Whenua Hou, February-March 2005

• Wednesday, 27 April 2005

  • Rare parrot receives special care

    This is a BBC article on the kakapo volunteer programme on Codfish Island. This is what I did except it was earlier, before the chicks hatched.
    Posted by Matthew at 5:40:27 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Thursday, 21 April 2005

  • Sinbad

    

    Taken Sunday, 27 February 2005

    
    
    This platform detects the kakapo's weight while the bird eats. Each bird wears a radio transmitter under the feathers on their nape. A nearby receiver ("snark") detects the bird's presence, so allowing staff to figure out who's eating what and how much they weigh.
    Posted by Matthew at 12:30:41 AM | Permanent link | Comments (1) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Sinbad

    

    Taken Sunday, 27 February 2005

    
    
    Posted by Matthew at 12:27:33 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Sinbad

    

    Taken Sunday, 27 February 2005

    
    
    Sinbad is the hand-reared son of Richard Henry. He is quite unafraid of people. Here, he is visiting another bird's feeding station. More
    Posted by Matthew at 12:25:56 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Sinbad

    

    Taken Sunday, 27 February 2005

    
    

    "The kakapo have a way of looking at you that makes you want to save them. The world just wouldn't be the same without that kind of bird around."

    That's the way Kate McInnes, the world's sole kakapo vet, sees it. I think you can see what she means. I met Kate back in February.

    Posted by Matthew at 12:21:33 AM | Permanent link | Comments (2) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Campbell Island teal

    

    Taken Sunday, 27 February 2005

    
    
    This rare species was introduced to Whenua Hou and is living quite happily in the creek near the hut.
    Posted by Matthew at 12:18:46 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Fiordland-crested penguin

    

    Taken Saturday, 26 February 2005

    
    

    Fiordland-crested penguins breed in the coastal forest near Sealer's Bay on Whenua Hou.

    Posted by Matthew at 12:14:25 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Monday, 18 April 2005

  • Hoiho tracks

    

    Taken Friday, 25 February 2005

    
    
    The hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin nests amongst the dunes at the back of Sealers' Bay beach. They come ashore after a day of feeding around early dusk.
    Posted by Matthew at 6:15:37 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Canopy shyness

    

    Taken Friday, 25 February 2005

    
    
    This is the rata canopy on the bushy top of Whenua Hou. The gaps between the leaves are a phenomenon called canopy shyness. One theory is that this shyness discourages leaf-eating insects from moving around so easily.
    Posted by Matthew at 6:12:23 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Bellbird juvenile

    

    Taken Friday, 25 February 2005

    
    
    This young bird and its sibling would sit in the undergrowth by the track to the beach, demanding food all day. They were very tame, sometimes barely flinching if I reached out to touch them.  
    Posted by Matthew at 6:09:10 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Tuesday, 29 March 2005

  • Forest

    

    Taken Friday, 25 March 2005

    
    
    Whenua Hou is a low island rising to barely 280 metres. It looks rather like a cake that forgot to rise. The tops are however distinctly windswept by the prevailing WNW winds. The valleys are dominated by Hall's totara, rimu, kamahi, and miro, while higher slopes are predominantly rata and muttonbird scrub.  
    Posted by Matthew at 2:15:23 PM | Permanent link | Comments (2) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Sinbad

    This is a video I captured of Sinbad, the kakapo. Sinbad was born in 1998 as the son of Richard Henry, the only surviving Fiordland kakapo. Sinbad was hand-reared and is a little too unafraid of humans (most kakapo will retreat when people are around). During breeding seasons, male kakapo will attempt to mate with pretty much anything in proximity, including seabirds, snarks (the kakapo recording devices), jerseys, or (in the case of tamer birds) legs. They are very intelligent, curious birds, with strikingly long claws. 

    You can read more about Sinbad here.

    Posted by Matthew at 10:57:06 AM | Permanent link | Comments (13) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Monday, 14 March 2005

  • Various unrelated remarks

    The kakapo on the northwestern side of Whenua Hou have been doing everything slightly later than the birds on the southeastern side: booming was later, signs of mating, and now nesting. Along with Alice's, Two more nests (Sarah and Suzanne) have been found on the northwest, with promises of more to come. More information at the Kakapo Recovery site. That's where I'm getting my updates now since I can no longer see the chart of eggs on the hut fridge.

    In completely different news, Aimee Mann is releasing a new album soon. The cover art features boxers, which is interesting as Aimee is a pugilist herself, unlikely as that may seem.

    I feel rather like a squeezed lemon. Nothing I ate yesterday stayed eaten. I haven't dared to try eating anything today yet.

    On Whenua Hou, with a diet of muesli bars, chocolate biscuits, and chocolate, I still lost another 3kg. I guess it was all the walking.

    Summer is refusing to leave Christchurch: we're having lovely blue days.

    Posted by Matthew at 8:29:46 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Friday, 11 March 2005

  • And now back to our regular programme...

    Real life eh? Even though it's only a city of modest proportions, returning to Christchurch is like plugging back into the Matrix. 2km/h is the standard trudging-through-mud pace on Whenua Hou, so the 7+ hours drive home overnight was a strange speed contrast. I passed through Dunedin at midnight, did some shopping, and saw students hanging around outside pubs. By 4am there were only trucks and me on the road. It's really quite pleasant. Somewhere near Oamaru, I think I encountered a house on the road. My snoozing brain suggested I pull over and let it pass. But then by the time I reached Ashburton at 5, the world was waking up: I saw cyclists, and the first cars pulling out of driveways. I arrived at home at 6 to see both my neighbours leaving for work. Then I spent the rest of yesterday sleeping and washing mud off things.

    And here I am, all clean and employed. Despite having spent no money at all for two weeks I see my bank account is almost empty, which makes me think I have too many automatic payments. And there's a pile of unanswered mail, bills, and email. It all makes me think my life is a little too complicated.

    Oh yes, and more kakapo news: a new nest (Lisa) was found the day I left, along with promising signs for another.

    Posted by Matthew at 6:15:44 PM | Permanent link | Comments (1) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Wednesday, 9 March 2005

  • Leaving Whenua Hou

    This morning on the way back from nest minding I met that penguin again. This time it was on the boardwalk, and displaying a clear preference for it, ambling ahead of me at a typical penguin-dawdle. I had to step off the track and scramble through the boggy undergrowth to overtake it. Don Merton, conservation superhero, arrived today on the helicopter I departed on. This is his last field trip before retiring. I got to shake his hand at least. As I drove out of Invercargill, I realised this trip is the most worthwhile thing I've ever done.

    It's a balmy evening here at Lake Waihola. I can't see a thing but I can hear swans on the water.

    Posted by Matthew at 9:43:02 PM | Permanent link | Comments (2) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Tuesday, 8 March 2005

  • Flossie

    Flossie is sitting on 60% of the world's fertile kakapo eggs — that's three eggs. Several times she has stretched and inadvertantly kicked an egg across the nest cavity. Sometimes she shivers with her feathers fluffed up — no one knows what purpose this serves. Often, she puts her big whiskery face in the camera lens, as if she's onto us! Currently, she's preening.
    Posted by Matthew at 10:15:01 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

  • Flooded forest

    More overnight rain meant Sue stayed on her nest. Someone will be back tonight to try again. The valley floor is flooded, and today I met a yellow-eyed penguin about 500m inland. This is my last night on the beach. A flock of several hundred petrels is feeding offshore, and penguins are calling from the tops of the dunes. There's a distinctly autumnal chill to the breeze that whips sand along the beach.
    Posted by Matthew at 7:49:15 PM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Monday, 7 March 2005

  • Last night at Sue's

    After heavy rain, the tracks here are channels of mud. It's a long walk up to Sue's and I kept repeating the name of one of the other tracks: Far Canal. Sue's eggs proved to be infertile, so they were removed. There's little sadder than watching one of the world's rarest birds carefully turning a plastic egg. When she leaves tonight to feed, I'll be sealing her nest off with canvas and locking her out.
    Posted by Matthew at 9:16:33 PM | Permanent link | Comments (1) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top

• Friday, 4 March 2005

  • Kakapo update

    A few more losses: Flossie has three fertile eggs, Margaret-Marie has one, and Bella has one which has been transferred to Cyndy's empty nest. Lisa's, Sue's, and Cyndy's clutches were all infertile. I minded Flossie's nest last night.
    Posted by Matthew at 5:02:59 PM | Permanent link | Comments (2) | Email Matthew | Whenua Hou, February-March 2005 | Back to top