Beach goers at Te Henga Bethells Beach who’ve forgotten their dog lead will be able to borrow one and then return it at the end of their walk thanks to a new initiative by Te Henga Tuturiwhatu, the local dotterel minding group. Chris Bindon from Auckland Council has sourced some dog leads and the group is running their “Need a Lead?” campaign all summer, starting in October.
Bethells Beach is very lucky to have endangered dotterels on the beach and the local community has been working since 2018 to protect them. Dotterels are rarer than kiwi with only about 2500 left all over New Zealand. Their chicks are tiny and vulnerable. They leave the nest as soon as they hatch to forage for food right up and down the beach from the dunes to the water. The breeding season runs from October through to March, and the determined parents will lay up to five times over a season if their attempts are unsuccessful.
At Te Henga Bethells Beach dogs are required to be on lead from the car park, on down past the lagoon and anywhere on the main beach from Labour Weekend through to Easter Weekend. Dog off-lead areas are the grassy reserve behind the car park and Waitākere Bay over the river.
You can find out more about Te Henga’s dotterels on the Facebook page