More nests

The kākāriki karaka began nesting en-masse for the season in September. Then second nests in November. Then perhaps a third nest in January/February. Then perhaps birds who fledged in November may be ready for their first nest sometime in autumn (they may breed within 3-4 months of fledging).

We (OFP volunteers) worked out that the easiest way to find a nest is to watch a previously-used nest hole. There is a good chance the pair who used it last season will use it again this season. Pairs commonly have about three nest holes in circulation. They may start with nest 1, move onto 2, then onto 3, then go back to 1 for their fourth nest.

If a pair don't reuse a nest hole there is a decent chance some other pair will. They may have confidence it's a suitable site (they'll see signs of previous use) and make themselves at home.

Anyway, here's a favourite photo of mine from a nest watch. This is an unbanded pair using a previously used nest hole. The male had called the female off for a feed, here they are overhead courtship feeding. This photo was taken a long way overhead, at midday on a bright sunny day. The birds are in deep shade, and the blue reflects chromatic aberration in a cheap lens. I still like it. 😊

A nest was discovered today. A keen volunteer, James Davies, had finished the ranger course at the Nelson Polytechnic. He was keen on kākāriki karaka, and spent some time with us (Brook kākāriki volunteers). Today we were trying to find new nests (or second nests). James instinctively followed a bird 200m away from where he was watching, and waited. I caught up with him while he was having lunch, and almost immediately heard the sound of nestlings downhill. James went on to another nest watch and I moved downhill to where I'd heard the sound and waited. An hour later I heard the nestlings again, this time uphill! I moved back up, next time (an hour later) I heard them they were off to the side, and I quickly sighted a male feeding nestlings at the nest entrance. I went straight for video, and got a 30 second hand-held clip. It rained for the next few days, three days later I went back up with my tripod intending to film them properly but the nest was empty (the fledglings were in the canopy). If James had not followed his instincts we'd not have found this nest.  A team effort. James was subsequently employed by the Department of Conservation on the Kākāriki Karaka Recovery Programme.

The end of the translocations

March marked the final translocation (for now) of kākāriki karaka to the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary. All up, 125 birds have made the transition from captive breeding facilities to their introduced-predator-free original beech-forest habitat.

The reaction of the birds to their sudden freedom varied somewhat from release to release (and amongst individuals). Roughly, it went as follows:-

• Release 1 - They spread far and wide initially. I put this down to the fact that there were no other parakeets in the sanctuary on release, they perhaps went looking for members of their own species. When they found none some returned to the aviaries (and feeders), some paired off where they settled (e.g., the Upper Valley) and got on with nesting.

From Release 2 onwards, translocated birds had the advantage over the Release 1 birds of knowing prior to their release that they were in a parakeet-friendly location. They had spent their two days in the aviaries seeing and hearing the wild, resident parakeets outside chatting and using feeders. 

• Release 2 - They paired off quickly and got on with nesting.
• Release 3 & 4 - They were reasonably well grounded to the vicinity of the aviaries, but were a bit slow to pair off and nest.
• Release 5 - This group of birds were the most grounded of all. They were quite happy to stay in the vicinity of the aviaries/feeders.

The summer of 2022/2023 involved a partial beech mast, almost all of the regular feeder users from previous releases departed the feeders for a few months and ate plentiful natural food in the beech canopy.

• Release 6 & 7 -  These birds had little interest in feeders. Likely they went straight into the canopy and fed on plentiful natural food alongside the established population.

From whence cometh S-RO?

I was watching a potential nest hole, and a female arrived to enter the cavity. I had a clear view of her leg bands. Her ID was S-RO. I was immediately aware that this combination was unfamiliar to me, so I looked up the database to see what her story was. She did not exist! No such bird had been translocated to the Brook.

There were two possible explanations for this:-

• A banding error. When banded, her leg band combination had been incorrectly recorded. I looked through the database at undetected birds (parakeets released into the Brook who had not been seen since release), there are nine undetected females, but no combination is anything like Red over Orange. E.g., S-BG is undetected, perhaps someone erroneously recorded Blue over Green as Red over Orange. It seems unlikely, yet here she is..... or,

• A bird with this combination (S-RO) was last seen in the Hurunui Valley (inland Canterbury) three years earlier. Could she have flown 200 km north looking for more of her species, and stopped three years later when she found some in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary?

The only possibility for solving this conundrum would be to find her again with better camera gear, and get close enough to record the numbers on her silver band on her left leg. It seems unlikely this will ever happen, so it's destined to remain a mystery.

Winter nests

Although the spring - summer - autumn season is the time for most of their nesting, kākāriki karaka can also breed over winter if food is in plentiful supply. We had evidence for seven nests beginning (laying) in April, May, July and August of 2022. None of the nests were found, but adult birds were subsequently spotted feeding fledglings, clear proof of successful nests!

The feeder-camera data

During about two weeks in August (while housebound with my broken ankle) I processed about 130,000 trail-cam images. This involved flicking through the images as fast as possible identifying kākāriki karaka from their leg bands. This information was then used to update the DOC database. I went at my own pace (a rather rapid one) and concentrated on the key data: birds fully identifiable from their leg bands. The database is now up-to-date with information on feeder habits (how often they visit feeders, which feeders, which other birds an individual likes to hang around with etc). And also which birds are considered 'missing'. I ignored what I considered lower-value data (partially identified birds, i.e., where only one colour band was seen) and did not sort images into folders based on content (a folder for images with parakeets, another for images of other species etc). My aim was productivity maximisation: to extract the core data from the images as fast as humanly possible.

While the job was mundane at times, it was also nice to unexpectedly encounter a bird previously considered 'missing', and update the bird's status on the database to 'alive'. There were also some funny or cute photos at times. A few examples below. (Note that some of these photos post-date the post date; I continued processing the feeder-camera images once the backlog had cleared and have posted a few of these photos here for convenience.)

Courtship feeding.

When birds appear on a feeder like this you know they are a pair.

Ice-skating on a frozen water bath.

Looking cute.

A pair of fledglings (left, note the absence of frontal bands) and a pair of juveniles.

Other birds also use the water bath. This includes native ruru, kārearea, kererū, riroriro, kakaruai and warou.

Kārearea (NZ falcon)

A pair of ruru (morepork)

Kererū (NZ pigeon)

Broken ankle - feeder camera data

A bit of bad news for me today, but good news in another way. I broke my ankle heading down from Kākāriki Hatch to the aviary. It occurred only about 30 seconds after entering the hatch. I started slipping (a layer of dead leaves over super-slippery clay on a short but steep bank), and with hindsight, was trying to protect my camera on my hip. This meant I landed facing sideways instead of facing out. I heard and felt two clicks, and immediately felt a sore ankle. It didn't seem too bad though and thought that a bit of use would help out, and I'd be OK to continue on the day's tasks. We (myself and Peter Hayes) continued down to the aviary. I took my boot off for a look, and immediately knew I was in trouble. My ankle was swollen big time, about 15 minutes after the accident. Peter fortunately had a constrictive bandage which we used to wrap my ankle. Peter is also a vet, so had more knowledge of such things than I did. I had never had a broken limb, or even a sprain before now.

I knew I had to get up the hill and back to the vehicle while I could still walk so promptly but carefully headed back up. End result, Weber B fibula fracture and I was in plaster by the end of the day and facing six weeks on crutches.

So, where is the good news here? Since the first translocation, we (Brook kākāriki karaka volunteers) had been spending a fair bit of time at the aviary observing which birds were coming and going. We'd attempt to ID every bird, then add the observations to the DOC (Department of Conservation) OFP (orange-fronted parakeet) application (their database with mobile data query/entry capability). However, much more data was being collected through the five trailcams (four on feeders and one on the water bath). DOC staff usually process this data, but at this point were about six months behind. We (Brook volunteers) wanted the data, we wanted a better handle on which birds were present, which birds were likely pairs, and we'd also be able to spend less time observing birds at the feeders and perhaps more time finding nests in the knowledge the trailcam data was being speedily processed. The absence of up-to-date trailcam data had resulted in us making the decision to set up a roaming trailcam of our own on various feeders, I processed the images and noted the IDs of birds.

Long story short, I made an offer to DOC that I use my six weeks immobile to process the backlog of trailcam data; it would mean we'd all have the data and I'd avoid dying of boredom/frustration. It would also mean I'd be still very much entrenched in the lives of my little green friends, although via a PC screen. DOC agreed and arranged to send me the data.

Bath time

A water bath was installed (with a trail-camera) when the feeders were installed. This provides a source of water for drinking and bathing. And a source of entertainment for visiting humans.