Magical Makarora

Photo by Kimberley Collins

Caroline Wood gives a brief round up of news from the South Island gathering at Makarora, on the edge of Mount Aspiring National Park.

It’s possibly the first time a real live bird has attended a Forest & Bird annual gathering as a guest. North Canterbury branch member Jackie Stevenson (pictured below) brought this little fellow – a spur-winged plover – along to the South Island Gathering because he is still being hand-fed his special baby bird diet and needs 24- hour care.

He stayed two nights in a specially adapted nest box before she brought him out on the last morning, much to the surprise of other people attending the South Island gathering, which was held at Makarora Tourist Centre.

Jackie hand-reared ‘Spur’ from two days old. He will be returned to the wild when he fledges. Jackie takes up to 30 rescue birds at any one time and is known locally in Christchurch as ‘bird lady’.

Jackie shows off “spur’s spur” (photo by Kimberley Collins)

This was one of many stand-out moments during a successful gathering, which took place in October, with members attending from all corners of the South Island to talk conservation, catch up with old friends, and explore the stunning surroundings of Makarora and the nearby Mount Aspiring National Park.

Attendees of the South Island gathering come together for a group photo (photo by Kimberley Collins)

We were hosted by members of Central Otago-Lakes branch of Forest & Bird, who did a brilliant job of organising the weekend and making sure everyone was well looked after. Chairperson Mark Ayres told us about how they have been running a volunteer predator control programme for the past 18 years at Makarora, which allows mohua/yellowhead to thrive in the nearby forest.

Looking for mohua (yellowheads) in a nearby forest (Photo by Kimberley Collins).

The branch has big plans to create a self-funding predator-free environment at Makarora, which is located north of Lake Wanaka, for endangered and rare native animals and plants to thrive in. During the weekend they showed us some of the treasures in this wild and sparsely populated area – the ancient beech forests that are home to mohua/yellowhead and the sparkling blue pools of the
nearby Makarora braided river, habitat of the wrybill among other birds.

Colleen from North Canterbury (left) and Edith from Ashburton share their Bird of the Year posters (Photo by Kimberley Collins).

President Andrew Cutler and Chief Executive Hōne McGregor gave a presentation about Forest & Bird’s new strategic plan and took questions about the vision and direction set out for the next 25 years. Kevin Hackwell gave an update about our successful campaign to create a Kermadec ocean sanctuary and Jo Priestley gave a presentation on how to run a successful local media campaign.

We heard talks about bird identification from bird expert  Peter Gaze, while Nick Ledgard gave us an update on the successful conservation efforts on the Ashley-Rakahuri braided river. There was some good-humoured rivalry going on between certain branches as they shamelessly pitched for votes in a bid to secure the winning bird in our Bird of the Year campaign.

Thank you to Mark and the team for putting on a memorable South Island Gathering.