Kiwi pukupuku

Forty one kiwi pukupuku (little spotted kiwi) were taken from a large population on Kapiti Island and reintroduced to the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary in May 2025. They used to be everywhere but have been locally extinct for close to 100 years. I haven't written about them in this blog to date as I had no photos! They're nocturnal, and spend the daytime extremely well hidden in burrows, under logs, or in dense vegetation.

Ten of the males were radio-tracked. This was to allow personnel from Save the Kiwi, the Department of Conservation and the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary to monitor their movements throughout the Sanctuary following their translocation. They were also periodically examined so their health could be monitored. The signs were always good, they quickly spread out and established their territories. They put on weight. Trail-cameras were installed at key locations and they were regularly filmed going about their business. The first baby was also picked up by trail-camera in December 2025 (seven months after the translocations).

It was decided that the transmitters were to be removed and not replaced. They had done their job and there was no longer any purpose in tracking those ten birds.

Last weekend two teams involving personnel from Save the Kiwi worked with Brook staff and volunteers to locate the ten monitored kiwi, remove the transmitters, and after one final health check release them back into their burrows. I was lucky enough to accompany and photograph one of the teams on Sunday, we had three kiwi to find. Here are some photos from the day. I usually avoid having humans in my photos, but humans were integral to this story so they appear here too.

Kiwi No. 1.

Robert, the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary ecologist, and Nadine from Save the Kiwi have radio trackers, and have quickly triangulated to a suspicious-looking hole in the bank. Henry (Brook staff) gets ready for action.

Robert thinks our bird may be in this hole.

Yep! There he is.

His transmitter is removed, he is then weighed and other measurements made (beak length) and a quick check for general health. As a kiwi amateur, he looks perfectly healthy to me! And seriously cute.

However, while retrieving this kiwi from his burrow, Robert thought he detected something else in there. So he set his phone to record video and had a closer look.

Correct again! If you're wondering what Robert and Nadine are smiling about, look closely at the phone. It's a baby! A happy moment for everyone.

Kiwi No. 2.

Signals from our next bird's transmitter led us further up the hill. A large log covered in old fern leaves became the target. Nadine and Robert are pretty sure our bird is under there somewhere, but he's not been spotted yet. Everyone is whispering and being as quiet as possible, we don't want the kiwi to be spooked and bolt. This is an intense time in the search.

Henry guards a possible entrance on the other side of the log (the side closer to me), and uses red torchlight hoping to spot the bird (he does).

Nadine moved to her right (my left) and fell over. I thought she'd tripped on a branch or root. Wrong! She came up holding a kiwi. Her 'fall' was in fact a dive to grab our bird as he was attempting an escape. Well done!

First up, the transmitter-liberation moment.

He gets a clean bill of health.

Both these birds were done by lunch time. Now onto Kiwi No. 3.

We did a fair bit of bush-bashing for our final bird, he wasn't where he was expected to be. It took a couple of hours to hone in on his location. Henry had a radio tracker this time and led us to this mamaku. The team surrounded the mamaku and Robert got the bird.

Again, this kiwi had a clean bill of health.

Back into the mamaku he went. It seems he didn't feel terribly safe though (not as safe as under a log or in a burrow) so he popped out the other side and scampered off into the bushes. We quickly left him alone to find somewhere cosy to finish his day's sleep.

We headed back to base after a 100% successful mission. It took about eight hours. It took three days for the two teams to locate all ten kiwi and remove their transmitters (that was a good outcome, five days had been put aside for the job). That was the last time they'll ever need to be handled by humans, from now on they - and their offspring - will live their lives as free, wild birds in their fenced sanctuary safe from predators. Welcome home, birdies!

Kākāriki karaka - more portraits

I never turn down an opportunity to photograph my favourite birds in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary, so here are a few portraits from last visit on Sunday.

No, he's not holding his nose because he's about to sneeze, he's eating a sunflower seed from his hand... I mean claw.

Nice light for these next few.

Warou - fly-by feeding

After a day in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary on Sunday, I spotted a couple of warou (welcome swallow) fledglings perched on the electrified wire on top of the predator-proof fence. (The fence is the Sanctuary's most important asset, as without it there is no Sanctuary.)

Anyway, I was watching one of the fledglings through the lens, and it suddenly turned to the left with mouth wide open, indicating a parent was likely a few seconds away with a juicy bug in its mouth. That particular feeding visit didn't give me any particularly good shots, so I waited. Warou feeding visits are usually every few minutes. The parent(s) go searching for a bug, usually grabbed while airborne, then they return and feed it directly to one of their hungry offspring.

Here is another feeding visit a few minutes later, this one was my favourite. There was a strong wind blowing from the right so the parent didn't need to land.

Wally the weka

We have had a family bach in Northwest Bay in the Marlborough Sounds since 1976. We're off the grid and boat access only. One of my favourite visitors has always been the 'friendly' weka. I was at the bach during the week and Wally turned up to look for scraps of food. Whatever weka comes to visit our bach always gets the name 'Wally', because, why not? In the same way our local stingray is named "Sammy", and the pukeko living on my lawn are all named "Polly", and my resident owl is called "Olly". Needless to say the current Wally is not likely to be the same Wally who was around a decade ago...

Wally heard another Wally calling from the bushes and answered the call. I didn't see the other Wally.

Kakaruai preening

Last weekend in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary I saw a kakaruai (South Island robin) preening. Here are a few shots.

Scritching time...

Careful with that eyeball!

All preened and dapper and ready for takeoff.

Tītītipounamu - taking flight

I had a few attempts at getting some shots of tītītipounamu (riflemen) in flight in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary over the weekend, with mixed results. They're tiny and fast and similar colours to their environment and it's usually enough to deceive the brain on my camera. Here are a few I've culled from the several thousand shots I took.

First off, here's a male rifleman who has just spotted a looper caterpillar hanging from a thread, then snacks on it. You may need to zoom in on the photos to see the looper. Focus is off, particularly the second, but it's all I got.

Hopping up a branch.

These birds weigh about 6g, about the same as a teaspoon of sugar, so don't seem to need to worry too much about getting up airspeed (through dropping off a branch) or aerodynamics (tucking legs in) like other birds might. A quick leap up and off they go.

This one liked the sunshine.

Again, this one doesn't seem too bothered about pulling up the undercarriage.

It's hard to get two or more birds in focus at 600mm focal length (and aperture wide open). Here they're both in the same focal plane so it worked.

All my action sequences are shot at 20 frames per second. These three frames here are consecutive, so are taken 0.05 seconds apart. So the third frame (airborne on the right) was shot a tenth of a second after the bird was perched on the branch in the first frame. Focus is missed again (the third frame has the distant wing feathers in focus). Next time.....

The one of a bird taking flight from a lancewood leaf is probably the best focused sequence overall. First few shots (before the bird started moving) I had eyeball focus (always the intent), then on the next shot (as soon as the bird moved) the focus was lost completely (so not posted here), then the next shot it picked up eyeball focus again, then the last shot it lost it and managed leg focus. Still, if I was trying to do this manually I would have absolutely zero chance of success. This sequence represents three out of five consecutive shots, so covers one fifth of a second from first to last photo.