It’s a Long Long Road The walking track around the outside of the lagoon was a pipe dream of the founding members of Te Whanau Hou Grovetown Lagoon project. Twenty years on the loop track is now well used, with up to 150 people using the track in the weekend on peak days. There are still challenges to the volunteers of the project. One of the aims of the Society is to improve the access at the lagoon. This includes.....
Spring at the Lagoon Spring is a great time of year and it is especially beautiful down at the lagoon. Many bird species are present or have returned to the lagoon, the shags are building their nests, the royal spoonbills/kōtuku ngutupapa are back. There are also many chicks and juvenile birds. Many plants are just starting to come into flower, see the photographs below taken at the lagoon this week. Some of the native plants have very small flowers, so careful.....
Why Does Te Whanau Hou Grovetown Lagoon Exist? Te Whanau Hou Grovetown Lagoon will, within the next 3 years, need to update its rules under the new Incorporated Societies Act 2022. I recently attended an excellent presentation on the new Act. The speaker - Peter Orpin - explained that all existing incorporated societies will need to re-register under the new Act. This will mean writing a new set of rules for the running of Te Whanau Hou Grovetown Lagoon Incorporated Society. In doing so,.....
Kotoreke Marsh Crake Marsh crakes, kotoreke are small water birds that are rarely seen, however there is a pair at the lagoon. The marsh crake is one of the most secretive New Zealand birds, largely because it inhabits dense wetland vegetation, rarely ventures into the open and usually only calls at dawn or dusk and through the night. The upper parts of the crake’s body are rich chestnut-brown with flecks of black and white, the under parts are grey with black-and-white bars towards the flanks, the.....
Annual General Meeting - The Grovetown Lagoon Over Time The above photograph was taken in 2017 in the Springs Wetland and the growth rates since have been phenomenal. This paddock planted with saplings (shown in the photographs above and below) is now a mass of close knit natives. The photograph below is when the gravel track in Springs Wetland was first put in place. The achievements of the Grovetown Lagoon Society have unfolded slowly over the last 20 years, and now.....
Kelly’s Creek at Grovetown Lagoon is undergoing a transformation. Rob Simons from the Marlborough District Council’s biosecurity team and the team from Kūmānu Environmental are working to eradicate the willows along Kelly’s Creek (see the map below). Willows are a key weed to eradicate as they are a transformer species which alter the surrounding environment, out-competing the native species and forming dense stands along stream banks which can change the course of a waterway. The work at Kelly’s Creek is part of a landscape-scale.....
Game Bird Hunting Season It is gamebird hunting season nationally. The lagoon is a public space and has multiple users, game bird hunting does take place. The waterfowl season starts on the first weekend in May and runs through to the end of July. Hunters shoot right through the season as weather and bird numbers dictate. Generally hunting is from dawn to 9am, 4.30pm until dark although may continue throughout the day when there is inclement weather. Hunters at the lagoon.....
There is something in the water Inanga (Galaxias maculatus) are the most common and smallest of the whitebait species and are commonly found at the Grovetown Lagoon. The photograph above was taken just above the road bridge onto Maori Island (Otamawaha). Inanga have an unusual lifecycle. They begin life as eggs laid in vegetation beside streams in late summer and autumn. When the eggs hatch, they are carried downstream as larvae and spend the next six months at sea. In the spring they migrate upstream as.....
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