A delightful Encounter

Seal Island? Well actually a bird Island today, Just back. And an exciting close
encounter with a young seal.

 

 

 

Eliane was in pursuit of some water containers that had been dropped off at the Island earlier  but we couldn't find them.  I was enjoying a walk along the foreshore after kayaking across to the Island with all the gear we needed for todays work.

 Then I spotted this young seal and it swam over to me and came very close and seemed very inquisitive to have a closer look at me. Then after a while it had had enough and carried on up the coast. When I looked behind me I spotted the water containers hidden in the undergrowth, the very containers that Eliane was looking for. I think the seal had been saying- "look behind you."

We watched NZ dotterel and lots of banded dotterel as well as godwits and SIPOS at High tide. It was another good day on the Island. As we prepared to launch the kayaks to leave the Island the young seal appeared again swimming on its back with its flippers crossed in front of it . A delightful encounter.

Photos and more to follow..................................

Long Live BWT

I just had to go along and take a few photos and support Andrea today who has taken over the waterfall series of Bush Walk and Talk (BWT) walks from Margi. Todays walk is in the Witheford Reserve and I have not been there for some time.

 Andrea is the Project manger from the Kaipatiki project and is quite an expert on bush restoration. BWT is in good hands. It was good to catch up with the rest of the group too.

 

 

More Photos to follow.

The Long Goodbye.

Well Margi had another farewell today. Her last North Shore bush walk through the Chelsea/Chatswood reserve area. This walk was with the Auckland Botanical Society (Bot Soc).

 I had planned to meet up with Eliane for a kayak trip to Bird Island in the Kaipara but we had cancelled due to the forcast, heavy rain and high winds. Our mission to check traps and  count birds. We may go on Monday.

Margi has had farewells with Kaipatiki, BWTwalkers, English language school, Bot Soc and tomorrow the very last one with the North Shore Forest and Bird committee. I am looking forward to that although of course with some sadness too.

Photos to follow.

Miranda - June once more.

Catching up with friends in Thames and good to see Jon and Mary settled in their new home. I will miss the old Cheese factory I have fond memories of visits there.

Like the wreck of a train or the ghost of a heartbeat -saying goodbye seems so final. There is no escaping ones past. It returns to you when you least expect it like a surprise you don’t want. Pain is so much more than just feelings-it’s an experience. If you look closely you can see the little granules of knowledge begging to be understood and memorised for the future and after the rain – the sun always shines.

Then called into Miranda  the evening light and tide It was cold and bleak but the huge landscape as ever was worth the extra layer or two of clothes. As the sun went down................

The Last Hurrah!

Today we celebrated a last North Shore 'Bush Walk and Talk' (BWT) with Margi. A walk in Eskdale Reserve.  It ends a 12 year reign, fun walks in the North Shore reserves and a popular Summer programme including our last summer trips to Browns Island and Tongariro.

I joined in 2008 and was keen to learn from Margi about our native bush. This allowed me to access a photographic treasure trove of bush subjects. I have not looked back and also gained a good friend..

Margi is moving on, moving 'down country'. However this is not the last we will see of Margi as further Tongariro trips are already planned and I look forward to catching up with  her in her new habitat.

FROG!

We were driving along a long straight country lane at the weekend when Eliane shouted out FROG! and immediately slammed on the brakes. My eyes fixed on the tiny shape in the road as we drove over it but quickly looking out of the back of the car I could see it was ok.

 

 

 Eliane stopped the car exclaiming that she knew I liked to photograph frogs and so we got out of the car for a closer look. It moved towards the centre white line and then a large lorry came thundering along as the diminutive frog reached the centre line. Then another hop and another car and that was too close so we helped it decide to get to the edge of the road. It's a Golden Bell frog, an import many years ago from Australia and now they are doing better in NZ than in their actual homeland.

Wrybill

On the 21st of April I photographed three wrybill from my kayak on a shell bank with pied stilt in Shoal bay.

 

 Then at the weekend I discovered 60 on the shell bank at Ngataringa Bay at high tide. On returning at low tide there was no sign of them feeding in the estuary. In previous years I have seen them feeding on the Bayswater side of the estuary and at the western side of shoal bay towards the motorway.

 

 They are a fascinating small bird endemic to New Zealand with a curious bent beak. They breed on the braided rivers of the South Island and visit the North Island during the winter months  to forage for food at the edge of estuaries.

They are a significant bird to me because I first photographed them at Miranda in 2011 when on meeting a keen birder who 'opened my eyes' to a greater interest in shore birds.

Ngataringa Bay

Extending my interest across from Shoal bay I checked out the birds in Ngataringa bay at high tide yesterday and low tide today. Good to see particularly the 119 South Island pied oystercatchers (SIPOS) and 60 wrybill roosting on a sand and shell bank at high tide. I recently saw three wrybill at high tide on a shell bank at Shoal bay with over a hundred pied stilts. This area is proving to be very rich in wildlife and we have to do more to protect it.

119 south island pied oystercatcher and 60 wrybill in the foreground

 

Wrybill and south island oystercatchers take flight

 

The 2 black birds with the shorter heavier bills are  Variable oystercatchers

 

 Our interpretive signage at Shoal was a start along with trying to reduce dog disturbance on these shell banks particularly in the  breeding season. Predator trapping is another possibility to help with nesting sites.

 

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Vanishing Wildlife.

Last evening I attended the networking event to celebrate International Day for Biological Diversity (22nd May)This event was jointly hosted by Auckland Council and the  Department of Conservation.

It included a presentation by Marie Brown author of the new book Vanishing Nature: Facing New Zealand's Biodiversity Crisis.

Great to catch up with people and the chance to network.

More to follow..............................

The Pink House

  

 

 

 

Auckland NZ Dotterel Forum

I was pleased to be asked by Gwen Pulham to attend the Auckland NZ dotterel forum at Ambury Reserve on Monday 18th this week. Gwen had asked me to show the photos of the dotterel shelters and tell the story of how I came upon them to the audience of dotterel management groups including Tawharanui and Shakespear park.
It was good to catch up with Keith from Miranda who introduced me to Denise who sometime back had been the biodiversity ranger on the Chatham Isles. Denise is now working in Hawkes bay and has promised to send me some interpretive signage info when she returns from her Vietnam trip to help with the new signage I am working on with Forest & Bird for Tuff Crater.

Met up with some other new people and all in  all thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a great idea to exchange ideas about what helps with the management of these endangered birds that now live so close to a rapidly increasing human population.

Well I'm off to Rotorua at the weekend to stay in a bach on the lake. Had better get my packing started.
Oh Yes and I nearly forgot, It's my birthday today, So............ Happy Birthday to Me!

Dotterel Shelters

In January 2009 I was exploring on the East coast and I came across this little shelter and a sign. I was amused by this and impressed too as the dotterels seemed to accept the protection from overhead predators and children using the beach.

 

In November 2012 I met the builder of the shelter and  sign quite by chance when I again visited that coast. I had just photographed a dotterel carrying a dead chick and showed this photo to Eliane who was also watching birds through her scope on this beach.

 We have enjoyed many shared fun walks and kayaking adventures on both coastlines. Today we are back on the East coast.

Well here we are again and its another 'dotterel day' enjoying these birds and this one below already in breeding plumage and resting on one leg. With the evening light there are always interesting tracks to look at and here you can see this birds one leg hop turn into a two leg hop.

Dotterels and Hauturu Island in the late afternoon light

Dotterel already in breeding plumage

One foot hop turns to two foot hop

In the forest there are  fly agaric below the pine trees. I am always surprised that these are so much smaller than the dinner plate sized ones I was used to in the UK. Maybe this is something to do with the climate

Evening light in the forest with the trapping gear.

Evening light on Muehlenbeckia in the forest

Tuff Planting Day

Planting 1700 plants at Tuff Crater today. Fortunately the weather was kind and with 75 volunteers this was soon accomplished.

  Yesterday however involved  moving the plants from the Kaipatiki project nursery to Tuff locations ready for planting and was a different story as the weather was not so kind and it poured with rain.

A great team from Canon again supported our planting day with a great BBQ. Many thanks to them all.  This is the link to more photos taken today  http://tinyurl.com/py5rl8n

 

 

So this is what they eat!

Shoal bay today studying an NZ dotterel  feeding at low tide. Small crabs, these look a bit mangled by the time a few limbs have been removed. If they are too large they are discarded.

Beaches, Traps & Tina Turner

Now that should have you interested? Well this was a good day with friend  Eliane and I checking the traps on the East coast below Mangawhai. We met up with Colleen and Guy who's land we have to cross to get to one of the beaches and Colleen invited us in to have our lunch  in their rustic hideaway timber cottage. It was nice to catch up. We haven't met since summer 2014.

 Duck shooters were around one of the beaches today  so we took care. Ducks were flying at speed to get away and heading out to sea.

Shore skink

 

Under one of the traps we found this Shore skink which unusually didn't run of at high speed, it must have been cold from the night before. The traps were quite successful today with four hedgehogs one young rabbit, a couple of rats and this female weasel

Female weasel

In the evening we met up with other friends for dinner and a show with a fa'afafine act Cindy Filo  singing Tina Turner songs. Everyone was up on the floor dancing.

I crawled into bed like a teenager just before mid -night!

More photos to follow...........................

Motuora Island

Good to catch up with people on Motuora Island and meet some new faces. A good productive day on helping with track maintenance with also with time to explore. As usual I headed to the Southern end of the Island to check out the butterflies but today only a quick glimpse of a long-tailed blue. No 'coppers'

Moturekareka Island with Motuora behind

 

It was interesting to chat to Stefan from Agri Research and Silvan from France. Silvan  has recently visited  the Chatham Isles and spent time on Rangatira Island meeting up with an  acquaintance of mine,Tansy Bliss,who is the Biodiversity Ranger. Before that he had also been to one of my favourites, Hauturu (little Barrier Island)  and Raoul Island the largest of the Kermadecs an Island I would also love to visit.

Transfer between boat and Island beach. Vonney at the helm!

 

 

Photos and more to follow........................

Grotto

Auckland is a fascinating area for its volcanic history and features surrounding the city and today was a chance to visit the Grotto at Onehunga. Its thought that this feature was caused by a volcanic collapse over flowing larva.



Geoff Ewen and Claire enjoying the shower!

Maybe not the best day to visit because as soon as we assembled to hear Tim explain the site the heavens opened and we stood listening in a downpour. A good turn out though as usual and good to catch up with people. We were soon heading into what was once a pond and wetland but today was dry underfoot from the summer drought. Then we explored botanising the surrounding bush, clambering up the muddy sides  of the pit which was a privet forest. Mike spotted a maidenhair fern.

The rain stopped until we came out then a torrential down pour. A quick lunch in the car and on to our second destination Anne's bay and a walk along the mangrove lined foreshore with weed and pest plants galore but also Muehlenbeckia and a native geranium and Mike showed us sea grass as the tide was now receding. Then spoonbill were spotted sifted the water of the estuary and a total of six were seen which was great climax to the day.

Photos to follow...................................

Browns island - Hauraki Gulf

I have wanted to get to this volcanic Island for a long time having sailed past it many times on my way to and from other Islands in the Gulf particularly Motuihe Island. Today was my chance with a group of 30 organised by Margi with brother  Harry Keys who is a DOC volcanologist that led our walk in January at Tongariro.

Browns island 68 metre volcanic cone

 

On board The Facilitator

 

Heading out from St Heliers beach

The Summit

 

Jumping for Joy! I was having a great day.

 

Browns Island landing

29 NZ dotterel on the volcanic beach.

Photos and more to follow.....................