IMG 7464

Wildlife

Good recent weather has combined with some days off work, so I’ve been out a about a little bit. I went to the Otari-Wilton’s Bush and walked for three hours, having the tracks mostly too myself on a Tuesday morning. It was nice just walking in forest without people, and I got to see a few things which I might not otherwise have seen. Case in point was a morepork (ruru) quietly sitting in a tree fern adjacent to the path. I took far too many photos, here I will show but one:

IMG 7464Photo by Brendon & Keryn

A morepork at Otari-Wilton’s Bush

There were also lots of tui, plenty of wood pigeon and I also saw a bellbird feeding on a big pohutukawa tree. There were also lots of little streams and attractive waterfalls, though given my recent bad luck with cameras and waterfalls I wasn’t trying too hard to get to the best views.

IMG 7667Photo by Brendon & Keryn

A small waterfall

The 800 year old rimu was also quite impressive, many times larger that the surrounding trees.

IMG 7645Photo by Brendon & Keryn

The rimu

Last night I got an email saying that there would be a weta release at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, so I headed along to have a look. Over forty cook strait giant weta were being released after capture on Somes (Manu) Island overnight. There are a hundred or so marked giant weta on Somes Island, and during the search they only found one of these, so it does look like the island population is booming.

There was a crowd of fifty odd people gathered at the tui terrace for the release. The staff soon appeared on a box laden farm bike and were soon opening ice cream containers and showing the paired wetas within to the crowd. Once everyone had had a good look it was on to the release, the wetas picked up and set down under shrubs bordering the terrace. Mostly it was children touching the not so little invertebrates, one plucky youngster happy to have one crawl on his face so the Dominion Post photographer could get a good shot.

IMG 7713Photo by Brendon & Keryn

A female ready for release

IMG 7723Photo by Brendon & Keryn

A male hiding on flax

IMG 7729Photo by Brendon & Keryn

The same male, you can see the identity ring on the back leg

I still haven’t got anywhere with my replacement camera, the insurance people are still waiting for a quote apparently. I went to a Noel Leeming store on the way home from Karori and got a quote in about two minutes, so I think I’ll be chasing tomorrow morning.

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One thought on “Wildlife

  1. Wow, that is a stunning shot of the morepork… I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the wild, but then again I’ve never looked for them in daylight!

    Well done indeed!

    – Jack

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