Snow on the Sanctuary - in November!

I found this snap taken by an intrepid team of sanctuary explorers visiting the high reaches of the sanctuary earlier this month after a night smattering of snow - pretty!

November!

Yes, I am still around!
I spent most of October submitting applications for funding for continuation of the education position at the sanctuary. The results of those will be known later in the year.

The Garin students I mentioned have finished their IT projects now and we have planned a wee shindig to present them to the trust (it's tomorrow!). The event also promotes the Conservation Alliance between NMIT, The Brook Waimarama Sanctuary and Garin College which provides authentic conservation learning experiences for secondary students and links them with industry in the Nelson area.

I have had some younger visitors in the last few weeks - some juniors from Brightwater School who came out to talk about New Zealand birds and find out what the sanctuary can do to look after them and help the numbers increase.

It was a great experience to get some younger folk out on the track along the stream and introduce them to the habitat of some of our native birds.


I have also had five classes from Hampden Street School who were looking for inspiration to kick off their study on "Waterways". They all got a special tour of the historic waterworks features along the brook stream, a close up look at life in a healthy waterway and also tried out the newly repaired steps at Top Dam!
I will get a photo for you next time I am up there. The steps look great!

Message Board Testers!

Yes.. I am STILL flatout... but I wanted to pop in and tell you all about some hard work that some Garin College students have been doing for the sanctuary!

Mr Dewhurst's technology class have been working hard for a few months on a range of IT related projects to benefit the sanctuary and in particular other students that visit the sanctuary.

The products range from bird and plant information cards to games and animations to brochures (and brochure holders!) and web based interactive media shows.

One in particular I want to mention right now is one you are invited to start using right now! A message board (or forum for the enlightened!).
You can go and check it out here.

Been "Flat out!"

Hi all!

I have been a busy wee educator of late. It is a hectic time with some vital reports due in and it is LEOTC (Learning Experience Outside The Classroom) application time. of course this has to co-incide with the time I had planned to take a trip to Stewart Island - which in turn has co-incided with the annual Sanctuaries of New Zealand conference. This year held in Wanganui and hosted by Landcare Research and Bushy Park.

There are stories to tell but you will have to wait until after the 8th Oct for them probably!!
At least I left you two photos in the meantime...

Endemic Shellducklings - hatch from a nest way way way up a tree then flop down into the sanctuary at Bushy park and need to be caught by hand and popped over the fence to join their parents for the trek to the creek! Lucky it's not a return trip!!

Stream Time Again!

Friday was stream time again for the Nelson Intermediate Roots of Life/Biodiversity group.
This group do a conservation educational activity every Friday morning.
We gather information and compare aspects of the sanctuary with their environment at school. This term we hope to make an action plan for how we can incorporate more natives into their school environment.

I love stream time!
We get Mel up from Waimaori and she brings all her stream monitoring gear. The students LOVE getting in the stream with and carefully picking up rocks and collecting some things underneath.
After that we sit up on the bank with magnifying glasses and identification charts and look at what we have found and what that indicates for the water quality.

They did really well! We had three koura (fresh water crayfish, a record for this group) and an eel! (a first for this group!)
I try not to keep those bigger things out of the stream for too long so we had a good look then gently popped him back in a low flow area.
We also did the flow test for the first time!

Catch the ball!

Ahh... looks like winter is coming to a close at the Brook...

The New Guys

Ok... well, they are puppets really, but it's like having a bunch of new friends at the sanctuary! Everyone that sees them wants to play and get their own!
I have been searching for things to keep little weeny younguns engaged when they visit the sanctuary - they can't read the walls and are too short and often too young to appreciate the 3d model. Apart from the velcro wall we don't have many things for wee minds and hands yet.
Here is the beginning of the solution!
Perhaps we should name them...

Conservation Week Photo Comp for School aged children in Nelson & Tasman.

(Click image for a bigger version)

“Meet the Locals” – 2008
Conservation Week Photograph Competition for School aged children in Nelson and Tasman.

Tasman District and Nelson City Councils’ are offering 9 prizes of $50 book vouchers and also runner up prizes of “Way to Go” packs.

School aged students are to send us their best photo of a –
“Meet a Local” – a native plant, animal or historic place.

There are 3 sections Years 1 – 5, Years 6 – 9 and Years 10 – 13.
(Consideration will be given for age within each group).
One photo per student in each category.
We ask for a signature to indicate the child/youth took the photo themselves. This signature could be supplied by an adult for young children.

A special section of “the Baddies Special” has another 3 prizes of $50 each book vouchers – we would like to see photos of active pest destruction or weed eradication to help protect the native ones!

Closing Date is September 12th 2008. Photos with this post date will be accepted.

Either email the photo to rob.francis@tdc.govt.nz) (2MB max size) or post to Rob Francis at TDC Private Bag 4 Richmond 7050 (A4 max size) or drop it in to any Local Council office in Nelson or Tasman. (Please clearly address it to Rob Francis).

The judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. Judges will be from both NCC and TDC. Images may be used by Council for further publicity. Photos will not be returned to the photographer so please only send copies.

For more information please contact Rob Francis TDC 03 543 8484 (rob.francis@tdc.govt.nz) or Karen Lee NCC 03 546 0339 (karen.lee@ncc.govt.nz) .

Thanks to Claire Webster for sending this out to us!
If you are doing the "baddies special" - please consider humane instant kill traps - we don't like the idea of seeing things suffering!

Eco-fest!

Each year, the Nelson City and Tasman District Councils hold a weekend Expo in August at the Trafalgar Centre in Nelson, promoting sustainability messages, products and services. Since we started in 2001, Ecofest has become established as one of the biggest showcases for environmentally friendly products, services and messages in New Zealand.

You can find out more about ecofest at their website -----> click this
Of course the Brook Sanctuary had to be there! So on Friday we packed up a bunch of stuff from the entrance building and set up a mini entrance building at Founder's Park (the location of this year's Eco-fest).

The first shift of day 1. Trust chair Dave Butler and trust member Chris Hemi on the left and Rick (project coordinator) and I (orange hat wearing educator) on the right.

On Saturday morning the weather might not have been SO flash, with some very low snow on the Tasman ranges, but ecofest was HOT!


We had a lot of people come over to talk to us about the sanctuary concept - many of our trust members were rostered on to engage with the public over the weekend.
We even had a membership sign up special for EcoFest.... The Brook Barrell!


It was certainly a wonderful opportunity to bring the Brook concept even closer to the public awareness and we enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone!
We even managed to have a quick look around at what everyone else was presenting over the two days.
Well done everyone!

And thanks to all those volunteers that supported with the event and pack up!
Especially Wiff - who certainly is very active in his support!! (see below!!)

NIS, a dead goat and a kereru in a kowhai tree!!

No, it's not xmas, just the beginning of August here at the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary!

Big week this week!
Wind storm, new Friday morning class with Nelson Intermediate, kereru in the kowhai tree and a dead goat!

This morning saw the first in situ session of the new Roots of Life class from NIS. It was great to have a new, bigger group at the sanctuary and I got to see NIS's new mini van from Japan! That should make trips to the sanctuary much less hassle.
We had a general welcome talk about the entrance building and the fence. We took a very small and careful walk up to the first weir and some of the students near the front of the track helped tidy a section fo the track which is covered in so much leaf and branch debris!


As they were leaving late in the morning I noticed three kereru sitting in the kowhai tree! I haven't seen them at the sanctuary since April so I was pretty excited. I have never seen them sitting so close to the entrance building either - it was wonderful!



Later in the day a report came down of a dead goat on the track. Too late to move it. It will have to wait until next week as will the track clearing!

Wind Storm Damage to Valley Floor track

There was a HUGE and quite freakish wind storm over the top of the south (and other spots around the country too) mid week. Power, phone and tv cuts - lots of tree fall all over the region and a three to four day water shortage are the some of the results!
These photos are of the public track at BWS, the valley floor track, which is blocked to safe passage up to the top dam until we can get some certified chainsaw volunteers and Nelmac workers to come and have a look!







This is the view for the opposite side of the valley - you can see why the track is out of action!





The top dam stairs took a hammering from boulder fall. Lots of damage up here!



Yah! A rat in a trap... something we DID want to see!

Enviroschools Regional Event

On July 29th Nelson/Tasma Enviroschools held their regional event.
This involved a small groups of children from a number of local schools and a bus!


Here we all are, lined up for the welcome speech at Nayland Primary.

First stop was Nayland Primary where their envirogroups got to showcase
* paper making
* flax weaving
* stream monitoring
* Pa Harakeke (flax garden)


Here is the paper making team showing us how to create paper!


Kate Cobb (Enviroschools Facilitator for Tasman & Nelson) making some paper!!

After we left Nayland Primay we headed up here to the sanctuary for lunch and a look at the stream with Mel McColgan from Waimaori.


After lunch, some great fruit kebabs and a sanctuary talk - we bused over to Hira School where we were warmly welcomed with some beautiful singing and some freshly baked cookies!!! Thanks so much, Hira School!!


COOKIES!!!

At Hira School we toured ourselves round on a savenger hunt mission based on their marvellous racetrack that circles their perimeter. We got to see their stream monitoring team, their native nursery, herb garden and functional pizza oven!


Matt Lawrey turned up to report to take some pictures and report for The Leader.

Big thanks to the Enviroschools team for the well organised and fun trip!!!
Can't wait for next year!

Peanut Butter Amnesty!

Resource Photos

Got another set of resources photos printed and laminated them myself. They are smaller than the last set. Also added a few more to the big set.
Am trying to work out a way to organise them now - numbering? I don't want to limit the set by numbering because I want to add to it.

Am working on a set of questions to go with each photo and with certain combinations. Activities to do with them and also a write up of information for each one.

We end up using these photos a lot for different groups - all ages!

High Water @ the Brook today!

Kakapo chicks safely home and doing well

The six kakapo chicks, which thousands of people took the opportunity to meet, are settling in well following their recent return home to Codfish Island / Whenua Hou.

More than 8000 people saw the newest additions to the small but increasing kakapo population at the Invercargill and Nelson public viewings held last month.

All of the chicks were removed from Whenua Hou / Codfish Island, off Stewart Island, at a few weeks old to be hand raised as there was not enough natural food for their mothers to raise them.


Getting the chicks home safely was a major relief for the National Kakapo Recovery Team. The team had worked tirelessly over the previous three months, with many sleepless nights after three of the chicks became ill. Fortunately they recovered and are doing well.

While there are still risks, as is the case for any young animal when it goes out on its own, being on predator free Codfish Island and still under the watchful eye of a team of dedicated DOC staff, means that they are as safe as they can be.

There were no problems with the trip from Invercargill to Codfish said Deidre Vercoe, Technical Support Officer on the Kakapo Team, who escorted the chicks home.

The chicks will spend the next month in a large outdoor pen being fed increasing amounts of natural food before being slowly introduced to the wild where they will have to care for themselves.

This breeding season has shown that birds as young as six years old can breed successfully so it is hoped that these chicks may themselves be parents around 2014.

Signs are looking very favourable for another, even better, breeding season next year with potentially up to 40 chicks being produced.

"There are still a lot of things that could happen between now and then, but it is really exciting," Ms Vercoe said.
"We could have nearly a 50 per cent increase in the world population of kakapo in one year which would be a huge step in the recovery of the species."

The Kakapo Recovery Programme is a partnership between the Department of Conservation, Rio Tinto Alcan NZ Ltd and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.

For more on teh kakapo recovery project click here

NIS Roots of Life class

Today was the last day for the Term Two Roots of Life class from Nelson Intermediate.
We have had a great time this term exploring concepts of biodiversity both in the sanctuary and at NI school.

Thanks to Mel McColgan from Waimaori for helping us with some stream monitoring and also Lawson from Fish & Game for coming up to the Brook and showing us some electric fishing.
Also a big thanks to Jan Jones from Nelson Intermediate!!

I am looking forward to meeting with the Term Three group to further build on the concepts we have covered and look at ways we can bring some native biodiversity back into the NIS grounds!

Kakapo Weekend!!

It's finally here!! The chicks are fit and healthy and the Brook Sanctuary, in partnership with Department of Conservation are putting them on display for the public for free this weekend!



The chicks will be housed in a big glass enclosure in the sanctuary entrance building this weekend (this is in New Zealand so I don't expect to see any of you there - although, having said that, this event is SUCH a once in a life time experience, I would have flown from anywhere in the world for it!)
We are unsure how many people will turn up. Last time this happened (in 2005) was the first time. The event was not publicised, it was one day and it was peeing down with rain. LOTS of people turned up. A few thousand. They had to queue, in the rain, for up to four hours! We have done some promotion through the media and I have been out to some schools. We expect a few thousand but we have planned for 10 000!
Seeing these birds in person is a big deal.
The kakapo is the world's heaviest parrot.
It is the only flightless parrot.
It is the only nocturnal parrot.
They are only found in NZ and these days only on two small offshore islands way way down in the southern parts of NZ.
They are the slowest breeding parrots (only once every two-four years) and the only parrots to use a lek and bowl mating system.
In 1995 only 51 of these birds existed.
This year there are 91 thanks to the hand rearing, here in Nelson, of the six surviving chicks hatched over easter (one died soon after arriving in Nelson from respiratory illness).

They are amazing birds. Parrots are very intelligent - this is shown in the kakapo through their playful nature and curiousity. They each have an easily recognizable personality.
They are my favourite bird. It has been a life goal to even see one and I have been SO lucky over hte past few months to have seen them three times up close, collect food for them and be part of the planning and running of this amazing event to share them with the public.
On the one hand I hope lots of people turn up for this opportunity because even the four full time staff on Whenua Hou only see the birds a few times a year!
On the other hand I hope not many turn up so I can go and look at them lots instead of being stuck outside looking after all our guests!!

In any case.. it is HUGELY exciting for Shine!!

Walk About!

I spent the day doing an excellent 6 hour hike today around the proposed fence line for the sanctuary!

I was with two DOC guys (Department of Conservation). A plant guy and a bug guy. It was GREAT!

I saw two things I have been really wanting to see - a rare NZ wren called titipounamu (rifleman) and one of those category defying little creatures that doesn't really fit into one box or another in the classification sense - a velvet worm!
Titipounamu is a small insect eating bird that does not have a song as such but kinda squeaks. It looks like a wren but not related to true wrens. It is endemic to NZ which means it does not occur elsewhere. There are only two kinds of 'wrens' left in NZ and both are in danger of becoming extinct. We heard about 15 of them during our walk and I saw 7.

The velvet worm (Peripatus) has a phylum all it's own! They live in damp places near the soil. The ones we saw today were easily spotted under rotten wood. They are nocturnal. They look velvety! The one we photgraphed stretched out very long! They have stubby little legs with pads on the end. They were thought to be a 'missing link' species between annelids (worms) and arthropods (insects, spiders, crustacea). In any case - they have ancient origins and are really cool! <---- that is my technical term lol!


We went up high - which you probably can't tell from the above photo. The one below show how high - mountain beech dominates the forest and you might be able to tell the growth is somewhat stunted due to altitude.


oh! This guy seems to be very friendly too...


They love it when you walk by because you disturb the ground and make it easier for them to get grubs and bugs and such. This one in particular came and landed within arms reach so I scraped a bit of the ground in front of me and moved back and bit and he hopped straight over and found something!
They have long legs and like to hop about rather than fly.

The area that was are going to fence has a population of these birds that have managed to hold on and are now being supported by the intensive trapping programme we are running with the help of our wonderful volunteers! it really is incredible that these wee robins and tiny wrens have managed to survive! Things will be much much easier for them once we get the fence up!

Andrew Crowe day, E4E and a Trust meeting

and a partridge in a pear tree (well no not really! more like a kakapo in a rimu tree!)

Yes.. another fantastic day IN THE WORKPLACE!

Today we had one of my favourite authors at the sanctuary for the day working with classes of students from our region.
Andrew Crowe is an author who has a similar attitude to learning that I do. Learning is living. Like me he is interested in everything and often has many interests on the go at once. He will hear about something and become interested and want to find out more, he will then do a range of research and find out more and more then he will think.. "Hmmm, what book would have been really useful to me when I was doing my research.. hmm" .. then he will write that very book! Most of his books are identification guides for NZ native plants, insects, birds - he also has one for spiders and seashells (as well as a book about the Dalai Lama and edible NZ plants that resulted from when he was lost in the bush and then after he was not lost anymore he wanted to find out how he could survive if that every happened again and there resulted his first book!) This is the way I originally found out about Andrew. Through my new job I used one of his books to teach myself about some of our native plants and it was SUCH a good book and so easy to use and practical and amazing I wanted to find out about the author. So I researched!

He was very supportive of our project and donated LOTS of copies of his different books. My job is fantasic! When Andrew was finished I got to talk to three groups of students and parents today about the sanctuary and I could tell I excited them and engaged them.
About 100 people all together in just one day! (my throat is a tad on the raw side).

My next challenge is to work on the talks I give and the programmes I deliver to foster a sense of stewardship for our environment through continued connection with the sanctuary project and other projects in their more immediate community/street/school.

After this I went to a meeting of for "Education for Enterprise" which is an organisation which links schools with industry through contextual programmes that have real meaning in the real world. I came away from this with a positive feeling - the schools were delighted to have a resource (the sanctuary) that has so much potential for environmentally linked programmes of real value. It is great for us because being a community funded programme, all of our workforce, supplies, funds etc all come from donations of time and money. Having students turn some of our wants and needs into projects is wonderful!
One of the projects I have on the go right now is a bird feeder. A metal or wooden platform where a number of birds can gather to feed and people passing through the sanctuary can sit and watch them in their natural environment (supplemental feeding helps to keep the birds in good condition while the forest is regenerating and also due to pests such as wasps which cannot be kept out with the fence and heavily deplete the nectar sources).
I have another young man from Garin College who has taken on one of my dream projects... a hydro powered webcam to position at a nest box or a bird feeder.
One of our goals at the sanctuary is to be as sustainable in our energy use as we can be, both for our carbon footprint and as a model to our community.

After this meeting I had to go to our trust meeting. The sanctuary is run by a trust. It has twelve members from diverse business/interest background. These people make decisions on the direction and processes of the sanctuary. I report to them every month. The reporting process has been interesting. My more creative nature as expressed through my board reports, was not entirely understood by all trust members so it has been modified somewhat, LOL.
I have to be careful not to loose the charms that gained me the job in the first place though!

The meeting was splendid (even though the tiredness was starting to show with the bleary eyes and the relaxed and casual demeanor!) People are impressed by the amount of work I have been doing as reflected by my reports. Also we began planning a SECRET special winter event which involves something so amazingly special and wondifious that I grin with glee! Even doing the most ridiculously wretched and tedious of jobs would be BLISS for me to be involved with this event. I can't tell you about it now... but stay TUNED!

Clem Goes Back....

Once there was a brother and sister who went tramping over New Years...


Ok, that's the long version of the story... basically what happened was, we went on a big hike for a week and then some more! Over the Abel Tasman (which is a coastal track at the top of the South Island of New Zealand). I was surprised by the number of dead of dying weta I saw on and near the tracks. It almost seemed that they were hauling themselves out there to commit suicide... but of course there would be a more natural reason!
No matter how many times you check your stuf there will always be something somewhere it's not meant to be.
When we got back to Nelson (my sister's), we went away again but not tramping this time so we left the packs and sleeping bags and tents at her place.
Turns out a big male weta had come home with us. My sister found him wandering about on the floor near our packs. This was a worrying thought for me. My sister let him go in the garden and I did worry for quite some time that he might not be able to survive. I didn't know much about weta at that stage and I didn't even know if we h ad them in Nelson.
I started my job here at the sanctuary and learnt that he was a tree weta. I tried to recapture him to bring him to the sanctuary so he would have a better chance of survival as I found out we have them here! But I had no joy.

About a month later my sister phoned me all in a tizzy! She had woken up early one mornign and gone to her kitchen to have a cup of tea and who should climb up out of the rubbish disposal unit in the sinck.... A HUGE TREE WETA!
"COME AND GET HIM!!!" It was an animal rescue!
I was very excited!!! I finally get a chance to do the right thing by this wee guy!
I told my best friend, Todd, about ti and he said "We must name him Clem!"

So I eventually tracked Clem down and released him next to the entrance building up high on the trunk of a kanuka tree, under the bark, where I had previously seen a beautiful female weta.

Here are our final views of each other!

His view!


My view of him

He has his back leg up to kick me! For weta this is a defensive pose - "Get back, I'm dangerous!! Don't mess with me! I'm getting cross!!"


Bye bye Clem!

I often think about Clem - what a strife we were in each other's lives for a time!
I don't think many weta get such adventure!