December Update
Monthly Update for December
Our WHLF kiwi project had some distinguished visitors during December.
The NZ Landcare Trust brought Stephen Tindall to see how the Backyard kiwi project works and visit the Taurikura Ridge Landcare rat control project. Stephen has been a funder of our work through The Tindall Foundation and WWF and it was very satisfying to show him the success of the work that he is supporting.
Photo of Rod Morris getting photos of Todd delivering kiwi chick to Limestone Island Ranger Ben Barr attached
Our second special guest was Rod Morris (author and wild life photographer of “Wild South” fame). Rod was following up on Peter Hayden’s previous visit to take photographs for a chapter on Backyard kiwi in their upcoming book.
Visitors that we are not so keen to see our kiwi are holiday makers dogs – if you have visitors with dogs please make sure that they know that there are kiwi at the Whangarei Heads and that their dog could easily kill kiwi if not controlled.
Meanwhile the local kiwi dads continue their second round of nesting for the season.
· Darwin – Is in gorse at Lamb road, his activity is dropping hopefully meaning that he is starting his second nest..
· Whitu- Is still sitting tight on his second nest – due to hatch late December.
· Dallas- Still feeding up between nests near the main road below the Heads School
· Lambert- Holding tight on his second nest – due to hatch late December.
· Charlotte- Is back on the roadside in Mckenzie Bay
· JR- Is still due his 6 monthly check but is hiding in dense Kiekie at the southern end of Taurikura ridge.
· Charlie- This young fella is showing no signs of finding a mate and is quite happy in the scrub north of Craig road.
· Kiwiana – This the young male kiwi released at Mcleod Bay in November. He was named Kiwiana by the Whangarei Heads school students and to show
his appreciation of his new name climbed over Mt Manaia and then south around to the face above the school.
· JJ- This is the large female kiwi who we also released in November- she has climbed up and over Mt Manaia and has dropped her transmitter on the
steep slope there (her transmitter was only temporally attached to monitor immediately release).