Geckos and Skinks - what's the difference?

Rare native birds get a good deal of press in New Zealand, but some of our other endangered natives get less attention, particularly the ones that are good at hiding! Often the most you'll see of a skink is a flash of brown as it streaks across a stony path into the grass. And for geckos which are nocturnal the most you might see is a discarded frail white skin.

A flash of brown and it's gone - skinks move fast

Kaka in the Garden

There are some pretty unusual and rare birds that can be seen in some gardens. Imagine finding a kiwi in your garden! One place that could happen is Oban, the small town on Stewart Island/Rakiura. About 400 people live in Oban, and late at night residents and visitors can hear kiwi screeching in the parks and in the gardens. See Stewart Island Brown Kiwi.

Another unusual and rare bird that can be seen in Oban's gardens during the daytime is the kaka.

Geckos in the Garden

Geckos hunt at night, so a rare sighting of a gecko in the garden recently was exciting. We often see signs of geckos - their old skins that they have climbed out of, or a quick dart of a small dark figure if its hiding place is uncovered. But this gecko stayed quite still for a long time, long enough to be photographed.

Gecko from underneath

Garden Wildlife in New Book

Out now in all good bookshops and available online from Craig Potton Publishing, my new book In the Garden: explore & discover the New Zealand backyard. 

Garden Bird Survey

I missed this year's Garden Bird Survey because I was overseas. But am interested to see the results. You can check these out on the Landcare website. The graph shows just how dominant sparrows are along with silvereyes. Last year doing the survey made me pay more attention to the birds in the garden and I realized that we are visited by grey warblers in the winter. Not many people reporting warblers, I guess they like the native trees in our garden.
The survey made me realize too, just how different the garden is between summer and winter. In summer there is a chance we'd see kereru, but by winter they have all disappeared. Tui and fantails stick around. In winter the silvereyes come in flocks, whereas in summer there are just a few around.

Posted with Blogsy

Enhancing the Halo in Wellington

Enhancing the Halo
Here's a great local project for families in Wellington. Join the Halo project and find out how to make your garden an attractive place for native birds.
There's even a photo competition.