Wellington City biodiversity

[ledzep]

Distant views this afternoon of a Falcon flying from Zealandia north over Highbury/Aro Valley area towards Tinakori Hill.

[Michael Szabo]

Saw an immature NZ Falcon flying along the escarpment in Houghton Bay on the south coast this morning at 9am and got a photo of it diving at some prey.

Link to photo: https://scontent.fpmr1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=5EDE60B6

[ledzep]

Song Thrush singing happily at Waikanae beach estuary reserve. As noted by Colin, there don't seem to be that many around but it does seem to have been a good year for Fantails.

[Colin Miskelly]

Kia ora

A pair of falcons (or at least one at a time) have been an almost daily presence out the office window since last Friday, and both (particularly the female) have taken to using the top of the carillon as a hunting perch. This is the monolithic tower that stands between the old Dominion Museum building (now part of the Massey University Wellington campus) and Pukeahu War Memorial Park.

A Te Papa colleague reported that the male nearly took his head off (while screaming at him) on his walk to work yesterday. I walk the same route, and twice during the last fortnight I have seen falcons in flight during my daily 'Atlas' walk to work, but have not yet seen anything suggesting nesting behaviour.

Given the proximity of a high school, a creche and a university, and the number of primary school children who walk past on the way to Mt Cook Primary School, it would not be the wisest place for a pair of falcons to attempt to raise a family

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Peter Hodge]

A couple of weeks ago a member of the Predator Free Miramar group posted a FB video of a falcon feeding on a dead feral pigeon - at Palmers Garden Centre, Miramar, of all places. And during lockdown, while I was waiting in line to enter Miramar New World (across the road from Palmers), a falcon flew low overhead.

[Colin Miskelly]

Kia ora

We are very fortunate to have wonderful wildlife sharing the central city with us.

My morning Atlas commute takes me past the old Dominion Museum building in Mt Cook (now Massey University Wellington). On my way past the building this morning the resident male falcon stooped from the parapets, then pulled up short and landed in the top of a pohutukawa (which is visible from my office window, but I was still 200 metres from the office). I paused my Atlas transect for 5 min to admire him, before he moved to a more distant tree.

My first meeting of the day was at DOC Conservation House, Manners St. On my walk back to Te Papa along Victoria St, a raucous gang of seven kaka swooped between the high rise buildings and over the one-way traffic.

Now back to the grind...

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Olwen]

What is your 'Atlas commute', please?

[Colin Miskelly]

It is the one kilometre route from my home to my work place, through the Massey University Wellington and Wellington High School campuses, where I count all the birds seen and heard en route. These data are entered as a 'Traveling' count into the New Zealand Bird Atlas scheme:
https://ebird.org/atlasnz/home
Ngā mihi
Colin

[Colin Miskelly]

We often hear moreporks from our property (Mt Cook, central Wellington), and occasionally try to see them if they sound like they are in the pohutukawa trees over the back fence. The calls indicated two birds tonight, and when we got our headlamps on them we were rather surprised to find them copulating! We suspect they were equally surprised.

Ngā mihi
Colin & Kate

[ledzep]

Took a walk on the Wainui firebreaks yesterday, heading from the car park at the summit of the road from Seaview to Wainui, going north up the ECNZ road. There was a Falcon flying around at the summit. Tomtit calling about 1 km up the ECNZ road and Whitehead right beside the track about 1.7 km along.