What Bird is That? identifying native forest birds

Forest Birds ID card from "In the Bush" - now free to download

Interested in New Zealand's native birds and want to be able to identify them? Ten or so years ago I'd be out in the forest not sure what I was hearing or seeing. Here's some of the steps that I took to improving my knowledge of New Zealand birds.

Set yourself a bird-watching challenge: for example, take part in the New Zealand Garden Bird Survey on this week from 24 June to 2 July.  Gardens are a good place to start because often birds are easier to see in a garden and you can learn bird-watching techniques (see tips below) that will help you when you are out in the forest, beach or wetland. The Top 10 birds in gardens in 2016 were:

Northern Giant Petrel - Beach Rescue and Ocean Release

Some days you just don't know what you'll find at the beach.

One stormy Sunday afternoon, we were walking along and saw a couple of kids in the waves. 'Crazy kids' I thought since it is winter and, although the waves looked exciting, the kids looked cold. Then we realised that they were trying to rescue a large black bird that was being bashed about by the waves.

Encounters with Toutouwai, the New Zealand Robin

Just how rare are Toutouwai - New Zealand Robins? Until last week I'd only ever seen South Island robins in the wild.  In remote and beautiful places like the Kahurangi National Park and the Waitutu forest, these robins hop trustingly up to trampers, they'd sit on my boot or scratch around on the path that I'd just walked along. But to see a North Island robin (yes they are a little different) I thought I'd have to take a trip to a sanctuary like Mana Island or Zealandia.

So I was blown away to discover these delightful birds living in the wilderness in Whanganui National Park.

Tips for Reading With Children - Under the Ocean

To help children, parents and educators get the most out of my books, I've written down ideas for reading each book, activities and further places to get good information. These have been on the publisher's website, but a recent revamp means these pages are temporarily inaccessible. So for now I'm putting these ideas on the blog.

Tips for Reading Non-Fiction With Children

Beautiful Blue Ducks at Blue Lake - but there is trouble in paradise

The poster in the hut on the Travers-Sabine trail asked for sightings of rare birds and animals - weka, blue duck (Maori name whio, pronounced 'fee-o'), kea, kaka, black-eyed gecko, rock wren. Being observant trampers, it was with high hopes we set off to record sightings. The rushing mountain streams seemed a likely place for whio.  After three days and not a whio whistle, we came to Blue Lake or Rotomairewhenua (land of peaceful waters), surely the highlight of any tramp in this area.

Blue Lake - Rotomairewhenua

Gannets at Muriwai - day trip from Auckland

The gannet is a beautiful bird, snowy white, with black-tipped wings, yellow head, blue eyes.

 I often see one or two from my window, gliding, beak pointed downwards eyeing the sea below. If I watch long enough I'll see the bird suddenly dive at startling speeds.

These impressive birds feature on the first pages of Under the Ocean, where Ned has illustrated them at all stages of their diving.

They don't nest around here, but I've seen them nesting near Cape Kidnappers, we walked for a few hours along the beach to see them, leaving as the tide was going out and returning before it came back in again.

My Seabird of the Year 2014 - Poor Knights star

I enjoyed snorkelling at the Poor Knights Island - a fabulous marine reserve with lots of underwater colour and life. But on the day the real star was the Buller's Shearwater, which put on an extraordinary feeding show.

Poor Knights Islands, seen through a haze of seabirds

3 Top Nature Websites for Kiwi Kids

As a writer of children's books I spend a lot of time reading and researching, using books and websites. I keep an eye out for websites that I can recommend to children and their parents. It's amazing how many websites there are that fall into the New Zealand nature category. Check out my Pinterest board New Zealand Nature Online to see some of them. Most are written for general audiences but many are specialist sites that focus on one geographical area, such as a sanctuary, or one species, such as yellow-eyed penguins.

Here are my top three nature websites for children interested in New Zealand nature. 
My criteria are: easy navigation, informative and interesting content that children can grasp, a range of media (not just text to read).

Number one is the Kiwi Conservation Club website www.kcc.org.nz.

Oystercatchers at the Beach

It is autumn and there are four noisy variable oystercatchers on our beach. These are the parent birds photographed in spring. Now they have two teenagers hanging out with them. The younger birds still need their parents help to get enough food. It is quite an art to cracking open a shells with their beak and the young ones have to learn how to do this.

Dotterel as Bird of the Year

I'm leaning towards voting for the New Zealand Dotterel as bird of the year. These cute birds love this sort of habitat. Pretty hard to spot them among the seaweed and driftwood, until they start to move. Then it's almost like their on wheels, they zoom along, stopping and starting. They hold still long enough for me to focus the camera, then they speed off just as I take the shot! 

 There's something wrong with this picture, and it's not just that it's a poor shot!

Bird of the Year - why not the shag?

Voting in Forest and Bird's annual Bird of the Year competition is underway this month. Which bird will you vote for? There's already some hot competition with advocates pushing their favourite species. Today, the rare Mohua seems to be ahead, but who knows how the voting will go in the final count.

Shags haven't got many votes yet, perhaps they seem too common to attract attention. Here's a pied shag on Pukerua Bay beach. They have an interesting hook on the end of their beak, which must help them catch fish.

Pied shag

Spring Cygnets in Waikanae and on NZ Birds Online

It has been such a mild winter that there are now signs of spring everywhere, although August is still officially winter. On a walk yesterday at Waimanu Lagoons in Waikanae I saw these cygnets.

I read up on black swans on the new NZ Birds Online website, which was very helpful http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/black-swan. This website makes it easy to find and identify birds. Once you've found the bird you are looking for, it has lots of photos, sound recordings, data about breeding and lifespan and quite a bit of written information. The writing is quite technical so children might need help from an adult to get the most out of this website.