January 2013 update
Monthly Update for January
The highlight of January was the very successful public release of 3 kiwi at the Hunt’s farm on Robinson Road.
Feedback from the 200 people attending has been great. (Some photos attached – thanks to Kennedy Warne for these pics).
A rare opportunity to have a close look at a real kiwi
It was great to have Chris Espiru of Clover Technologies there to release a young male named “Clover”. Clover Technologies have kindly supported us with funding for our kiwi work. The other two kiwi released were young females – “Webb” who got her name by hatching the week that the All Blacks won the RWC (her sibling is named “Ellis”) and K’Uber (named by Urbernet –sponsors of Limestone Island FOMLI).
Clover and Webb have temporary transmitters attached to see how they settle in and all seems well.
The new arrivals and resident kiwi would have enjoying the damp conditions of the week following the release. But now with the prolonged dry spell another round of nesting by our breeding kiwi is unlikely this season. Darwin, Whitu and Waka have finished nesting leaving only Darwin nesting at the moment.
What the monitored kiwi are up to:
Darwin – Is in gorse at Lamb road, and as suspected he started his second nest in mid December and it is due
to hatch in late Feb.
Whitu – 1st chick hatched news year’s eve – 2nd egg was a dud.
Dallas – his activity has dropped a couple of times lately so he may be starting another nest despite the dry conditions.
Lambert – 1st chick hatched news year’s day -2nd egg was a dud. Did a transmitter change on him and he was in pretty good condition considering he had just finished his second nest for the season.
Waka – Came back on the radar!!! – After no transmitter signal since 18/10/12 when he was nesting in Mckenzie Bay. The transmitter data stream indicates that he hatched a chick – the transmitter must have stopped sending a signal for the past 2 months!
Charlotte – Is back on the roadside in Mckenzie Bay
JR – Helen helped me nab this character in the gorse and rank Kikuyu on Taurikura Ridge. He was a healthy 1990g and now has a new transmitter.
Charlie – Still showing high activity at Craig Road.
Kiwiana – At the southern end of Mt Manaia.
Webb – This is the young female we released recently at the Hunts’ – she is now about half way done the eastern side of Mt Manaia.
Clover – This is the young male we recently released – he is at the southern end of Mt Manaia and cruising around.
Kiwi carefully carried to release site
Kiwi, Todd and Locals at release site