It’s dark out. As it is with the beginning of most of my adventures. I ventured down the trail towards a group of nikau by the edge of the wetland where earlier in the day I had spied the enormous web. Most enormous webs, it seems, are also home to enormous spiders.
Read MoreWith the days at their shortest and the weather at its strongest, you may be wondering what can be done to support birds during this turbulent time. Well, it's not just ducks that love the rainy days of winter, trees and plants love it too. This is the best time of year to design your garden around what kind of visitors you want to encourage to your backyard.
Read MoreShags, in my opinion, are an essential part of experiencing coastal Aotearoa. Some people may know them as the relentless and hungry bird that nicks bait and fish from the end of your line, their snake-like neck appearing loch-ness-style to the rear of your boat the moment your line is cast. Tīkapa Moana is home to 5 species of shag, pied being the most easily recognised.
Read MoreThere have been many rewards from the years of dedicated predator control on Waiheke. Some are raucous, seen soaring and screeching all over the island, but one, in particular, has quietly moved into people's backyards.
Read MoreBecoming the world’s first predator-free urban island is no small feat. There are many questions still to be answered about how to remove rats from Waiheke and the rat pilot operational trials are designed to do just that.
Read MoreI spend a lot of time outside; whether that’s in native bush, mangroves, or along our coastline. It may seem to some like a lonely job, to be by yourself in the outdoors, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s always someone waiting for me when I step out of my car or off a boat.
Read MoreAfter months of planning, the team is thrilled to be out and about servicing the bait stations and traps across the trial areas. They are a friendly bunch, so if you see the team out and about, be sure to give them a wave.
Read MoreTurn off the lights and switch on a UV light and this is what the rat bait in the operational trials looks like. But why does it glow you may ask? While glowing under blue lights is perhaps more reminiscent of nightclubs and dance parties, this fluorescent dye is the key to answering a number of questions in the rat pilot.
Read MoreA large kohekohe berry fell near my feet followed by a branch and then a strip of bark. High above, in the canopy, there was crashing and hopping and the shrieks of trill laughter. The beating of feathers echoed throughout the valley.
Aotearoa is full of strange looking creatures, from the very small to the very large. Some like to give you a fright by turning up in your gumboots, some will give you a nasty nip if you put your fingers too close. Though there is an insect that takes my breath away, every time I’m privileged enough to see one, and that is the wētāpunga.
Read MorePāteke, or brown teal, are the rarest species of mainland duck in Aotearoa. Their population is mainly on Aotea, Hauturu, Northland, and the Coromandel, though I had the pleasure of spotting some here on Waiheke recently.
Read MoreThe harvest moon is upon us here in the southern hemisphere and all around is an abundance of food ripening on vines, trees and flower heads. After building nests and rearing young, most adult backyard birds spend autumn eating, loading up before the winter. But for the young birds who are in adolescence now, they have one key thing on the agenda…speed.
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