Wellington City biodiversity

[Alan Tennyson]

I saw a black fantail in Brooklyn today (the first I've seen in the North Island).

[Jim_j]

Hi Colin

Re your comments re "battle hardening" of Whiteheads - do you know if there is any evidence or studies that suggest this has happened?
It sort of could make sense - say birds that maybe nest lower in trees are eliminated from the gene pool leaving birds that nest higher up to spread their genes.
It would be great to think it was true and that other natives may develop similar traits.
The lack of dispersal of the Zealandia birds however could be due to other predators such as domestic cats?

Cheers jim

[Colin Miskelly]

Kia ora Jim

I am not aware of any studies to support the idea that mainland whiteheads are better able to cope with arboreal mammalian predators than whiteheads sourced from the two island populations (Kāpiti and Hauturu-o-toi). I was the DOC representative on the Karori Sanctuary Trust Board up until 2010, and lobbied hard for the translocations of bellbirds and whiteheads to the sanctuary to be made up of equal numbers of mainland-sources and Kāpiti-sourced birds, so that this very question could be investigated. Unfortunately this proved impractical, as it was too difficult to catch enough birds of these species on the mainland near Wellington.

I doubt that cats are much of a problem for these two species, Cats are inept arborial predators. I have never heard of the fire service being called to rescue a stoat or ship rat stuck in a tree, nor heard of a cat catching a whitehead or bellbird (other than when bellbirds are supplementary-fed, and cats can access the feeder). My argument on this point is empirical - the bellbirds and whiteheads that have spread south through the western Hutt hills in recent years are descended from mainland populations that have somehow survived more than 150 years of ship rat and stoat presence. I would expect both species to thrive in the Wellington town belt (where many reserves are heavily trapped), yet neither of these species have managed to establish populations beyond the Zealandia fence (bellbirds do wander around the cityscape, but are yet to be continuously present and numerous throughout the town belt cf. tūī and kākā).

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Jim_j]

Thanks Colin - agree a reasonable assumption.

I'm in Pukerua Bay and we've had small numbers of Whitehead on and off around the village for a few years now but they don't seem to persist year round - they do seem however to be year round in the patches of bush and especially the taller pines between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay (although this is just my casual observation and it maybe that there is just not enough suitable habitat in the village).
I'm guessing they've spread from the Battle Hill area - planted pines now give almost a continuous tree cover corridor.
I'd put nothing past cats!! - I've seen them hanging out round where birds come down to drink and I imagine they are quite capable of raiding nests
Cheers jim

[Finn Davey]

A photo of a Karoro pair that I've taken recently.
I quite like how it turned out and wanted to share

KaroroGreetings_Finn_Davey wtm.jpg (91.98 KiB) Viewed 1609 times

[ledzep]

One Falcon calling in the air high above the Pylon track near Featherston / SH2, around 1 pm Sunday.

[Colin Miskelly]

Black morph fantail

Kate saw a tail-less black fantail from our property (Mt Cook, Wellington) this evening

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Colin Miskelly]

Falcon on carillon

First I have seen perched there for months. It flew past my office window before perching on top of the eternal flame, where Kate was able to confirm with binoculars from home

It is still there as I type

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Angus Fordham]

Yesterday early evening, about 5.45pm, I was surprised to see a Kaka turn up at the top of a Pohutukawa tree on the grounds of Old St Paul's church. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, as I have heard them overhead at different times of day and night, but never been able to sight them long enough to get a positive ID. When this kaka turned up, there was already a Tui perched at the top of the church spire. I have seen Tui use the spire for a while, I think they use it as a territorial staging post, but, Im not sure. After observing for a few moments, the Kaka flew up to the spire, forcing the Tui to fly away. The Kaka stayed at the top of the spire for no more than a minute before flying away. Neither bird returned while I was watching.

[Colin Miskelly]

There was an impressive dogfight between 3 Australian magpies and a loudly-calling kārearea over our house (Mt Cook, central Wellington) this morning.

Ngā mihi
Colin & Kate