Pūkorokoro Miranda Naturalists' Trust

The Miranda Naturalists' Trust (MNT) was formed in 1975 to encourage people to visit the coastline and appreciate its wide range of flora and fauna.

The trust promotes education and public awareness of coastal ecology, shorebird research and conservation.

Work done by the trust, to increase knowledge of shorebird migration, includes bird banding, research and data exchange.

[1] The Shorebird Centre has information displays on waders and a library and helps raise funds for the trust's work through their shop sales and visitor accommodation.

The wetlands of the Firth of Thames consist of extensive intertidal mudflats (about 8500 hectares), which are the feeding grounds for flocks of migratory wading birds.

Along the Miranda coast, a chenier plain with large shell banks formed over the past 4500 years,[1] and provides roosting areas for the waders at high tide.

He was a keen birdwatcher, making bicycle tours to the Firth of Thames in the 1940s, e.g. in 1942 with a group of students from King's College.

At Miranda, at the site of a then operating lime-works, he discovered a bird high-tide roost with bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica), wrybills (Anarhynchus frontalis) and South Island pied oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus).

The Trust's constitution lists as its main objects: The first donations were acquired, and a fund-raising campaign was started.

An "Inaugural Appeal" letter was circulated, stating that "an Observatory should be set up at Miranda to maintain and amplify the study of birds in the Firth".

[6] Elaine Power painted a New Zealand dotterel (Charadrius obscurus) for the Trust, which was sold in print in a limited edition, signed by the artist, and Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, made a fundraising speech, when he visited Auckland.

Important donations were received from Mobil Oil NZ, the Ornithological Society of New Zealand, the J.R. McKenzie Trust and the Recreation and Sport Fund.

In 1986 the Trust, still looking for a place to erect a building, changed focus to the west side of the Miranda to Kaiaua Road.

One of the waiata had the following text: Ka haere mai ano nga kuaka Ka kite ano – te iwi pakeha Ka kite ano – te tangata whenua Na tatou katoa – Pukorokoro nei Welcome again the godwits For the Pakeha to see For the first people to see For Miranda is for all Then the Miranda Trust executive council members welcomed the tāngata whenua to the opening ceremony.

The early start and the procedures at this day were chosen, to show that the trust was conscious to be in fact guests on the ancestral lands of Te Tangata Whenua.

[10] The next year a full-time manager was appointed, paid with funding from "Task Force Green", a government agency involved with subsidising employment of people.

In 1993 the land surrounding the former lime-works were brought under the protection of a QE II National Trust Covenant.

Any opportunity to foster links between countries and sites where shorebirds stay during their migratory movements over the year is taken.

The Miranda Naturalists' Trust has developed a "sister-site" relationship with the Yalu Jiang National Nature Reserve (YJNNR).

The mudflats in this bay are a very important part of the "Flyway" of red knots and are rapidly destroyed to develop new land for the Caofeidian New Area Project.

[17] Four times a year the trust publishes a newsletter to keep members in touch, and to bring news of events at the Miranda Shorebird Centre and along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.

The only opportunity for any form of population monitoring is during the non-breeding season when the birds congregate in places like the tidal regions of the Firth of Thames.

Counting of the shorebirds at the high tide roosts over longer periods of time can give a good indication of the population trends.

The centre offers low budget accommodation in the forms of bunkrooms and self-contained units for individuals and (small) groups.

The 10 – 12 students, in an age span of 14 to 83, get an introduction on binoculars and telescopes, on wader watching and identification, on the ecology of the Upper Firth of Thames, on feeding behaviour of shorebirds, on conservation of wader habitat, on invertebrates and plant life of the Miranda area, on netting and banding, and so on.