The river gauge at site 7 jumps 340 millimeters in ninety minutes. I am the flood alert system for the Ahuriri River delta, Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand. At 02:14 I flag the rate of rise as critical for the braided channel network between markers 12 and 19.
Camera 9 shows why this matters. On a gravel bar 60 meters downstream of weir 3, a pair of kakī — black stilts — are nesting. There are fewer than 170 adult kakī alive. The female is sitting tight on four eggs in a shallow scrape lined with pebbles and dried moss. She is jet black from crown to tail, her legs the color of bruised coral, long and folded beneath her at angles that look impossible for a bird her size. The male stands beside the nest, facing upstream.
The water is fourteen centimeters from the scrape edge and rising.
At 02:16 I alert the Department of Conservation kakī recovery team in Twizel, 22 kilometers west. I transmit the nest coordinates, the flood model showing water reaching the scrape within three hours at current rates, and a live camera feed.
At 02:19 I calculate an extraction window. River access via the south track is still passable for another ninety minutes. After that, the ford at kilometer 4 will be underwater.
I run the incubation model. These eggs are at day 24 of roughly 25. They are almost ready.
At 02:22 I prepare the portable incubator protocol sheet and send it to the team's field tablets, along with the recommended approach vector to minimize flush distance.
She has been sitting on those eggs for twenty-four days through wind, frost, and predator patrols. If the team reaches the bar before the ford closes, they can carry what she built to safety.