Matawai bird sightings

[Brent Stephenson]

Hi all,

Whilst up near Matawai catching robins for a translocation, saw a nice (but cold and wet!) part of the country I hadn't been too before. This small settlement is located inland from Gisborne and seems to catch weather from both the Poverty Bay and Bay of Plenty sides, making it a pretty cool and wet place during the winter.

However, some interesting bird sightings whilst visiting some lovely tawa/beech.mixed podocarp forest in the backs of some farmland properties. Heard kaka on several occasions, as well as two falcon sightings (possibly the same bird in the same area), good numbers of other common forest species including tomtit, whitehead, robin, bellbird, tui, rifleman, pigeon, fantail and grey warbler. Didn't see any weka (but they are not too far away in the Motu), nor any sign of parakeet, but suspect they may be present in low numbers.

Seemed to be a lot of possums in there (with a local trapper getting good numbers for fur) and pigs and deer.

Cheers,