July, 2009
Thu, 30 Jul 2009 2:37 pm – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 2 Comments
How utterly disappointing that with its first opportunity to make a difference for life in our seas our new government has let us down – and not just us: more importantly, they’ve let down our threatened and endangered marine life.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei’s private member’s bill – the Marine Animals Protection Law Reform Bill – aimed to help threatened Hector’s dolphins, New Zealand sea lions, albatrosses and other endangered seabirds and marine life recover from dramatic population declines and disturbances. One such sub-species - the Maui’s dolphin - has a population of just 111 individuals.
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Published in: General
Tags: marine mammals, marine mammals protection act, threatened species
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Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:48 am – Posted by Guest | 1 Comment
Prior to heading out the next day, I checked the weather report and the forecast said ‘clear blue skies for the next few days’. After reading this I committed the ultimate sin in any trampers opinion, I left my raincoat behind in a further attempt to lighten my pack. By now I was down to the bare essentials; all I had in my pack was kea catching and banding gear, and food. This decision was one I would live to regret very soon into this leg of the survey.
Kea, Photo: C Rudge
That afternoon we made our way to our next survey point and again I headed to my spot alone. I found a comfortable position to wait and look for birds; I saw a mob fly past, back and forth a few times. They weren’t interested in me at all and so I caught up on my reading. After about an hour sitting there, dark spots started appearing on the pages in my book, looking up there was some very ominous clouds lurking about. I hoped that the Met Service’s weather prediction would prevail but the chance of that happening was looking very slim at this stage.
The rain started and was quite bearable for a time, but that didn’t last too long. I was out in the open and all I had to sleep in was a bivy bag. I rummaged through the sparse contents in my bag for something to protect me from the weather and found myself a rubbish bag, a good old ‘blak sak’. I made a head and some arm holes and wore that rubbish bag with style. I proceeded to make my way to Kirsty who was at the neighbouring survey point – which just so happened to be a hut with shelter and comfortable beds!
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Published in: Top of the South
Tags: kea, lake rotoiti, surveying
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Fri, 24 Jul 2009 2:32 pm – Posted by Guest | 3 Comments
For those of us lucky enough to live in the Waitakere Ranges with its awe-inspiring forests and thunderous coasts, communing with nature tends to be part of our everyday lives.
The many ways in which we do relate to the natural world and its other inhabitants has always been a source of fascination for me.
As a film-maker one often finds the best stories are on one’s own doorstep, in this case the activities of of local inhabitants, human and otherwise in our well loved local park, the Cascades Kauri Park in the Bethells valley.
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Published in: Auckland, General
Tags: ark in the park, Auckland, banding, catching, film project, robins, transfer, waitakeres
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Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:12 am – Posted by Tom | 1 Comment
As I come to the end of nearly two thoroughly enjoyable years observing New Zealand’s wildlife through my camera, I have become aware of many startling differences between my experiences of nature in Aotearoa and my home in the UK, and how these differences affect our perception of the natural world and the future for our wildlife.
The endangered NZ Dotteral, Photo: Tom Marshall
Since I flew in over the Southern Alps in late 2007, I have relished the chance to genuinely explore and discover New Zealand’s wildlife in a way rarely possible in the UK – by simply visiting the local shoreline, taking a tramp in the high country or by getting eye-to-eye with wading birds in the mud of Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere.
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Published in: Auckland, General
Tags: beach, endangered, nz dotteral, protection, vehicles on beaches
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Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:37 am – Posted by Mandy | 4 Comments
If asked to name New Zealand’s public enemy number one, the first thing that springs to my mind is our most reviled Australian immigrant – the possum.
European immigrants to NZ tried to introduce these critters not once, but twice (in 1837 & 1858) to establish a fur industry – and then voila, their population exploded. Now, New Zealand is home to over 70 million possums. In Australia, they’re a protected species.
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Published in: General
Tags: kakapo, pest control, possums, science, sterilisation, stoats
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Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:44 am – Posted by Guest | 1 Comment
Armed with a net gun and a fishing rod fashioned into a kea-catching device, I headed into the hills around lake Rotoiti earlier this year to count & band kea as part of a 3 year population survey. Here’s the second installment of my diary …..
Kea, Photo: Creative Commons, Leiwandnz
After sitting on the rock for an hour or so the drizzle started to turn into rain, so I gathered my things and headed for my tent. Time passes slowly when you are sitting in a tent with three bland walls to stare at, waiting for the weather to improve. Eventually it did though and I repositioned myself back on top of the rock. There wasn’t much kea activity but there were plenty of other things to watch that provided amusement. One was a fellow member of the survey team who had positioned themselves on a point below where I was; it was interesting to see them going through their processes of setting up their own vantage point. Maybe it seemed more interesting than it really was because of the lack of human interaction I had had during the day.
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Published in: General
Tags: kea, kea conservation trust, lake rotoiti, surveying
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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.
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Published in: General
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