Bringing Back the Ocean-going Birds

Mention ocean-going birds and the mighty long-winged albatross comes to mind. But the ball of fluff I hold in my hands is no heavier than a pompom and not much larger. 

White-faced storm petrel chick

Weighing in at just 40-50 grams, white-faced storm petrels are a small miracle. The chick is so tiny, so delicate. But when I loosen my hold, the Jesus Christ bird rockets out, its long legs springing it off into the bushes. Once fledged this bird will be walking on water, its long legs and webbed feet bounding across the waves. For now though, I must wrangle it safely back into its burrow.

Counting Litter - the good, the bad and the ugly

What's wrong with these pictures of scenic tourist spots?

Tawhai Falls, Tongariro National Park with Food Wrapper

Huka Falls, Taupō with Food Wrapper

Lake Taupō with Used Baby's Nappy (Diaper)

Yes, you guessed it Litter! They're not the shots I chose for my Instagram feed. In fact I nearly didn't take them at all. But if I'm always looking for the most beautiful shot, my photos aren't telling the whole truth about what I'm seeing. So I asked myself, what is the truth about litter in New Zealand?

If no one picks it up, what happens to this litter?

Penguin Walks - kororā count

On a couple of spring days every year, volunteers from Kāpiti Biodiversity Project get up very early. It's still dark outside as they make their way to a meeting point at Paekakariki Beach. It's chilly and they are rugged up in coats and hats. As the sky begins to brighten, they make their way slowly along the beach scanning the sand for footprints.

A trail of footprints being examined by volunteers

The tide is out, the sand has been washed clean of yesterday's footprints, so any new prints on the beach have been made since the last high tide. The volunteers are looking for prints like these:

Nature Journals - getting started

Creating a Nature Journal is a great way to deepen your nature connection. Whether you want to record what you see on a nature walk, celebrate nature's beauty, or keep track of what you've learned about nature - there's a nature journal format to suit your purpose. If you look on Pinterest at other people's Nature Journals you might think Nature Journals are just for artists, but your observations are unique and can be conveyed in words as well as pictures.

Some of my Nature Journals

A Nature Diary is a good way to get started writing a Nature Journal. That's how I began. I wrote down places I went walking or tramping, and listed things I saw that interested me. After awhile, I began adding in more details, names of plants I was learning from other people or facts I'd found in reference books.

Experiencing Nature with Kids - their way

It was all about being hands-on at the Koraunui Bioblitz this week. Schools in Stokes Valley took part in an amazing day of exploration on organised by Dianne Christenson of Koraunui School and supported by scientists and experts. Did I have some pre-conceived notions of a Bioblitz? Maybe, but I agreed with a fellow expert that this one should be led by the children's interests and observations.

My first eager group had bounce in their step as we headed along a small path among some new plantings at Horoeka Scenic Reserve.

Getting Past the 'ick' Factor: for a Predator Free New Zealand

There's a momentum building across the country, as community after community sets up 'Predator Free' or 'Pest Free' groups. Last November, Predator Free Pukerua Bay kicked off with a well attended meeting in the local hall.  We weren't starting from scratch as in the Pukerua Bay scientific Reserve volunteers were trapping for weasels, stoats, and rats, and around the reserves Greater Wellington Regional Council has bait stations. Also a few locals were already trapping on their sections. But this was just a drop in the ocean compared to what we could do together as a community.

Why we trap - to protect our native wildlife

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:

Endangered Reef Herons - reporting sightings

Described as Nationally Endangered, there are only 300-500 reef herons left in New Zealand. I'm lucky to live in of the few places that they visit. It's a privilege to be able to watch them down among the rock pools and in the shallows.

Reef Heron showing breeding plumes on its back

Scientists are interested in sightings of this bird and you can report these through iNaturalistNZ or Project Hot Spot (although the focus of the latter is Taranaki). Before you send in a report - here's how to tell the difference between the endangered reef heron and the common white-faced heron. Both are called matuku moana in Māori.

How do you tell the difference between a white-faced heron and a reef heron?

Weeds or Wild Flowers - What do we See?

One person's weed is another person's garden flower. I've seen the delight in the eye of visitors from Europe when they saw what they took to be garden flowers such as white Arum lilies (Zantedeschia) or blue Agapanthus flowering by our roadsides.

Arum Lilies spreading alongside a pathway

It's not just visitors who see them as delightful wild flowers or as garden plants, lots of locals do too. But how we see them doesn't alter the fact that these and many other imported plants grow, and spread, like wild fire in New Zealand's climate. They encroach on dunes, on bush remnants, on stream banks pushing out native plants and reducing our,  and therefore the world's, biodiversity.

Garden Bird Survey and Volunteer Week - Citizen Science at its best

Days, Weeks or Months that highlight different causes or ideas pander to our short attention spans, but if we only volunteer in volunteer week, not much would get done around the country! I'd like to think Volunteer Week gets people started, selecting a cause to volunteer with. There are so many deserving causes, there really is something for everyone, whether it is helping make breakfasts in schools , delivery library books to the housebound, patrolling a dangerous beach as a lifeguard or building rat traps.

Rat traps for gardens and parks in Paekakariki 

The Pitfalls of Monitoring Skinks- our elusive native lizards

Picture this, early morning in summer and a couple of people crouched by the coastal path, wearing knee pads, peering into holes in the ground. No wonder the local dog walkers were suspicious! However they soon got to know who we were and what we were up to. The holes in the ground are pitfall traps of lizards, and we are a group of volunteers working with a lizard scientist (herpetologist) to monitor skinks in our local reserve.

Skink in a pitfall trap (other items removed)

Sardine Smoothies Again! Feeding seabirds on Mana Island

Last year I blogged about my volunteer week on Mana Island helping with the Fairy Prion translocation. You'd think the long days, hot sun, and the smell of sardines might have put me off - but when the call came out for volunteers for the second year of this project I couldn't resist the opportunity to put my name forward. I convinced myself that it was a chance to use the skills I'd learned the year before, that the work really hadn't been that hard, the smell of sardines not too bad, and that the sun couldn't surely be as hot again - not in a Wellington January.

Holding one of the new arrivals

Geckos in the Spotlight: volunteering on Mana Island

A trip to Mana Island, which is free from mammal predators and pests, is enough to show how incredible the lizard life of ancient New Zealand would have been. Mana is not only free from rats, cats, hedgehogs and stoats; there are also no mice here.

Who's In the Garden? my Garden Bird Survey

For a number of years now I've been counting birds as part of the annual Garden Bird Survey. To start with it seemed a bit artificial only counting the birds seen in one hour. But knowing that many birds are visiting, moving from one garden to another, it's a fair approach. What began as a simple survey led me to was to spend more time looking at who was in my garden and when.

Fantails weren't here at survey time this year

Seeing Plants with New Eyes - learning the language of plants

Gillian Candler reviews the NMIT Plant Identification course

An informative guided walk at Otari/Wilton's Bush last year spurred me on to join the local Botanical Society. I’m a children’s author so sometimes take a childlike view of things, I get excited by Hen and Chicken’s Ferns

Hen and Chickens Fern

and Puriri moths in Putaputaweta trees, I love the statuesque Wheki-ponga that look like people wearing cloaks and I delight at discovering hanging orchids.  But listening to members of the Botanical Society I often feel like a stranger in a foreign land who can only say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ in that language, a good conversation being out of the question.

Feeding Fairy Prions - a volunteer's week on Mana Island

100 fairy prion chicks from Takapourewa/Stephens Island were welcomed on to Mana Island a week ago, on 22 January.

One of the 100 Fairy Prion chicks

Book Giveaways at Pauatahanui Clean Up

The Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet (or GOPI for short) run an annual clean up around the inlet.

Always a popular event, there is a barbecue afterwards and of course the satisfaction of knowing you've done the environment a bit of good.  For children this year there was something extra, as my publisher Craig Potton Publishing agreed to donate a copy each of Under the Ocean and At the Beach to be spot prizes for children that helped out to be drawn at the barbecue.

Kereru Count & Citizen Science

I have a new appreciation of kereru - New Zealand pigeons. I've been observing them more closely during the Great Kereru Count over the last fortnight.

Kereru on Banks Peninsula

Counting Birds - New Zealand's 10 most common forest birds

I've been subjected to some friendly teasing from friends and family, who find it amusing that I just spent 2 days on a bird counting course. "How hard can it be?" they laugh, counting off 1 - 2 - 3 on their fingers.

 One tui in a kowhai tree

Watching Nature with NatureWatchNZ

UPDATE 25.6.18 to this blog post: Nature Watch NZ is now iNaturalistNZ, you can see all my observations at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/candler

You may have noticed that a 'widget' has appeared below my blogposts, headed Nature Watch NZ.

Explore and Discover Nature is all about observing nature: quirky events like the By the Wind Sailor beach invasion last year or the Sea Foam after the Storm ; through seasonal observations such as Winter Walks in the Bush, to places to go and things to do when out and about.

By the Wind Sailors