Nesting place of white heron

Press, 21 July 1980, Page 16

Nesting place of white heron

Sir, — The most persistent efforts of A. Gilbert and others to link t.ie nesting place of the white.heron with the Okarito Lagoon are most unlikely to make the Waitangiroto River flow into the lagoon unless those who would have it do so have discovered the secret of how to make water flow up hill. The lagoon is fed from a different watershed from that which gives rise to the Waitangiroto and they are separated by a low range of hills and several kilometres. The river has its own mouth, direct into the sea nori’i of Waitahi Bluff. The lagoon lies some distance to the south. The link between the herons and Okarito probably arose from the fact that, until recent times, access to the colony was by way of the beach from Okarito. settlement where the then ranger, the late Mr Ken Nolan, lived. Access is now gained from Whataroa, since the change of course by the Waitangitaona River upstream made its lower reaches fordable. — Yours, etc., B. W. PATTISON, Hokitika. July 19, 1980. Sir, — Your correspondent A. Gilbert (July 14) has made a valiant effort to convince readers of his own assertions, but. I would be more convinced of his competence and sincerity if his literary perambulations retained some relevance to fact. Waitangiroto Creek, where the herons nest, does not flow into Okarito Lagoon and it is impossible for it to do so, for they are separated by two high bushclad morraine ridges and a lake. Some years ago ‘the Waitangi . proper broke . through the containing stopbank, into Lake Wahapo and thence via Za’ s Creek into, the south end?of Okarito lagoon. Wait-

angirotJ and Waitangitaona currently enter the sea through a common mouth, but when I last visited the aica the two streams were flowing to sea through the Whataroa river mouth. The miniscule nesting site is protected by a 3.7 km reserve and never has, nor ever will, be under any threat from logging. — Yours, etc., RON FERGUSON. July 17, 1980.