Rewilding over the hill

 Yesterday was warm and sunny, but there is a lot of cloud around today. The total rainfall for October was 335 millimetres which is a record for us I think. There was a lot of wind too and the temporary downpipe I put in to take the water from the front of the house to the tank, seven years ago, was down on the ground and disconnected when we arrived. Probably when I fix it we need to re route it in a better position.  Tui on the Flax flowers We visited Ian yesterday. He has masses of flower on the Mountain Flax, Whariki, both outside his lounge windows and along the roadside. The Tui were working their way along the line, up and down each flower stalk then back to the start. Ian said there were very few Waxeyes visiting his feeding table, but we saw five in his Bottlebrush, Callistemon citrinus , later in the day.  We hadn't seen any Kereru, Native Pigeon, this weekend, but sitting at the table writing this I have seen one three times, or three once each, flying around ...

 There were no traps or poison blocks touched in the two weeks since we were here, so I just replaced the eggs.  I didn't see any nests on my rounds today, although there may have been movement in the Morepork nest box. Moreporks, Ninox novazelandiae , are a small to medium sized owl, naturally present in New Zealand, and some other South Pacific Islands. Closely related species are also found in Australia and other Pacific nations. They are our most widespread and well known owl. Moreporks are found through forested areas across New Zealand and are mentioned in several Maaori legends. They feed on small birds, insects and now small rodents too. Moreporks nest in cavities in trees and clumps of epiphytes such as Astelia , although they sometimes nest in boxes, if other sites are lacking. There are patterns online for anyone wishing to build a suitable nest box.  Morepork nest box We have two other species of owl, the introduced Little Owl, Athene noctua ,  and t...

This is only a short visit to check the traps and baits. Courting is well underway for many of the birds around about and, hopefully, some have fledged their first clutch of young ones. I heard the Shining Cuckoo last week at home so they will be stalking the Grey Warblers and, to a much lesser extent, the Fantails and Waxeyes to rear their young. Being small and mostly green, the Cuckoos are hard to spot and even harder to photograph, especially as they sometimes sit along the branch rather than across it. They are very easy to identify by their call though. It is about five to seven fairly rapid 'tu weet's followed by one or two decending whistles in a similar pitch. Just how a small bird like them manages to fly between New Zealand and the Pacific islands of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga is hard to understand, but they complete the trip twice each year.  We watched a pair of Kingfishers, Halcyon sancta , chasing each other in big circles, then landing on the power wires and calling ...

It is 5pm and the sun has gone off both banks of solar panels. We sprayed the drive earlier and have been removing the roots of the various grasses there.  It has been dry today, but overcast with some wind. Down south they have had winds up to 220km/h and a good dose of rain.  There was nothing in any of the traps today, and only two poison blocks gone, probably the result of slugs. I am guessing various birds are nesting now. We decided to remove the partly built swallows nest as it was almost directly over the door and quite messy underneath. I am hoping they will shift to the shelf I put up for them on the next beam along. They have been flying around here all day so that is positive.  The Whariki flowers are not peaking yet, although small numbers of them have been out over the last month and a few seed pods are well formed. The spread probably suits the resident Tui population, but we don't seem to have the extras who come when the flower numbers are higher.  T...

Still having fires at night as it is cool. The weather has been showery and windy this weekend.  We managed to do a bit more weed clearing from the drive and the spray has greatly reduced the nostoc, but it isn't gone yet.  I also planted a further six Mountain Flax, Whariki, Phormium cookianum . and five Cabbage trees, Cordyline australis , Ti Kouka. The Whariki I planted along the side of the shared driveway. They are taking over from the Koromiko which we started with, but which are approaching the end of their lifespan. About 10% of the Whariki have a few open flowers so far, hopefully the Tui and Waxeyes will be visiting the soon.   Whariki flowers The Cabbage trees I planted in the wet area on the south side of our Kahikatea grove. the Manuka there are slowly disappearing and, hopefully, they will be replaced by the newer Coprosma propinqua, Cabbage trees, Pate and Pukatea that I have planted in the last couple of years. I did plant Swamp Flax, Phormium tenax, ...

 We are here after three weeks. We had a fire on Friday night, but it may be the last for the season. The days are getting up to 16 degrees now. We have high cloud all over with light easterlies so I doubt if we will get a frost tonight.  There was nothing in the traps and only one bait was gone, and that was possibly due to slugs. there has been another flood over the stream banks and I notice one of the larger Five fingers, Pseudopanax arboreus ,  is dying, presumably due to a high water table for too long. It seems a lot of our trees do well in moist soils, but will not tolerate wet or dry periods.  Pseudopanax arboreus I have rebaited the SA3 trap for stoats, even though we haven't had success with it. I think it is a great design, but presumably we have very few stoats and feral cats around at present. Ian still has the double doored live trap, which he has had success with, catching feral cats, but there are definitely more feral cats around his area that ours....