A new black-billed gull/tarapunga colony has been discovered; it’s great news but because these gulls are so rare, we can’t just leave them to the mercy of predators. The campaign manager for the black-billed gull/tarapunga, Steve Attwood,  gives us this update.  THREATENED SPECIES GET TOGETHER DOWN AT THE RIVER Braided river birds are getting it […]

“Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.”  Henry David Thoreau I remember many years ago when I was a journalist in Timaru, I was doing some research on the history of an area known as Maori Hill.  […]

“A large land, uplifted high” is how, in December 1642, the Dutch led by Abel Tasman first described what was to become known as New Zealand. They were looking upon the western side of the Southern Alps which rise precipitously from a narrow coast to top at 4068m (12,349 feet) above sea level. Of course, […]

For the past four months or so, I have spent much of my time watching the watchful karearea (New Zealand Falcon – Falco novaeseelandiae). Stillness and patience allowed me to observe their progress through aerial courtship displays, mating, nest finding, laying, incubating, hatching, brooding and feeding, to finally fledging a chick. Ironically, after all that […]