I’ve said before that red-billed gulls and black-backed gulls have this weird, uneasy relationship. The way a single black-backed gull will hang around the smaller gulls as though they’re its minions is creepy and controlling, verging on predatory. Well a couple of days ago, I saw a SciShow video called “Killer Gulls Rip Into Whales [...]
Motueka
In orchards, apple trees are grafted onto rootstocks rather than grown from seed. There are a lot of advantages to growing apples in this way. One is that the “new” tree gets an established, healthy root system. Also, grafted apple trees tend to stay small, making them easier to manage. One major advantage is that [...]
The white heron/kōtuku (Ardea alba modesta) is rare in New Zealand and looks likely to stay that way. The New Zealand Encyclopedia of 1966 states there were about 20 pairs nesting on the West Coast of the South Island, and nzbirdsonline.org.nz says that there are now about 30 pairs nesting each breeding season. That’s an [...]
On a hot summer day, the Motueka River has plenty of swimming holes in which to cool down. This photo was taken in January, at the height of summer, and is a nice (or perhaps cruel?) reminder of what’s coming in a few months’ time.
There are different techniques for harvesting hops. This harvester cuts the bines off at the bottom, traps the ends of the bines and pulls on the bines until the suspension string they grew up snaps, releasing the bines into the trailer being towed behind the harvester. Another technique cuts the stems off near the ground and [...]
Over the summer months, hop bines (not a typo) grow heavier and heavier on their wires until the autumn, when they’re ready to be harvested. In this photo, we see two stages of the harvest process. In the background, the bines and their flowers fill the spaces between supports, while in the foreground, a worker [...]
There are only about 150-200 white heron/kōtuku (Ardea alba modesta) in New Zealand, and there’s at least one who is a regular visitor to the Motueka estuary. It’s been named “Eric” by the proprietor of Samaritas By The Sea, a food and coffee caravan at the marina. There’s only one breeding colony in New Zealand, [...]
Kiwifruit orchards are common in the Tasman District. The kiwifruit in the photo are the more well-known green kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa), but gold kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) are also common. Gold kiwifruit have a smooth (not fuzzy) skin, its flesh is pale yellow and it isn’t as sharp as the green kiwifruit. Experimental varieties are also [...]
“House sparrow” is the common name of Passer domesticus, which occurs almost everywhere people occur. In New Zealand, they’re found everywhere except high up in the mountains. Sparrows were brought here by the English in the 1860s, and since then, they’ve spread to our offshore islands and across the Pacific as far as Hawaii. The [...]
New Zealand has mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), which were introduced in the late 1800s, and it has grey ducks (Anas superciliosa), which are native and, because of the introduction of the mallard, have a conservation status of “Nationally Critical”. The reason is interbreeding, and today it’s hard to say how many truly pure grey ducks [...]
