The Floyds have dinner

Those who've been following this blog for a while will remember the feel-good story about Floyd from last September. Here's a link to the post if you haven't seen it. Since I wrote that post I'd seen Floyd once more, in October 2025.

I was walking through the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary yesterday picking up some monitoring cards, and as I picked up the last card I heard some soft chatter just uphill. I turned, and a pair of kākāriki karaka were feeding on the buttress roots of a beech. I saw a silver band on the right leg of one (indicating a male), and guessed pretty quickly that the bird was Floyd. I was only about 30m above his old nest site from 2022. He moved a few times and sure enough, it was Floyd. He's now a little over eight years old, and by far the oldest kākāriki karaka in the Brook.

Here is Floyd looking beautiful and healthy.

Floyd and his wife (I'll call her Mrs Floyd) were tearing off bits of the sooty mold (which is indicative of the presence of scale insects) to snack on the insects themselves. [These particular scale insects consume sap from the tree phloem and excrete excess sugar through the filaments commonly seen with a drop of honeydew at the end.]

Here is Mrs Floyd looking as healthy and beautiful as her beau. Two photos followed by close-ups showing the scale insect in her beak. The filament is still attached to the bug. 

Now a photo of Floyd with a scale insect in his beak, and a close-up.

Floyd checking out a nearby tree for more scale insects.

He's found one.

Compare this photo with the previous one, the filament above Floyd's right claw is gone and there is a hole where the scale insect used to be. (That's Mrs Floyd in the background.)

One more photo of Floyd.... until next time.

Mātātā - yet another visit

It stopped raining about midday yesterday and the sun came out, so I headed back to the Wakapuaka sandflats for another photo session with the mātātā (fernbirds). I took far too many photos (about 3500), and whittled it down to about 18. Here are a few of them. Still after that 'perfect' shot, not easy as these birds instinctively stay inside the bushes.

Posing in a rare window through the bush.

Puffed up to keep warm while having a post-preening nap.

Yay, finally got one out in the open. A bit far away though and cropped heavily.

A few backlit by sky.

They spend a fair bit of time just above (or perhaps on?) the ground hidden in the long grass. (Their feeding and nesting habits makes them vulnerable to predators such as rats, mustelids, cats, dogs etc.) You can follow their movement through the grass by watching the grass stalks move. Occasionally they pop up briefly like this one did.

Mātātā (fernbird) - a second visit

I visited the Wakapuaka sandflats again today hoping to see a mātātā (New Zealand fernbird) or two. My aim was to get a calendar-worthy photo of one of these elusive birds for my 2027 calendar. Not quite there yet, but here are three shots from today that passed the cull.

My guess is I'll be paying them another visit or two over the next month or two. All I want is eyeball focus, a side-on view so most of the bird is in the focal plane and the tail feathers are displayed, and no vegetation between me and the bird. Not asking for much.... 😊