{"id":308978,"date":"2025-11-26T02:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308978\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:20:08","slug":"watch-hawkes-bay-dotterel-nests-crushed-as-beachgoers-ignore-warning-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308978\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: Hawke\u2019s Bay dotterel nests crushed as beachgoers ignore warning signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

They also build small driftwood fences around the nest\u2019s border.<\/p>\n

The group decided to place a trail camera on one nest near Clive this year.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, that camera caught a fisherman and three others walking through nests, squishing what Scott said were \u201cthree eggs due to hatch in four days\u2019 time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MarilynMarilyn Scott releasing a newly banded dotterel.<\/p>\n

The video frustrated Scott.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose people actually walked over the cordon \u2013 it\u2019s not hard to put your legs over it, you know, but it\u2019s clear it\u2019s there for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott said the group didn\u2019t want to name and shame, but wanted to educate people on helping support the region\u2019s endangered wildlife.<\/p>\n

One of those captured on the video is carrying a fishing rod.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to gang up on fishermen because we\u2019ve had fishermen locate nests and put sticks around them and tell us where they are, but it\u2019s a certain sector of our community that probably feel self-entitled about everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last year,Scott found dotterel chicks and fledglings run over by motorbikes<\/a> in the same area, despite the cordons and clear signage about vehicles not being permitted on the beach.<\/p>\n

She also said she caught dogs off-lead in the area, despite it being clearly marked with signs as an on-leash zone. <\/p>\n

Scott said Save the Dotterel members weren\u2019t the police, but were there to engage people positively, talking to them about the dotterels.<\/p>\n

\"AA dotterel sits on its chick near Clive. Photo \/ Lynne Roberts Photography<\/p>\n

Local surfcaster Brent Howie said people should be looking after all species of wildlife.<\/p>\n

He said he felt a lot of people were still unaware of the dotterel nests and even more signs needed to be put in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly some people are just disrespectful and don\u2019t care \u2013 it\u2019s like the rubbish that is left on the beach also.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be looking after our wildlife and our beaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council spokesperson said dotterels faced numerous pressures from predation and flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s deeply disappointing to see nests destroyed when this could have been prevented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to local groups, particularly Save the Dotterels, who raise awareness and actively protect nests and chicks. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have supported their efforts with signage, traps, and technical advice, but it is the volunteers on the ground doing the hard mahi.\u201d <\/p>\n

Principal ranger for the Department of Conservation (DoC), Kahori Nakagawa, said dotterels were protected under the Wildlife Act 1973 and anyone caught disturbing dotterels, or their nests, could face penalties including fines of up to $100,000 and\/or up to two years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

If people saw others interfering with nesting dotterels in protected nesting areas, they could report the incident to the council, or to DoC on 0800 362 468.<\/p>\n

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They also build small driftwood fences around the nest\u2019s border. The group decided to place a trail camera…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[10960,64,63,9826,175548,7248,8046,93282,175547,175549,175546,1886,9492,16366,47020,118721,165346,1861,128,2953,55128,1928,9675,1424,1634,7137,338],"class_list":["post-308978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-as","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bay","tag-beachgoers","tag-bird","tag-camera","tag-captured","tag-crushed","tag-crushing","tag-dotterel","tag-eggs","tag-hawkes","tag-ignore","tag-native","tag-nesting","tag-nests","tag-people","tag-science","tag-signs","tag-site","tag-their","tag-through","tag-walking","tag-warning","tag-watch","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}