August, 2009
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 4:17 pm – Posted by Mandy | 22 Comments
Blogger: Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell
Stockton Mine on the West Coast, Photo: Peter Lusk
Energy and Resources Minster Gerry Brownlee has his eyes on our stunning forests – those precious parts of our land that inspire the 100% Pure New Zealand tourism success story.
And Mr Brownlee is not looking to join the millions of overseas tourists and proud Kiwis who walk, kayak, fish, raft, swim, photograph and simply relax in our national parks and other conservation areas every year.
No, he is eyeing them for open-cast mines.
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Published in: General
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Thu, 27 Aug 2009 1:57 pm – Posted by Mandy | 4 Comments
Guest Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Kea, Corey Mosen
Kea, Photo: Andrew Walmsley
Kea have had a bad rap in the last few centuries, they get hassled for all sorts of things. Firstly it was that they didn’t make a good traditional feed and rocks had more nutritional value, then they got the blame for destroying live stock in the high country and in more recent years they are persecuted for meticulously destroying car’s rubber linings and wiper blades.
What was the Human race’s answer to fixing this problem, kill them all!! There was a bounty placed on Kea and professional hunters made a living by culling the birds from High Country stations. Kea numbers are now estimated at around 1000-5000 due to the high impact that the culling had on the population.
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Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:06 pm – Posted by Mandy | 2 Comments
Guest blogger: Poet & Campaign Manager for the Pied Stilt, Sam Hunt
Ed’s note: Sam Hunt lives amongst the birds in the Kaipara Harbour, so I asked him to be a campaign manager for one of his favourite neighbours - the pied stilt - a bird which has polled poorly in our annual Bird of the Year competition. Here’s his response. Mandy
Pied Stilt, Photo: Craig McKenzie
There aren’t too many birds I don’t love in some way or other. And it’s a tough ask, to choose your favourite.
I’ll give it a go and say poaka. There’s nothing I don’t love about these birds. I love the way they don’t give too much of a toss about nests. A few sticks and twigs do the trick. So long as it carries the eggs safely.A scoop on a sandbank, again, a few twigs. That’s home.
After at least fifty years, watching these birds, I can still be fooled by their “broken wing” display. This is defence of that nest, of home. If a stilt’s nest is threatened, they’ll affect a broken wing and a broken leg, tumble down the shoreline, distracting the intruder completely. It’s a stunning performance.
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Published in: General
Tags: bird of the year, pied stilt
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Fri, 21 Aug 2009 4:58 pm – Posted by Mandy | 6 Comments
Guest Blogger: Campaign Manager for the Harrier Hawk, Tom Kahu Hunt
Please note: voting for Bird of the Year will begin in mid-September.
You will, as you read cases for other birds of the year, come across sickeningly-cutesy reasons for choosing the cheeky kea, the twittering fool the fantail, or that flightless national bore the kiwi.
But Kahu, the harrier hawk, does not rest its popularity on tugged heart strings, nor does it care for endangered lists – if anything it creates them.
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Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:48 am – Posted by Mandy | 10 Comments
Guest blogger: Kakapo feeder Stephanie Gray
A curious kakakpo eyeballs kakapo feeder, Stephanie Gray
It was a quietly momentous occasion—the last two kakapo youngsters to be released this season stepping clumsily into new lives in the wild to the fanfare of bellbirds and kaka.Weaned from morning crop-feeds several days ago, the birds left their chick-pens in robust good health. Their first night in the bush was a mild one, the following day sunny, and their particular patch of bush is rich with hidey-holes.
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Published in: General, Southland / Stewart Island
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Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:29 pm – Posted by Mandy | 4 Comments
Guest blogger: Kakapo feeder, Stephanie Gray
Beginning with a hot-pink sunrise over Stewart Island’s Raggedy Ranges, my fifth day on Whenua Hou wrapped up beautifully with a game of petanque on Sealers’ Bay.
Sinbad, Photo: Stephanie Gray
In true island-style, we bowled over and around heaps of glossy kelp, skipped the jack to the creek’s edge, and considered the variable speed of steel through sand.
My feed-out route today took me southwest of the valley, through a verdant canopy of miro, kahikatea and rimu rustling with bellbirds, tomtits and ever-present kakariki. Having found my mud-legs by now, the climb is easy and sweet in the sunshine.
I find Heather’s feed station in a pool of dappled light, and laugh aloud at the state of it. Her water hopper has been ripped off the stand, and the snark (a receiver that collects information on the birds’ comings and goings) kicked to one side and chewed.
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Published in: Southland / Stewart Island
Tags: codfish island, kakapo, kakapoo recovery group
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Mon, 10 Aug 2009 9:27 am – Posted by Mandy | 14 Comments
Guest Blogger: Kakapo feeder, Stephanie Gray
By the look of the empty feed bowl, Sinbad enjoyed his kumara cubes and macadamia nuts last night.
Kakapo feeder Stephanie Gray gets to know one of the juvenile kakapo on Codfish island
He’s tidy too, leaving only a few crumbs, unlike the chicks who scatter lumps of pasty, half-chewed pellets up to two meters from their hopper—a kakapo feed station. I start to wipe down the hopper when, with a rustle of leaves and little grunt, Sinbad pokes his head through fern fronds.
The feed-out map and guide I carry mentioned that this particular bird may be roused from daytime slumber to visit, but I’m still taken aback at the sight of this beautiful, inquisitive creature. Sinbad ambles past again, lifting huge clawed feet high above the muck of peat mud and I blurt “Sinbad, you’re amazing. I love you.”
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Published in: Southland / Stewart Island
Tags: codfish island, kakapo, kakapo recovery programme
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Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:40 am – Posted by Guest | 4 Comments
Irresistible to men since 1889. Actually for yonks. As far back as we’ve got records, we’ve got beer. And funnily enough, it was invented beside a river.
Which brings us to the owners who control the legendary Tui Brewery. The same owners who daily pollute your river. Yep, 120 years on and Tui is still pumping pollution into the Manawatu River system.
And that stinks.
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