Will the egg hatch tomorrow?

Should things continue to tick along as they have so far, we could expect to see the eggs starting to hatch anytime from tomorrow but it could last at least another week. I am hoping for the Monday to give the chicks time to grow before their first weekend onslaught, but nature has its own timetable.

Today I picked up from Council some chick shelters that we will place on the beach on Friday morning to give the ravens a chance to check them out before the chicks check in. I need to give them a few coats of marine varnish and coat them with sand so they are camouflaged before I can put them out.

This weekend will see the first of the summer spring tides. Mark and I have been progressively placing sandbags on the beach since Monday. This is to check that the birds can tolerate them (which they, thankfully, are). We can't do any more than two an hour as we can't disturb birds off nest longer than 10 minutes an hour. If it is above 25 degrees or windy then we are cut down to two every two hours to also allow for extra disturbance from people that walk the beach.

Volunteers for the weekend:

What is most needed this weekend is volunteers that can keep an eye out on the beach from my place. We have placed sandbags based on our very best guess of what might happen with the tides, but if there is any above average swell we might need to do some extra shore up efforts in front of the nest.

I will be on the beach to help direct people traffic around the site. With the extra high tide people may not be able to walk the full length of the beach as the fence may be in the way. It will then be important to explain why their access from one end of the Spit to the other might be cut for up to 2 hours. Given that the tides will be high, I am guessing we will only need to direct people traffic coming from Bonnievale, that the traffic from the end that boats normally use will be unnecessary as that end of the beach is likely to be under water. I may also need to retrieve the fence should it start to collapse due to the tide and reassemble progressively once the tide has subsided, again making sure we are not disturbing the birds off nest longer than 10 minutes an hour.

I will be on the beach with extra sandbags. As I won't be able to see if there is a possible washout of the nest site I will need someone at my place that can judge if the sandbags we have placed are holding and, if not, whether a wash over of the nest looks likely so I can fill sandbags closer to the nest.

Volunteers are needed:

Saturday 8.30 to 10.30 (high tide is 9.38)

Sunday 9.15 to 11.15 (high tide 10.23)

If you are available to do a two hour shift either of these days, you will need your mobile phone to ring me on the beach, it would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone. Keep your fingers crossed.

The tides did end up taking down the fence, both days, and had to be quickly replaced to keep the bird on nest.