Wellington City biodiversity

[ledzep]

Walking through the Wellington botanic gardens around 8 am each morning, through Lady Norwood rose gardens beside the sports field, the sound of Kaka's is deafening - at least a dozen birds or more. Often a pair of Rosella's around as well.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

My brother sent a video this morning of a kereru flapping around on his roof, with a falcon attached. A bit later a pile of feathers on the lawn was all that was left. Highbury, a stones throw from the Zealandia fence.

[Michael Szabo]

Steve Attwood posted this note on Facebook today:
"On Monday and Tuesday I was at a conference at Te Wharewaka Function Centre on the waterfront at Wellington. As you do, a conversation about birds helped identify a fellow amateur ornithologist. She told me that each evening on dusk a karearea (NZ falcon) flew into the centre space to prey on the sparrows gathering to roost in the tree grove planted beside the centre.
True to her word, on both Monday and Tuesday evening during post conference drinkies, as dusk was gathering, a falcon came in and swooped around the copse of planted trees on the seaward side.
On Tuesday evening as it rode back up into the sky it was attacked by black-backed gulls which objected to its presence.
It was just the one bird but VERY distinct, definitely a falcon. I did not see it perch or take prey but it swooped around the centre each evening for several minutes then flew off in the direction of Mt Victoria."

[Ken George]

I'm staying with friends in Eastbourne for a couple of weeks, the other morning there was a loud bang from the back of the house and I found a dead kereru lying on the back deck outside the big glass doors, with a pair of falcon sitting in a tree in the backyard only 4 or 5 meters away, they' had chased it and it flew into the door window, leaving a very clear kereru smudge graphic on the glass pane. I got a photo of the falcon pair which I'll put up when I get home. Just an unscientific observation, I grew up in Wellington as a kid in the 1950's through to the 1970's, and had a bit of an interest in raptors as a family so looked at every harrier I could see. In all those years I never ever remember seeing falcon, which I would have certainly noticed if they had been around. Now, and not just in Welington, falcon seem to be almost everywhere, and not just occassionally, but almost daily. Great that some of our endemics seem to be doing ok.

[ledzep]

A Spotted Shag feeding close by Queens wharf at lunchtime today near the police launch / Lady Elizabeth lane end.

[Colin Miskelly]

There was a pair of falcons using the top of the carillon (Pukeahu War Memorial Park) as a hunting perch on my walk to work this morning. They are still visible from my office window now, and Kate can see them from home with binoculars (a bit dodgy, but we already have them on our garden list this month).

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Colin Miskelly]

At least one of the falcons has been based on the very top of the carillon all morning - still present now (12:10)

Colin

Postscript - a falcon was perched on the top of the carillon at 14:30, and so they were using this hunting perch off-&-on for more than 7 hours.

[CMKMStephens]

Long-tailed skua or Arctic Skua bobbing off Mana Island (17 October 2020)?

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[ledzep]

Whitehead singing in a pine tree on the Grenada to Horokiwi Road track near the Horokiwi end (GPS -41.191954 174.851635) not that far from Belmont Regional park but showing that the birds are spreading.

[Finn Davey]

Tui are definitely getting into breeding habits.
Saw one having a go at a Black-backed Gull a few days ago, and recently witnessed one peeling the thin bark off a Manuka to use as nesting material.