The paddocks on Staples Street host a few different species, including pukeko, grey ducks, mallards, Paradise shelducks, spur-winged plovers, blackbirds, thrushes… Walking along Staples Street on Sunday night, we heard spur-winged plovers (Vanellus miles) giving their ‘I don’t like what’s happening’ calls and saw one take off after a harrier (Circus approximans) that was flying [...]
Motueka
As State Highway 60 exits Motueka to the north, Staples Street runs off towards the coast, to the Raumanuka Scenic Reserve and the Motueka sandspit, where the birdlife is abundant. Staples Street before the reserve runs alongside a paddock that also abounds with wildlife. Pukeko (Porphyrio melanotus) are often spotted in that paddock, and although [...]
Looking at this photo and knowing it’s a variable oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor), the question that comes to mind is: What exactly is so variable about the variable oystercatcher? Its plumage is completely black, its species name is unicolor (truly!), and what’s going on with those orange chopsticks strapped to its face? As with the fantail, [...]
The blue-green colour of the New Zealand kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) can show up as iridescent in the sunlight, but on a grey, overcast day like the one on which this photo was taken, its colours are muted. But they still stand out from the brown mud and debris of the estuary. Their genus name, Todiramphus, [...]
Most of the common names for Zosterops lateralis are based on its most striking feature: the rings around the eyes of the adults. Silvereye, wax-eye, white-eye. Even its genus name, Zosterops, refers to the eye ring: it means “eye girdle”. Looking beyond the bright eye ring, though, the silvereye has an astonishing array of striking [...]
In the South Island, about one in 20 fantails is a black morph, this chocolate brown guy with a grey/black head. It’s the same species (Rhipidura fuliginosa) as the more common pied morph, it’s just a genetic anomaly. Oddly, the fantail’s scientific name is more suggestive of the uncommon black morph than it is of [...]
The South Island pied oystercatcher (Haematopus finschi) population numbers sit at around the 110,000 mark, making it one of the most abundant oystercatchers in New Zealand. They hang around the coast, except during the breeding season, when they tend to move inland to breed on braided riverbeds.
This is the Riuwaka Resurgence, right at the point where the water comes out of Takaka Hill. In its travels through the limestone of Takaka Hill, the water has been stripped of any impurities, and the water coming out here is as pure as the water at Pupu Springs, north of the Takaka Hill.
Where Takaka Hill Highway (State Highway 60) starts its climb up over Takaka Hill, the Riwaka Valley Road turns off to the left. At the very end of that road, there’s a carpark and a short walkway that goes up alongside the Riuwaka River to the Riuwaka Resurgence. The river starts under Takaka Hill, flowing [...]
Bellbirds/korimako (Anthornis melanura melanura) are honeyeaters and, for this reason, are important to New Zealand forests: they pollinate the flowers of many species of trees and shrubs. They feed on fruits as well, which means they’re also important in dispersing the seeds of different native plants. The song of the bellbird is full of pure [...]
