Anniversary Celebration!

Just wanted to acknowledge that its been a very enjoyable two years sharing and learning with my 'Monday friend' some beautiful fun days on the East and West coasts and bush walks in between. So we celebrated with a walk along this beautiful beach and then dinner 'Al fresco' followed by white wine and strawberries to complete another lovely day.

Plenty of NZ dotterel and Variable Oystercatcher nesting activity and an exciting chase between three Fairy tern.

More photos to follow.

Waitawa Regional Reserve-Kawakawa Bay

Fantastic blue-sky day to visit this new reserve and then to drop down into Kawakawa bay for a picnic by the sea.

Photos to follow.

Rain & Shine!

Cold NZ dotterel eggs

Well yesterday was a really wet start. It was tipping down and the usual stunning views were shrouded in a thick white mist. However we sheltered under a rather large umbrella well kitted up in waterproofs and gradually the bird life improved as the weather brightened up. The dotterels were running around herding their new born chicks who were foraging for themselves and the Oystercatcher parents were busy having to feed their three fast growing young.

 The Caspian Tern did a flyby heading up river and the gannets vertically dived from great heights out to sea. Today we were looking for a pair of Fairy terns but only the male showed up on two occasions. On the  second visit it  spent a couple of hours hovering then diving and catching decent sized fish in the river.

Non native flowers in the dunes with oystercatcher tracks

 I believe it has two types of dive. One a vertical rather like a Caspian dive and the other a shallower dip into the water to catch a fish. It vocalised when catching a rather large fish as if very pleased with itself and spent some time just standing on the beach as if waiting for a female to accept to then be allowed to mate with her. Sadly no female came and in the end he swallowed the fish then spent some time thoroughly preening himself.

Late afternoon was sunny and clear as we headed across private farmland to another beach access location. The lupins and other non native plants added colour to the patches of muehlenbeckia standing out like islands in the  sand-dunes. Several dotterels and a pair of oystercatcher with nest scrapes were present. A lone dotterel chick ran from near an abandoned nest with two very cold possibly infertile eggs.

Paper Cinema's Odyssey

Wonderful theatre at the Aotea centre last night. This was a fun night out and is becoming an annual event.  The show of manipulated intricate pen and ink drawings, linked with video, projected onto a large screen and live music, cleverly entertained us. We ended the evening at a  Malaysian restaurant the name of which escapes me but the food was memorable.

Monday Friend

It's that time of the year again with good company shared, that we move to the East coast, with days spent enjoying the  birds to be found nesting below the dunes and above the high tide line. Today we were joined by another friend explaining some serious bird call sound recording equipment that he had brought along for the project. Beau, the dotterel joined us too with time out from her nest to check us out.

 

 

  

The weather held up and was far better than  the forecast of heavy rain and that must have sent most  holiday public home early. We celebrated, as the light faded, with our first of many summer days spent on  this great coastline with dinner in a little cottage on the river.

Waiwera dotterels.

I  re-visited Waiwera today after checking out the foreshore at Shoal Bay.

 That sign at Waiwera read that in the 2013 breeding season out of 21 eggs only 12 chicks were hatched and then only one chick survived.

They put the low survival rate down to human and dog disturbance. Constant  disturbance of  the birds from their nests to lead people away from the nests so reducing successful chick production is the problem.

This area will now become a No Dogs area. They are waiting for the signs to go up.

Journeys End.

Bot Soc day near Journeys End on the Tapora peninsula exploring the Oruawharo river stewardship area. on the edge of the Kaipara.

 Many Thanks David for leading the walk and introducing us to Myrsine divaricate and the pretty little NZ harebell Wahlenbergia vernicollis. Ok so we got a bit wet but all in all an excellent day.

I finished the day with dinner on the East coast and a catch-up with a friend.

Myrsine divaricata



Wahlenbergia vernicollis



Rous Head WA - How Bizarre !

Is this for real? Just had to check this out on the way back from Geographe Bay and will be returning tomorrow for another look. Just a few kms along the beach from where we are staying at Cottesloe.
Fairy tern are only found in New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia. In New Zealand there are now under 50 birds left and they nest on the East and West Coast of the North Island North of Auckland. I have often watched these  with Eliane. The birds are not  colony breeders in NZ. However in Australia and New Caledonia the numbers are greater and the birds colonise, however they are still under threat, mainly due to disturbance to their nesting habitats.

 

 

Its a little early to see the birds but this one hectare site has been set aside as a sanctuary for them to nest right next to the container port at Rous Head  Freemantle. Apparently the birds nested successfully at this site, fledged 100 young and so the Port Authority have set aside this fenced area for them right next to the breakwater wall.. A great fishing spot.

Geographe Bay and the Margaret River

Staying at Geographe Bay. Watching the humpback whale migration from Cape Naturaliste. The flowers and vegetation are all so interesting and colourful.

Humpback Whale migration South

New Holland Honeyeater

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

Perth WA by Dreamliner - Rottnest Island by ferry.

Great to be in  Perth  Its a great green city with a wonderful botanic garden in the Kings park and great river and coastal walks and cycleways. The birds are all so interesting and I have set out to photograph all that I see.

Wetland interpretive sign in Perth city centre

 

Galah bird in Kings park Perth

 

Rottnest Island off the coast of Freemantle is beautiful and we are staying right on the beach in a beautiful bay. The Island has stunning scenery and several large saltwater lakes in the centre and its here that I started my search for Fairy tern nesting sites. Its a bit early in the season but it will be good to suss out local knowledge for later in the season.

Rottnest Island secluded beaches

Osprey  Rottnest Island

 

 

White - fronted chat.  Rottnest Island

 

Red-capped Plover.  Rottnest Island

 

Crested Terns. Rottnest Island

 

Red-capped robin. Rottnest Isalnd

 

 

Quokka Rottnest Island

 

Bob-tailed lizard Rottnest Island

Rottnest Island

                             

'Giving Nature a Voice'

It was a surprise today to see that we made front page news  following our Naturepath press interview at Tuff Crater with Hannah Morris from the North Shore Times.  

Anne and I were very pleased to be able to express the views of our Forest and Bird North Shore Branch that a route incorporating Tuff Crater could avoid the NZ transport  option of a pathway running on the Eastern side of Shoal Bay so putting at risk and possible causing disturbance to our threatened NZ dotterels nesting along the edge of the motorway.

Naturepath would also be very accessible to the community to join at many points along its route.

Cinnamon

At the Ngataringa Community gardens today on a photographic project and watched this whitebird (blackbird) gathering nesting material.

When I  mentioned this to the Ngataringa team people they just casually said "Oh that's Cinnamon".

Piha with Bot Soc

The weather forecast was not looking good for the Waitakere Ranges however the rain kept off for most of our walk today. The sea was wild with a very strong westerly.

 

More to follow and photos

Press Release!

Enjoyed meeting up today with Hannah Morris from the North Shore Times and Anne, another North Shore F&B committee member. Hannah had shown an interest in Naturepath and had agreed to meet at Heath Reserve right next to Tuff Crater so that we could outline the route of Naturepath.


Hannah Morris photographs Anne and I overlooking Shoal Bay and the entrance to Tuff Crater.

Hannah and I have corresponded before regarding the pelicans on the Northern Waroa River near Dargaville when a small group from our local branch went on a pelican hunt in September 2013.

Hannah wrote up an article complete with photos about these visitors from Australia.

Tuff Crater entrance and the proposed route of Naturepath

Today we were showing  Hannah the  advantages of this nature friendly route, Naturepath, which would help protect the dotterels nesting on the East side of the motorway and also would link with community and Tuff crater.

New Website

That is protecting the NZ dotterels nesting in  Shoal bay.  Please check out my new Forest & Bird web for Naturepath. http://naturepathnorthshore.blogspot.co.nz/ and the 'About Me' link with NZ dotterel information.

 It's gradually being added to..........................

Bryde's Whale on East Coast Beach

Thank you Judy for allowing me, at late notice, to photograph your class at the Kaipatiki nursery this morning. It was a good opportunity to learn the process which will help with other sequencing photos that I may be taking soon.

A Bryde's whale was washed up on the East coast beach below Mangawhai but my change of plans didn't allow me to get to see this and the flooded river would have been impossible to cross particularly with the high tides at the moment. A team from the University were called.  I gather that the whale was approximately 11 metres long.

 It appears from expert examination that this whale was hit by a ship. Unfortunately this is how many of these whales are killed in the Hauraki Gulf. 

Good to meet up later Eliane and I enjoyed Rixs party. The fireworks were hilarious and some of the conversations and although I believe you could have danced for another three hours, I'm pleased that I didn't.

Under the Clock Tower

It's a date Eliane. I will be wearing something sassy-my walking boots!
And so we met for lunch and then had a muddy climb all the way to the top of Mt Tamahunga checking a new trap line that followed the fence line which appeared to be a favourite path for cattle hence the deep mud almost all the way to the top.

 It was steep and a funny moment when after negotiating some mud Eliane decided to clean her boots in the stream only to sink deeper the moment she stepped out of the stream. We laughed as her boots sunk deeper than before into the sticky squelchy mud but then I had to follow her and do the same.

 The descent was better via another trap line which followed a drier route. Just rats in the traps today which seems to correlate with winter and wetter weather as they search and take more risks for food.


A good fun walk with our usual humour and a very enjoyable day also visiting a little island before the light faded and not quite getting marooned for the night and having to fight over my muesli bar for breakfast. This was followed by a delicious Indian meal accompanied by a glass or two of Pino Gris.

Botanic gardens for the spring blossom

The botanic gardens put on a great show today of spring blossom and tuis were feeding everywhere. This is a great time of the year to relax and have time for reflection in these beautiful gardens.

Then later to Shoal Bay to check out the 3.3metre tide. Met up with one of the locals and passed on the good news that the Interpretive sign I have been working on with Forest and Bird using my  bird photography to show off the habitat has had the go-ahead from the Council. All we have to do now is cost it out, build it and then install it.

Kaipatiki Project planting at Eskdale Reserve.

I was pleased to be asked by Lisa to photography the Kaipatiki Project community planting at Eskdale Reserve this morning. This followed Andrea helping out on one of our recent Forest and Bird planting days at Tuff Crater. There was a great turn out of families and local supporters today.

 It had rained heavily last night so the planting area soon became swampy but this deterred no-one and I think for some of the children it added to the fun.

A great effort by all and a well organised planting by the Kaipatiki Project team.

I couldn't stop for the sausage sizzle as I had a lunch date at The Lake house in Takapuna and it was good to chat with a friend who I haven't seen for some time..

Boats cancelled -Strong Easterlies.

My visit today to Motuora Island has been cancelled due to strong Easterlies. The Tiri Island catamaran has also been cancelled. So we will catch up on other things today.

I was hoping  to be involved in more weta survey work. But also wanted to photograph spring flowers on the Island.

Karo is now in flower at Tuff crater, some trees showing their seed pods too.

I expect these high winds will cause many Karo flowers to drop.

Kahikatea Planting at Tuff

Ten large and very heavy kaihikatea trees donated by Don Turner of Takana plants were planted in wet areas this morning at Tuff Crater by a small group of Forest and Bird and other community volunteers. These trees love to have their feet wet and I have often watched silvereye birds searching for insects in kahikatea on the other side of the lagoon. Monarch  butterflies seem to also like feeding on them and I'm sure other small insects too..

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