Birdwatching webcam now operating at sandspit

September 19th, 2014

A webcam has been installed at the corner of Harbour Road and Motueka Quay, offering round-the-clock views of tidal flows and bird feeding along a stretch of the sandspit.

The camera was initially installed at Woodstock to view Motueka River levels, but was moved this year after ornithologists and bird watchers suggested it could be better used monitoring activities on the sandspit. (See our earlier story.)

The timing is good, with the celebration welcoming the godwits coming up on September 28th.

Anyone can view the webcam images by clicking on this web page. The top image is the latest one. The view is to the south-east, towards Kina.

The images are stored and updated every 10 minutes, and by clicking on the video image below on the page you can see the whole time lapse sequence for the current day by running your mouse from left to right across the image.

Even for those not interested in the activities of the birdlife that can be seen feeding at times, the change in tide levels is fascinating.

As the web page says, shorebirds are vulnerable to disturbance during high tide. On very high tides Motueka Sandspit is one of the only roosting sites in Tasman Bay with birds from Waimea Inlet having to fly to Motueka to get some dry land on which to hang out before the tide drops again.

Shorebirds, especially the godwits, are easily spooked by dogs, horses, jet skis, boats or vehicles that gets within 50m of them. Godwits need to put on weight fast when they first arrive and when they are moulting they use a lot of energy to fly. Disturbance during these times can be fatal to the birds.

The project was led by Trevor James, TDC's Resource Scientist in the Environment and Planning Department, who says, "We hope this webcam can help more people value this sandspit accordingly and identify and reduce the incidence of bird disturbance."

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