May 2008 Korimako, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter

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KORIMAKO

Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society – Lower Hutt Branch

Newsletter – MAY 2008

Chairman’s Chat - 2008 is the 30th year of ourBranch's existence. Up to 1977 we were theLower Hutt Section of the Wellington Branch.Our first Chair was Daphne McRae, principal ofSt Oran's College and our monthly meetings

were in the College Hall. That year's programmeincluded trips to Cape Kidnappers, Kapiti Island,Rimutaka Forest Park, Otari, South Makara, MtKaukau, Pencarrow Lakes, Turakirae and theBelmont Trig. Trip leaders in 1978 still with us,are Joy Ainslie, Colin Pell, George Brown, Ronand Angela Freeston and Phil Rider. In the yearsthat have followed the Branch has been activewith conservation projects – Hutt River estuary,Jubilee Park, Matiu/Somes Island, PauatahanuiWildlife Reserve and now with restorationplanting at the Pencarrow lakes.

In 2008 we must face new challenges in theyears ahead. Besides acting locally we mustconsider national and global areas of concern.The reality of population pressure on our nativewildlife, native plants, water, seas and landscapemakes protection ever harder.

Gaining new members for Forest & Bird isanother thing we must do. The Society's workneeds the financial contributions of

memberships and legacies to fund field officers,communications, advocacy and administration.Let's all “get in behind”. Stan Butcher

Branch Annual General Meeting – This will beat the 3 July meeting. The first business will beto move the following motion:THAT clause 9(b) of the Branch By-laws beamended to read “The financial year shall befrom the first day of March to the last day ofFebruary.”

This change is necessary because all branchesare to have their financial reports consolidatedwith the Society's so that it can qualify as acharitable organisation for tax purposes.

We will then elect the Managing Committee.Please give thought to standing for election.There is a limit of fifteen members. We seek anew Chairperson. Stan Butcher is standing downafter ten years as Chair and 27 years on theCommittee.

PLANT SALE – SUNDAY 10 AUGUST STARTING AT 9.00am

New venue – Waterloo School Hall,Hardy Street

We will be setting up on Saturday, 9 Augustduring the afternoon.

Lots of plants and lots of help needed, please.

The Branch has a selection of pots at themonthly meetings. Please help yourselves.

For further information ring:Barbara De Ste Croix 566 1055

Plant Sale – Pam Mayston who has done suchwonderful work in organising the sale in recentyears is passing the torch to Barbara De SteCroix who will gather her helpers to make thisyear's sale as good as ever. We do thank Pamfor all her work and know that she will remaininvolved as a helper.



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Matiu/Somes Island – Since the last report fourwork parties averaging 17 volunteers have beento the island. Plans for February work wascancelled due to the island being closed frommidday because of fire risk.

The prolonged dry spell is certain to have setback growth and affected recent plantings. Thesprinkler system has ensured that plants in thenursery are advancing well. Unfortunately,weeds are also thriving in the warm, dampconditions hence weeding and nurserymaintenance has been our main pursuit inrecent months. The planting season may start afew weeks later than usual unless we have verysignificant rainfall in the next month or so.

We are likely to plant less than last year, but thescattered locations and access to small sites willrequire considerable labour over the season. Inthe meantime nursery work and site preparationwill continue on Mondays 14 April and 12 May and hopefully from June planting can beundertaken fortnightly on both Mondays andSundays. Smaller planting groups than in pastyears, but we would like a dozen or sovolunteers each Sunday.

Please note these dates and 'phone Alex

(569 6208) prior to the weekend.

Planting – Mondays9 June23 June14 July28 July and11 August

Planting - Sundays 15 June

29 June20 July and3 August Alex Kettles 569 6208

Pauatahanui Wildlife Reserve – Fifteen ShorePlovers stayed around the reserve for a coupleof weeks, probably from Mana Island, where anumber were relocated a short time ago. PiedStilts have nested again and raised a number ofyoung ones. The Pied Stilts are a permanentfeature of the South Basin and have been theresince we started work on the reserve in 1984(probably not the same ones!!).

Wasps have been a menance this year and wehave destroyed two nests, one in a hide and theother close by the track at the twin ponds. Thenest found in the hide is shaped like a soccerball and can be seen in the cottage (minus thewasps). We still have more nests to locate and

we shall deal with them, when we find them!

We have extended the track on the south side ofPauatahanui Stream and this now makes a nicewalk along the bank, with a couple of seats to sitand ponder. Watch the occasional high tide, oryou will get wet!

Rimutaka Forest Park Trust – Good news forthe KIWI project. The firstborn Kiwi chick hasnow grown enough to be returned to the Park.The egg was candled in its burrow site in theforest and transferred to Mt Bruce for incubation.It hatched last year.

It was returned on the 12 Apriil with a blessing inthe Wainuiomata Marae then up to a preparedburrow well into the bush, probably above theTurere catchment basin.(As you may have seen in the Hutt News of 15 April the chick was relocated and has been named Maatamuaa meaning the first face or eldest child).

There have been two other chicks hatched at MtBruce. One has survived and will probably betransferred to the creche at Bushy Park to begrown to a weight of about 1200 grams, when itwill have a better chance of defending itself inthe bush.

The Kiwi Project has been very thankful toSusan Ellis and all the stoat trapping volunteerswho have worked so well over the years.

Bill Milne

Friends of the Belmont Regional Park – Workhas been done on most tracks and they are ingood nick.

Good to see Greater Wellington RegionalCouncil is hoping to make the Waitangirua Farmarea of the Park come under RecreationReserve status. Great news for all outdoor folk.

Bill Milne



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Hayward Scenic Reserve - A small butinteresting and important area, the WaiwhetuHayward Scenic Reserve is easily accessiblefrom Lower Hutt. Information is available on ourwebsite www.waiwhetu.org including a map anddescription of the entrances and tracks.

The Friends of the Reserve report that it hasbeen a quiet few months. The long dry summerhas taken its toll on the bush with some of thenew growth struggling to survive. Unfortunately,this includes some of the planting done by thegroup during the last planting season, however,some do struggle on and with the wetter weatherapproaching it will hopefully ease the situation.The dry has also meant that the stormwaterculverts have dried up and the small population

of native fish has been lost.

On a more positive note we can report that thepossum numbers have stayed low and the areamaintains its bird population. There will be astart to the pest plant spraying programme soonand a couple of working bees have beenorganised. An area of Prickly Moses has beencleared by Council.

Of interest is Lower Hutt Forest and Bird'sNatural Lower Hutt concept put together by

Russell Bell. This shows how this area can fit inon the edge of a bigger zone needed tocomplete this project.

For more information on the Friends Groupplease check out the website or contact me – Alison Sinclair [email protected] or 'phone569 4252.

Membership - Welcome to all new members – Denis Sharpe, Onieka Tristram, Tony Plowman,Stuart Orchard, Hugh Meek, Colleen Way, DavidHolt, Monica Gruber, John and Olive Hebron,James Berkett, Johanna Moeller, Tucker family,Bernie Muollo, Hannah Smellie, Rubee Yee,Eleanor Howick, Lisa Harkin, Elizabeth Jones,Sarah and Richard Sykes, Daryl Stephens, JaneMcMillan, Eliot Coates, Barry and YucongPhease and Beryl Tuppen.

With staff changes at Head Office there havebeen some delays in sending through the namesof new members, so if you have joined recently

and not yet been welcomed to the branch – welcome.

Once again it is great to see a range ofmembership sources including people whoreceived their membership as a Christmas gift.

Maintaining and building membership numbersis an ongoing concern with our branch currentlybeing slightly down on last year. Please feel freeto contact us with any suggestions that you feelwould encourage people to join our branch ofForest and Bird. It is only through membershipand support that we can keep up the work weare doing on both a national and local level.

At our plant sale on 10 August, we will have a

display showing the projects our branch isinvolved in and what has been achieved. Animpressive look back over years of hard work.

You can see by the programme enclosed thatthere are a lot of interesting topics and eventsplanned and I encourage you to join in.

Alison Sinclair

Bushy Park Centennial Book – Copies ofgWeaving a Dream – the Bushy Park Storyh are

now discounted to $30. It's a fine book full ofphotographs telling the story of the grand houseand forest left to Forest and Bird by Frank Moorein 1962. The present house dates fromSeptember 1906. An inspection copy of the bookcan be seen at Branch meetings. If you want toorder a copy – ring Stan Butcher on 567 7271.

Field Trip Survey – With the last newsletter wesent a questionnaire asking for interest in fieldtrips. Thanks to those who replied. The number

was small but most helpful in planning ourprogrammes. As a result there are two field tripsin the Winter Programme – one to theWainuiomata Water Catchment and the other toMatiu/Somes Island. The purpose of a field tripis for study or exploration.

Our Speakers Programme – We are indebtedto Dr Cliff Mason for the continued excellence ofthe speakers he has arranged for our monthlyBranch meetings. We hope that the generalpublic will be attracted to the meetings which are



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advertised in the Hutt News “What's On' sectionDo invite your friends to come.

For our December meeting Cliff has arranged forDr Hamish Campbell of GNS Science to speakto us. The topic is Was New Zealand Drowned?

– Geological and Biological History of Aotearoa.Hamish is a wonderful presenter and this shouldbe an especially interesting occasion to end theyear.

Council Fee Simple Land – The Hutt CityCouncil has begun a review of all the land heldas Fee Simple beginning with the Western WardLand Review. The report presented to theStrategy and Policy Committee on 22 April hasgood news for those keen to preserve areas ofbush or of landscape value. Therecommendations has 78 parcels of land to bedeclared Reserve and classified. YourCommittee has developed good contact withCouncil officers allowing us to give input in theearly stages of planning.

Advertising of Plant Sale – We are at presentplanning advertising/publicity and anythoughts/advice would be appreciated.

In the past Hutt News has been very good to us

– the What's On section is free, also WeekendGardener and NZ Gardener have a free columnfor events. The Weekend Dominion Gardenpage in the “Indulgence” section is another.

Posters could be put in all the Hutt City libraries,community houses, local shops, the Plunketrooms, doctors' surgeries etc and WaterlooSchool itself – they probably have a newsletterto send home with the children. Somesupermarkets have a notice board.

We are planning to send a poster to all thegarden club meetings.

Please contact Barbara De Ste Croix (566 1055)or Margaret Bendig phone (566 3699) or see usat the branch meetings.

LOAD OF RUBBISH – Growing numbers of lazyKiwis are dumping cigarette butts and foodwrappers on beaches, tarnishing the country'sclean, green image.

The report by an international agency OceanConservancy said the main item dumped on NZbeaches was cigarette butts, followed by bottlecaps and lids, food wrappers, containers andbeverage bottles.

The average amount of litter collected from amile (1.6 km) of beachfront and water during thecleanup day last September was:

Australia 1.8kgThailand 7kgNew Zealand 21kgChina 31kgCanada 34kgMexico 71kgUnited States 177kg

United Kingdom 245kg.

Volunteers worldwide scoured about 53,000kmof shoreline in 76 countries, collecting 2.7 millionkilograms of debris and rubbish during theannual cleaup.

From Weekend Dominion Post dated 26/4/2008.

Korimako or Makomako (Anthornis melanura) Status – Native, protected.Description – somewhat similar to a thrush, flight

noisy.

Male – Colour mainly yellowish-green but wingsbrownish-black and head predominantlyiridescent purple.

Female - Mainly olive-brown, paler underneath.Lacks purple on head but has a narrow streak ofwhite running from gape to below eye.Juvenile – Like female.

Voice – Song similar and often confused withthat of the tui though it has a wide range of calls.Sometimes a rather plaintive single note,repeated at intervals, but more often a burst ofsong including clear and bell-like notes. Othersthroaty gurgling. It also has a characteristicalarm call which is a single scolding noterepeated in quick succession.

Food – Nectar, insects and berries. Like the tui itwill sometimes drink from a container of watersweetened with sugar.

Documents

May 2008 Korimako, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter