Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:31 am – Posted by Guest | 1 Comment
Just after New Year this year there was a kea population survey conducted throughout the South Island. Conducted by DOC and the Kea Conservation Trust, the aim of the three year survey is to get a snapshot of the total kea population across the country. As a kea–enthusiast & devoted kea conservationist, I made sure that I was there. There were three sites where people were going into the mountains to do a tree line survey; lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes area; Arthur Pass; and Fiordland.
The aim was to count birds seen above the tree line and to catch, band and put small 15g transmitters on as many as possible. Rotoiti kea haven’t been surveyed for a while, but anecdotal reports suggested that the kea population in their area had slimmed down somewhat. After I arrived at the Rotoiti camp, I was paired up with someone who would complement the skills I have, so the pair of us would be an unstoppable kea counting and processing team. My partner was a fellow DoC worker named Kirsty; she was awesome. It didn’t take me long at all to realise that she was a lot fitter than I was.
We started our trek from the walkway close to Lake Rotoiti. We walked along the track for about 1km and then went directly up. These hills weren’t what I was used to; they were almost sheer, vertiginous mountains. After climbing for about 45 minutes I regretted taking so much gear with me: I have an 80 litre pack and thought it a good idea to fill it up…
After a few hours of almost vertical climbing and subsequent resting, we reached our destination, just above the tree line. We set up camp only to discover that our water levels were low. There seemed to be no obvious water source so I set off down a gulley looking for a dribble in the earth. Eventually I found a small ooze from the depths of the earth and set about filling our water bottles. This wasn’t a quick process and I was there about an hour collecting 6 litres of water, enough to quench my thirst and to cook my dinner.
Once back at camp it didn’t take long to cook the meal. Rehydrated dehydrated food tasted quite good at the start of the trip but after a while you get a hankering for a home cooked meal and some fresh fruit. Soon after dinner a kea was spotted in our valley which created some excitement between Kirsty and me. We got all the catching gears ready; a rather weighty net gun, an equally weighty amplifier to attract kea and a fishing rod with a noose rope at the end. We headed towards the bird only to see it fly off towards another team across in the other valley. The glory of catching the first kea was not to be ours on this trip.
The night was spent with us both cramped in a one man tent – definitely a good way to get to know a virtual stranger! We were up at sunrise ready and waiting for more kea to stray into our area. However there were to be no more at this site and so we packed up and headed off. We moved on up and over the summit, down the other side to the tree line. This trip didn’t take as long as the previous day, but I still had the same regrets: way too much stuff in my pack.
Once at camp we had some time to kill before the official start of the survey. It was a good time to do some reading and even some sleeping in the sun. There was no luck at this survey point either – although I am positive I saw a thar when I woke up for my morning bodily functions. The locals assure me there are no thar around the area and my glasses were still in my pack, so I cannot make a positive argument for it, but whatever it was it moved down the rock scree like a boulder dropping off a cliff. After this survey point all the teams descended down the valley to the road below to meet up and discuss what to do next.
This is where I learnt that from now on I was going solo. The bosses decided I was capable of reaching the points on my own and completing the requirements of the survey. I also had a chance to unload a large portion of my gear. Anything that didn’t serve an immediate purpose was left behind. Being sent off alone I was a little apprehensive at first because it was in an area that I didn’t know particularly well, but after some of the crew had seen me safely across a river – a raging torrent to be exact – I was happy to be on my way. Climbing was much easier with a lighter pack and I reached the halfway point in no time. This is where I needed to follow some instructions to find an old kea nest originally found during some kea work carried out in the ‘90s.
Surprisingly I managed to find the old markers and then the nest but unfortunately there was nothing in it. Some kea chicks would have made an amazing photo opportunity. I continued on my journey upwards, reached the survey point and scoped out an ideal place to set up my tent. I found a rocky outcrop which protected the tent from the weather and provided me a good vantage point to watch the surrounding valley for any signs of kea. The weather started turning and I was glad my raincoat wasn’t jettisoned in my attempt to lighten my pack!
To be continued…
Published in: General
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Wed, 24 Jun 2009 1:43 pm – Posted by Guest | 1 Comment
Guest blogger: Central North Island Field Officer Al Fleming
Hochstetters frog, Photo: G Shirley
New Zealand is home to four varieties of frog, most of whom are earless, voiceless, and exist in damp habitats, however there is one such species that enjoys watery climes: the miniscule Hochstetter’s frog, which is listed as vulnerable on the ICUN’s red list.
So when I heard that a large slip had occurred at Te Puke Stone Enterprises my heart sank. The question that kept reappearing in my mind was did the slip enter the Rarapahoe stream, the last known haven of the genetically distinct Oropi Forest Hochsetters frog?
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Published in: General
Tags: frogs, habitat destruction, Hochsetters
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Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:33 am – Posted by Guest | 1 Comment
Not just a pretty face, Photo: Margaret Wong
During my first trip to Mt Cook I met a man named Jussey from Austria who was studying Kea’s intelligence. He had done many studies on a captive population in Vienna and was now in New Zealand to repeat the same experiments with a wild population. After some in depth conversations about Kea I showed him some of the photos I had taken of the lovable parrot and he suggested we keep in touch. A few weeks after I returned home I got an email from him offering me a permanent job based down in Mt Cook taking over the Kea intelligence studies. My second trip to Mt Cook was my induction to the new job.
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Published in: General
Tags: intelligence, kea, research
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Fri, 05 Jun 2009 3:45 pm – Posted by Guest | 1 Comment
Arctic tern, Canterbury, photo: Tom Marshall
A few weeks ago I blogged on New Zealand’s famous bar-tailed godwits and their annual migration from our estuaries to their breeding grounds further north, however a recent unexpected encounter reminded me of a record-breaking bird that makes the godwit’s journey look like a stroll to the local dairy.
Now we’ve all had that sinking feeling when you’re late for a first date; the car won’t start, the bus doesn’t arrive, or you get three blocks down the street and think ‘did I leave the stove on?’, but whatever the reason, the Arctic Tern I saw at the Ashley River recently will be disappointing his date big time.
As their name suggests, the Arctic Tern spends much of the year close to the Arctic circle, breeding in noisy summer colonies on offshore islands around the UK and northern Europe, where they are well-known for offering a free scalping service to conservation researchers or day-trippers. However, as soon as three months after fledging these ‘sea swallows’ embark on an un-paralleled trip from their Arctic seabird cities to that other well-known block of ice down-under, Antarctica.
This annual round-trip of nearly 40,000kms is considered to be the longest known migration of any animal on earth, and it is on the Southern leg of this journey that Arctic Terns are occasionally seen in New Zealand waters.
Arctic Tern, Scotland, Photo: Tom Marshall
Spending much of the Southern summer at sea means sightings of these globe-trotting terns are rare, so you can imagine my surprise when whilst happily photographing Black-fronted Terns at the Ashley Estuary recently, an Arctic Tern walked into my viewfinder.
Even more intriguing to bird experts who confirmed my find was that the Arctic Tern was in full northern summer plumage, suggesting he should have been chatting-up other terns on a small Scottish island weeks ago.
So whatever the reasons, this particular Arctic Tern decided to hang around with the Canterbury locals, before contemplating the epic journey ahead of him. The only question is, will he be the last one standing at the bar when he finally arrives?
Published in: Canterbury, General
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Wed, 03 Jun 2009 9:28 am – Posted by Guest | 2 Comments
Guest blogger: Builder-cum-kea enthusiast Corey Mosen
Kea, Tom Marshall
Due to being such a terrific ‘pack horse’ on the first trip I was lucky enough to be offered another chance to help Clio again, this time at Mt Cook and this time with my expenses paid. Here we had the same objective; to catch, band, blood test and observe as many kea as possible.
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Published in: Canterbury, General, Native land animals
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Fri, 22 May 2009 11:36 am – Posted by Guest | 6 Comments
Guest blogger: Builder-cum-kea enthusiast Corey Mosen
Corey makes friends
This is the story of how I went from carting wheel barrow loads of sand down steep hills, attempting to build houses, to spending my time in the Mountains of Mt Aspiring National Park looking for, observing, and catching Kea.
First things first, I had to convince my boss that it was a good idea to let me take time off work, this wasn’t easy because it was the middle of summer when it is ideal weather and therefore more opportunities to work outside building, getting the most work done possible in the long day light hours. But I eventually persuaded him that it was a good idea and that it would eventually benefit his business in the long run because I’d work harder when I returned. I then went south for 10 days.
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Tue, 19 May 2009 12:33 pm – Posted by Tom | 3 Comments
Yellow eyed penguin, Andrew Walmsley
Guest blogger - Photographer, Tom Marshall
A comment my colleague and I often get as New Zealand photographers is ‘you must have had a wonderful time in Antarctica’. As much as I’d love to say ‘yes, it was awesome, but a bit chilly’, the truth is we’ve never set foot south of Dunedin and people are usually looking at our pictures of Fiordland Crested or Yellow-eyed Penguins.
Now I love ‘Happy Feet’ and ‘March of the Penguins’ with their iceberg-strewn backdrops as much as the next person, but it’s surprising how few people realize that we have some of the most amazing – and rarest penguins on the planet are right on our doorstep.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said recently of a new tourism drive ‘I doubt tourists will want to come to the South Island just to see a penguin’ – but why not? From recollection they were fairly thin on the ground north of the equator last time I was there, and with a million birdwatchers in the UK alone, I’m sure there’s plenty of people who’d willingly put up with the West Coast’s finest sandflies for a glimpse of a Fiordland Crested Penguin in his dapper dinner jacket.
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Published in: General, Marine and Coastal, Otago, Southland / Stewart Island, Threats and Impacts
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Fri, 15 May 2009 11:04 am – Posted by Mandy | 3 Comments
As Vicki noted, the television has undergone it’s most major makeover since it changed its colours in the mid-50s: it’s been supersized.
Yes, yes, across the world, these jumbo TVs dwarf cramped rooms, so much so, that viewers need to gently fold themselves into the room’s recesses, only to be relieved of their pins-and-needles by their TV’s cinematic scale and its newly acquired attention to detail.
We’ll need to super-size our homes, to fit out super-size televisions. Not surprisingly, it seems that the US is leading the charge – the size of the American house has doubled since the 1950s.
Our willingness to biff our old TVs for these energy-hogging plasma screen TVs has left environmentalists & conservationists reeling. Not only will our old televisions fill our landfills, these new plasma screen televisions can use as much electricity as a refrigerator, sapping our hydro-plants and power stations.
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Tue, 05 May 2009 10:54 am – Posted by Guest | 2 Comments
Guest blogger: Vicki Connor, Communications Team Manager at the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
Our demand for energy – electricity for our homes and petrol and diesel for our cars keeps rising. Some of it is down to population growth, but a lot of it is simply because as individuals we are using and doing more stuff. We drive more, buy more products and appliances and use them for longer.
The average NZ home has two televisions and chances are they are not small - plasma flat screen TVs tend to be between 42 to 100 inches, and can use around three times the electricity of a smaller traditional cathode ray tube set. We buy these things because many of us want them. We like watching TV and, if we can afford it, we want to watch it on a state-of-the-art, massive screen. Just because it looks better. It’s the same as wanting to drive instead of taking the bus. It can be more convenient, more comfortable, easier. And isn’t an easy life what many of us are after? And it’s a free country after all.
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Published in: Energy, General
Tags: energy conservation, energy efficiency, new zealand
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Fri, 01 May 2009 9:44 am – Posted by Guest | 2 Comments
Hauraki island branch secretary, Sue Fitchett
I am a self-described tree lover and so the proposed changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) have left me, and many others fearing for our notable and second generation trees.
Trees, as poet Ruth Fainlight wrote, are those witnesses, huge mild beings/who suffer the consequence/of sharing our planet and cannot/move away from any evil/we subject them to
The changes are effectively a costly opt-in system, whereby each and every tree will need to be scheduled, either as a grove or individually (In Auckland City the cost could be in the vicinity of $200 per scheduling) in order to receive some protection.
Banning tree protection rules, as the Government plans to do, will leave trees in 700 of Auckland’s 800 parks unprotected, and give landowners the ability to cut down any tree that is not in a reserve or listed in a district plan schedule.
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Published in: Auckland, General, Native plants and forests
Tags: arborist association, resource consent, RMA, trees
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