Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 107
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
This late summer has caught us by
surprise. It’s been very hot, -the temperatures up in the high 20’s tipping
over into the 30’s (that’s 85-90 in New York) for four weeks now. But there has
also been rain – the widely predicted El Nino drought conditions have not
materialised. And now the cyclone season is underway in earnest with Fiji
bearing the brunt of Cyclone Winston over the last 3 days while we watch to see
if its going to scome our way next.
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| Healthy Harbours Porirua |
We have been caught up on a number of
projects one of which has been to put a video together for Healthy Harbours - Porirua. This follows a trip before Christmas of
seven youngsters from that region over to Kapiti Island.
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| Rachel, Te Arepa, Rohan, Rose, Soteria, Hope and E.J. at the Wilkinson Track hihi feeding station. |
This is part of their Kaitiaki programme
and here is the completed video.
Just to apologize - we are having trouble loading this but you can view it on this link at youtube
Just to apologize - we are having trouble loading this but you can view it on this link at youtube
A note on kaitiaki will help our
overseas visitors. It is generally
translated from Te Reo (the Maori Language) as guardian and that is the
intention of the programme – to
promote guardianship of our local environment especially around wetland
areas. Rose - The final interviewee in the video gives an impressive account of
it.
But kaitiaki also has a much wider and more
personal range of reference to Maori and this includes experiences that aren’t generally
considered acceptable in Western cultural eyes. A kaitiaki may attach itself to
you in the form of an animal – perhaps a spider, and this is seen as a
protective presence. We think of these as supernatural doings and view them
with a level-headed skepticism; but it is a perfectly normal
part of everyday experience for Maori.
Next post we will get back to the Island
but locally its been pleasant to locate this nest – which is just up the
wharemauku creek and empty now.
It is a riroriro nest – the grey warbler.
These native birds are one of our tiniest and very rare now in this area though
we photographed two here last year, so perhaps we have a breeding couple. Both
local species of cuckoo will lay an egg in their nest. And one of the most
poignant sights in the forest is two see two of these parents diligently trying
to feed a long tailed cuckoo fledgling– which is around 10x the size of the
‘foster’ parent.
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| From the 1959 Forest and Bird publication - New Zealand Forest Inhabiting Birds |
Then just as a final point the riroriro
is also called the NZ Rainbird…If it is about to rain its song will change. Which
is something else we generally retain a skepitical view of – until we hear the
evidence…
Track we were listening to while posting
this - We have been busy recording local bee populations over the last month so here is a song to go with all that from Arthur Askey and The Bee Song
Oh, what a wonderful thing to be,
A healthy grown up busy busy bee;
Whiling away all the passing hours
Pinching all the pollen from the cauliflowers.
