Kākariki karaka are nesting

We've been going around previously-used nest holes checking for activity. Some of them have received a lot of attention over the last few months. Our birds were prospecting, but mostly had not moved onto nesting. This is not uncommon behaviour. At some stage they receive the biological trigger to start laying (likely surplus food) and an 'interesting' hole in a tree trunk them becomes a nest.

We found a few more today, here are three previously-used nest holes that are again in use for the 2024/2025 season.

The female leaps out of her nest for a feed after being called off her nest (below).

Male called the female out (below), she poked her head out but either wasn't hungry or was busy (about to lay an egg perhaps?) as she went straight back in, and the male left.

Male (top, with leg bands) called off the female, here she comes out for a feed.

World Parrot Trust trip

By request I guided two staff from the World Parrot Trust into the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary today; they were Oceania Regional Director Dr Luis Ortiz-Catedral and Executive Director Dr Jamie Gilardi. Also present was a principal sponsor of the World Parrot Trust, his name was Joe (never got his surname!).

Luis is originally from Mexico, but did his post-grad in New Zealand and lives here. He has conducted research on kākāriki, in particular translocation methods. None of the three guests had previously visited the sanctuary, they had a short window of opportunity today so we made the most of it.

We drove up the eastern fence-line track so our guests could have a good view of the sanctuary from the outside, then entered at Kākāriki Hatch and walked through the sanctuary over about five hours passing by the soft-release aviaries (for kākāriki karaka) and the soon-to-be (hopefully) kākā aviary on the way out. A good day was had by all, humans and birds.

Some photos from today (of the birds, of course).

Kārearea - it's a nest!

Today was the first time I'd seen one of our pair sitting on the nest. Two days ago the nest had no eggs. It looked today like egg-laying time had arrived. Here's the female sitting in her nest.

Kārearea nest preparation?

Late September we detected kārerea (NZ falcon) activity around a hollow under a decaying log, it appeared nest preparation was in progress. We roped off the site as it was close to a track used by Brook Waimārama Sanctuary staff and volunteers, too close for the comfort of the birds and humans. I'd been checking it out whenever I passed (about once per week) for signs of activity. The last activity I saw was 7th October. We'd been considering whether the rope could be safely removed as the site appeared inactive (cobwebs across the hollow entrance, no fresh droppings or regurgitation pellets). Until today.

I walked up the spur, over the rope, and saw no eggs (or anything else) in the potential nest hollow. I was standing right next to the hollow (about 2m away), I'd been there for a few seconds when a blood-curdling screech from above shook me to my core. I looked up, and a female kārearea was in the air about 5-6m above me, wings flapping and shrieking. She was making herself look and sound as intimidating as possible (although no attempt was made to attack). She was trying to scare me away. It worked. I beat a hasty retreat to a spot about 10m away.

The male then turned up, and on the other side of the log (about a metre from the 'nest' hollow) I saw them feeding on the carcass of a decent-sized bird. It appeared to be perhaps a tūī or California quail. It appeared they'd stashed the carcass there, and perhaps that was the reason for the aggression, they may have thought I was going to raid their food supply.

Anyway, once I was 10m away (outside the rope) the pair of them seemed unconcerned by my presence and ignored me thereafter, so I took some photos. The only appearance of the female in these photos is the one where she is feeding while the male watches from his perch. The other photos are the male.

Kākāriki karaka

Such pretty birds, whenever I'm close enough and I've taken a photo or two of the whole bird, I like to zoom in to 600mm, crop most of the bird out and go for a mugshot. A few recent random shots with some mugshots here.

Tuatara

So they don't have feathers.... sue me. New Zealand's living fossil - tuatara - are back in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. There were 56 released today into pre-prepared burrows. I won't provide a natural history lesson on these fascinating creatures, there is plenty written about them elsewhere. Here's an article on the event in the local newspaper.

Some photos of these baby Godzillas from the day. Note my reflection in the eyeball in the third (and the crop in the fourth) photograph.