped out by introduced pigs. Hutton's shearwater is the only seabird in the world that is known to breed in alpine areas. Conservation measures for the bird include community initiatives to rescue birds that crash-land at night on streets in Kaikōura, and the establishment of a protected area on the Kaikōura Peninsula including a predator-proof fence, man-made burrows, and translocating fledglings from the remaining colonies.
The Kowhai Valley and Shearwater Stream Important Bird Area comprises a disjunct site in the Seaward Kaikōura Range in the north-east of New Zealand’s South Island, some 15 km inland from the coastal town of Kaikōura. The site, at an altitude of 1200–1800 m above sea level, has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it contains the entire breeding population of Hutton's shearwaters; about 100,000 pairs in two colonies.
The northern New Zealand dotterel or northern red-breasted plover is a shorebird which breeds exclusively on beaches in New Zealand's North Island.
The southern New Zealand dotterel or southern red-breasted plover is a critically endangered subspecies of the New Zealand dotterel, a shorebird endemic to New Zealand. The subspecies was once widespread across the South Island, but now breeds almost exclusively on Stewart Island.
Ward Beach is a section of rugged coastline in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand that is known for unusual rock formations. The geological features include the exposed reef platforms that were uplifted by 2 m or more during the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, and the spherical concretions known as the Ward Beach boulders. Another formation known as the Chancet Rocks is located in a scientific reserve about 1.5 km to the north of the Ward Beach roadend. They contain unusual trace fossils and provide amongst the best on-land evidence of the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in marine sediments in the Southern Hemisphere.
Hikurangi Marine Reserve is a marine reserve off the coast of the Kaikōura District, in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand's South Island. It is the largest and deepest marine reserve in New Zealand.
Thomas Edward Howard is a New Zealand conservationist.
Media related to Ailsa McGilvary at Wikimedia Commons