Don’t tread on the birds

Our Captain Birdseye lookalike, Peter, dropped us off on the jetty and went to park the boat.

We walked a few steps into the forest and stopped. A hen sized brown bird calmly ambled across the path in front of us. A songbird came and landed on a branch within touching distance of my shoulder. We knew that we were in a magical place.

We had traveled from Oban on Stewart Island to a small island called Ulva. Stewart Island is the closest to Antarctica of New Zealand’s 3 main islands.

Peter, our guide is a native New Zealander and had a job 40 years ago as Forest Ranger on Ulva when the island was plagued by rats.

We love the Isle of Ulva in the Hebrides but this island is so different. It is covered by forest, whereas the Scottish one is traditional West of Scotland, bleak and beautiful but virtually treeless.

As you walk along amongst similar looking trees to ones we know, you come across a clump of tree ferns towering above you, which immediately tells you this is different from anything we know in Europe.

If you crouch down you can see the sumptuous ferns, lichens and tiny orchids which thrive in the warm, damp conditions.

When New Zealand separated from the old continent it didn’t take any ground living mammals with it. Some birds gave up the hassle of building nests in trees as there was no one to eat them and some, like the Kiwi became flightless.

The introduction of rats by settlers meant the eggs of ground nesting birds and seeds of trees were a ready food source.

So, to regenerate the wildlife the rats were gradually eliminated from Ulva. This has meant that the trees can grow from seed again and has allowed the successful reintroduction of 4 native birds. We saw 3 heard the song of the 4^th.

But the rats can still swim over to the island and there is a rigorous programme of trapping, fortunately this happens rarely, but they keep alert to maintain this oasis of wildlife.

The track to the bay on the other side of the island is rated at 30 minutes if you don’t stop, but it took us 3 hours as Peter kept finding things to interest us interspersed with his philosophy of the world.

At home our Robin redbreast joins me when I am digging; the native version is black with a grey breast, hops around your feet as you scuff the ground. You can’t rush past, you have to stop, watch and photograph.

We only saw evidence of the activity of the iconic New Zealand symbol, the Kiwi, but no actual bird as they sleep when I am awake and vice versa.

As we walked along the track we disturbed a sleeping owl from its nest hole in a tree. It flew about 10 metres and sat on a branch. As it did so an increasing chorus of alarm calls rippled through the forest from the songbirds that were not used to seeing it in daylight. We watched it for about 10 minutes then, almost as if it had yawned, it took off and glided back to its nest hole to return to sleep. The alarm calls went out again as it moved, and then gradually returned to normal and the forest quietened back down.

We returned to Oban on Peter’s lovely old ketch, seeing some of the relatively common seals and dolphins in these waters but the final highlight was a rare viewing of a yellow eyed penguin swimming through the sound back to the safety of its home on Ulva. A great end to a wonderful day.

Sue & John, …………. UK

The above was written by a recent guest at Sails Ashore, Stewart Island. We always like to see the Island through our guests eyes, and so often they show us things we see each day in a completely different light.

We package the Ulva Tour with accommodation at Sails Ashore . And although we normally have a 2 person minimum number for our tour, we waive this for our own guests, thus guaranteeing a singleton the Ulva Island Experience.

Staying at Sails Ashore on Stewart Island includes a guided discovery tour of Ulva Island with Peter … your host. The changing seasons and attendant flowers, ferns and birds is the focus of many of my posts.

Orchid Season draws to a close

Yesterday I found a clump of Autumn (Easter) Orchids just opened. These delicate and highly scented blooms are the last of our seasons display and one of very few species to have any detectable scent. Although its cousins E aestivalis & E. mucronata do have a very faint scent. Actually the Easter orchid is a little earlier than I would have expected.

Still out are Onion Orchids…..our smallest orchid….and also the very last of the Ladies Slipper Orchids. The Onion Orchids have had an especially long season this year, as I noticed the first blooms in late October, and by the look of the ones on the Ulva tracks are good for another couple of weeks at least

MorePork

While showing my guests a rata vine I inadvertently bumped a large tree fern and out flew a morepork which had been sleeping behind it. It landed in a nearby tree and looked at us somewhat “owlishly” for several minutes. Understandable I guess. Within a couple of minutes it had been discovered by a Bellbird who promptly set up a terrific din, scolding it….. morepork are of course the enemy….. This drew in several of its mates who added to the cacophony, at which point the morepork flew back to its hidy hole to escape from all the attention.

Galley Slave

Summer time is fruit time, and although Stewart Islands climate does not lend itself to fruit trees, Central Otago is not far away, and produces wonderful stone fruit. So when I see a day off coming up on my diary I order fruit for bottling or jam. I quite enjoy making preserves, chutneys and jams and of course they are a welcome addition to our guests breakfast table at Sails Ashore.

The down side of all this is that occasionally I am faced with fruit to do on a fine sunny day. As it was today, so after I returned from Ulva and had carted up from the wharf the pea straw Iris had ordered for winterising her garden I set to and bottled 12kg of lovely apricots, with a further 8 kg pulped and frozen. I must say a cupboard full of preserves makes me feel quite virtuous, although some of our male guests seem to think I’m somehow letting the side down.

There is a long held belief in New Zealand that when the Cabbage Tree flowers heavily then we should expect a long hot dry summer. If so then the extra water tank we installed may have been a very good idea.  see post

Cabbage Tree    Cordyline australis

Certainly this year the Cabbage Trees are spectacular, perhaps the best I have seen for many years.

The dozens of specimens around the village are all heavily in bloom

The blooms appear in very large clumps made up of long racemes of delicate white blossom, and are highly scented. I took a clump that had blown off into Iris, maybe to place in our guest sun room. But 10 minutes later we both decided that it was just too overpowering in a room and sadly it had to be evicted.

Garden varieties

Cordyline species are popular in gardens and we have a small C. indivsa in our own garden and there are several C. banksii about the village and on roadsides

Summer is Officially Here

And for once the Weather Gods are agreeing, with kayakers enjoying the high (for us) temperatures and calm sunny days.

The Trials of a Photographer

A source of quiet amusement for me are some of the photographers I take to Ulva. Long Lens are probably the biggest source of photographer frustration.

Although wonderful for open country, and reasonable static subjects,  our dense forest and generally very mobile birds makes for serious frustration … the *$#@!!  birds are too close ….. or  …. by the time I’ve found the bird in my lens it’s flown away.

The other issue is tripods. I remember once taking a very enthusiastic (foreign) amateur over for a 6 hour film and photography walk. Central … from my point of view anyway as I ended up carrying the darned thing…. was a whacking great tripod that weighed a ton. And I was told I didn’t have a clue when I suggested that light weight & flexibility was needed as by the time he got it that kit set up the subject in question would be three ridges away. And though I actually carried it all semi set up, even then by the time he got it actually organised the bird was long gone. He didn’t manage a single worthwhile shot, even though the birds were far better than normal. From memory we saw 14 or 15 of the 18 land species resident…….And he had stabilised lens.

So what do I use

My long lens is a  70/300mm, not as fast as I would like, but relatively light weight and not nearly as cumbersome as the faster models , and so easier to hold. And I use the fastest cards I can buy together with high speed burst mode, which with a digital camera means  hopefully one shot out of a sequence will be worthwhile.

Our New Family Member

Occasionally I am  faced with the situation of young birds which will not survive either because of inability of parents to care for them, or of an external danger to the nest.

My natural inclination is to bring them home and attempt to rear them. However the thought of Iris’s reaction is a significant brake on precipitous action. And also, how on earth do I teach a baby oystercatcher to be an oystercatcher

And last year 4 parakeet nestlings drowned in a heavy rain event which I should have foreseen Link to Post .

But, as I said Iris would really create if I did bring a young Oystercatcher, or a clutch of parakeet home to raise.

So you can imagine my surprise a week ago when she turned up with a baby thrush. It had obviously fallen out of it’s nest. but was otherwise unharmed. It took to hand feeding immediately  and seems quite happy in its cage. Initially we fed it moist cat food, but now we are feeding it slugs which Iris catches under “slug boards” in the vegetable garden … better than chemical control by far …. and it loves the worms we find in our compost bins. And I downloaded thrush song and we play this while feeding it and on and off during the day. But can it eat !!!!!, and every 20 minutes or so. I really feel sorry for thrush parents with several in the nest all demanding food.

But what I’m really looking forward to is seeing  Iris on her hands and knees prodding the lawn with her nose as she teaches it to find it’s own dinner, and running around flapping her arms during flight training.

On a more serious note it will graduate into our glasshouse when it has some idea of self feeding …. lots of worms there, and scope to practice flight skills. Then  we hope to release it into the wild with the other thrushes as soon as it can fend for itself.

…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
[email protected]
www.sailsashore.co.nz

64 3 219 1151
0800 783 9278

Pregnant Hookers Sealion

Yesterday on Ulva Island with guests we discovered a female Hookers Sealion sunning herself on Boulder Beach. There have been quite a few males around lately, but this is the first female we have seen in some considerable time. Females are much lighter coloured than males, although very young males can be mistaken for females. Although I’m not completely certain it looks very much as if she is pregnant. Hookers normally give birth in mid to late December, and so we will keep an eye out for her. Once she decides on her birthing area she probably won’t stray far from it, and when she’s really close we may see her lying on her back in the water rubbing her belly. … a good sign birth is imminent.

Bottlenosed Dolphins

As we returned to Golden Bay at the end of the afternoon we were treated to a display by a pod of bottlenosed dolphins. There were perhaps a dozen in the group, probably the same ones I had seen several time in the last few days. They seemed quite animated with what appeared to be aggression between some of the larger members. As we watched them I started to think we might have males competing for a receptive female.

Iris & our 4 guests left to go home, and I stayed, watching the pod perform and talking with a couple of engineers who were inspecting the local wharves. As we talked the pod came to within 40 metres of the wharf and we watched with some amazement as one of the pod… we presume a female ….rolled over onto her back on the surface and a male rolled onto her. We briefly saw his penis unsheathed, …. it’s normally fully retracted within the body….and then they went below the surface. That was the first time I had ever seen dolphins mating, and of course I had given Iris my camera to take home, although as the whole event had taken perhaps 2 seconds I doubt I would have been successful anyway.

So all in all a very interesting day, which we finished up by showing our guests a colony of Big Red Spider Orchids just out on the roadside

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…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
[email protected]
www.sailsashore.co.nz

64 3 219 1151
0800 783 9278

I cannot believe it is November already, where has the year gone ??.

Over the south end of Lake Te Anau, Dock Bay Lodge highlighted in red

Te Anau in the News

As you may know Te Anau has been in the news lately for a number of reasons, first we fought off a private venture company who wanted to put a tunnel through the mountain from Glenorchy to Milford Sound so that Queenstown could monopolize the tourists and trick them in to thinking there is no reason to come to Te Anau, and now we have another private venture wanting to build a monorail from Mt Nicholas to Te Anau Downs which would also bypass Te Anau.  For a small town it is no mean feat defending what we have but we have certainly held strong in letting our country leaders know our feelings on this idea as well and we will find out their decision by the end of the year.

Haast to Hollyford and Te Anau

As well, there is a proposal to build a continuance of road from the Haast down through the Hollyford Valley to link up with the Milford Road.  The proposed route, through national park land, follows a paper road that was originally surveyed in the 1880’s and work was to start about the same time as the Homer Tunnel but this project came to a halt with the outbreak of WW2.  In the meantime some of the paperwork for this road has mysteriously disappeared which is making it very difficult to progress with the new plan.  This road is seen by the majority of locals as an absolute must for the future of our town.

Exciting new things to do around Te Anau

In the meantime we have some new operators starting up some activities for the tourists which I hope will be well supported.

Dominie Flights    

Dominie DH 89, a piece of history

Yesterday Mark and I were lucky enough to be invited  by Adam Butcher from Airscapade Affairs to go for a flight in the 1943 De Havilland DH89 Dominie plane that they have brought to Te Anau to offer scenic flights over the Te Anau basin.  It was an amazing experience and one that I truly recommend doing.

Back Country Hiking

We also have a new company called BushBash who are taking people on off the track walks and experiences around Fiordland.

Looking north towards Lakes Manapouri, and Te Anau beyond

Why do you climb mountains ????… because they are there

Amazing mountains and scenery

Fishing

The catch !!!

FishJet are offering full day or afternoon fishing trips on the Waiau river, they supply all the gear and the knowledge plus scrumptious food and you can be sure there will be fish to catch.

Fishing the mighty Waiau River

And lots of other activities beside  ………

Of course there are many other operators in Te Anau waiting to deliver our visitors the experience of a lifetime and the regular comment from our guests is “we wish we were here for longer”, and of course we wish they were too. Follow this link for some ideas

…. Dawn & Mark, Dock Bay Lodge
192 William Stewart Road,
Te Anau,
Fiordland

[email protected]
www.dockbaylodge.co.nz

64 3 249 7709

(At Sails Ashore we package a 4 hour Guided Ulva Island Tour for our guests. Ulva Island Open Sanctuary is a “Must Do” for visitors to Stewart Island. Many years ago I was Ranger in Charge for all of Stewart Island. For a brief introduction to this very special Island please follow this Link )

Yesterday I took two couples across to Ulva…. a stunning day ….. we all found it difficult to leave, with the normal 4 hours ended up being 6.

Over on Boulder Beach the resident Black Oystercatchers were busy in the tide, but no sign yet of nest building. One of the party queried me, as he couldn’t find “Black Oystercatcher” in his birding book. I had to clarify that while really we should call them “Variable” Oystercatchers,  as we NEVER see them in  variable plumage we think should be allowed to call them Black !!

Forest Birds

Except for  Robins the birds in general were not particularly numerous. And although we heard but didn’t see  Yellowhead ….. we saw everything else on the guests “wanna see” list. Although I admit to wondering if we would find a Saddleback. We didn’t even hear one until just before departing when one called and then flew off. But we did find it shortly afterwards, which made the day for one of the couples as it was their 4th attempt to see these iconic birds.

Spring Blooms

But our guests were very taken with the spring flowers. New Zealand isn’t particularly colourful in the flower department, so many blooms being white or green, but the slide show following is just some of what we saw both on Ulva and around the village.

This early in the orchid season we only found 4 out, disappointing for our German couple, who were particularly knowledgeable about NZ orchids. but with lots of plants coming through the ground I suspect we’ll have a very good years display. They did promise to return

All in all a very successful and enjoyable day in the best office in the world.

ps …..   As I finished typing this Iris walked in with a new publication celebrating Ulva Island Titled Ulva Island (what else ??) , A visitors guide and by Ulva Goodwillie

It details the entire Ulva Island story… history, flora and fauna, conservation and visitor track guide.

I will be reading it tonight.

Ulva guides on Ulva….. her mother must have known something when deciding her name….  and her family have lived around Stewart Island and Foveaux Straits forever, with one ancestor being a “gone ashore” sealer, who married into the local Maori community.

Ulva Island… ISBN : 978-0-908629-75-6

…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
[email protected]
www.sailsashore.co.nz

64 3 219 1151
0800 783 9278

Since we put the new water tank in place….. and pumped it full from our existing storage we’ve had very little rain. So much so that Iris has been watering her new vegetable plantings for several days after sowing. Most unusual, especially this time of year. A wry comment on our normal rain fall pattern is that a drought on Stewart Island is 5 days without much rain. What has looked promising on the weather forecast site we use has in most cases come to nothing.

Warm Temperatures

And it has been very warm, especially at night. A couple of nights ago the low was a very mild 15 deg C

Our weather station page has current and historical data, as well as tide tables, Aurora predictions Web Cam and MetVuW predictions

Ulva Visit

A couple of days ago I had a family across on Ulva Island, and I was

surprised just how dry it was there as well. The forest floor leaf litter was like walking on cornflakes, and several patches of film fern were seriously shrivelled up. Normally something that would be a summer thing after several days of no rain, and equally importantly…. warm dry breezes to dry out the soil and moss.

First Orchids of the Season

The first of the seasons orchids are Nematoceras accuminatum, and they are well out, and lots of them

Spring Courtship

The robins are busy courting, and my young guests were fascinated by the female begging for food, and the male feeding her. The saddlebacks are also firmly into breeding mode, with the jack birds in close attendance to their mates

And they found a large kiwi dibble hole beside the path.

We have been hearing Kiwi calling  around our house, and our next door neighbour thinks she disturbed one beside her drive way around 10 am. Although its great to hear them it’s also a worry as they are very vulnerable to being hit by vehicles at night.

So all in all, “Spring has well and truly Sprung on Stewart Island”

…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
www.sailsashore.co.nz
[email protected]

Grey Warbler

Grey Warblers are quite common around the village and on Ulva, but for me at least very hard to find. They are enthusiastic songsters, but visually drab secretive little birds who never seem to sit still and also prefer the higher canopy. So enormously difficult to photograph. Around the village where we don’t have a high canopy they are easier to find, their colouration and secretiveness still frustrate me. I have been working around our garage and back lawn area the last couple of weeks and have been chasing one which frequents the tress above our back lawn…. unsuccessfully I might add. A few days ago I was entertained by a major punch up between two birds, one chasing for several minutes what I realised was an interloper. Now I hadn’t known that warblers were aggressively territorial, and the penny dropped.

Grey Warbler in song

So this morning I went out with my phone playing a warbler song I had recorded yonks ago…….. instant success. Within about 20 seconds I had an extremely agitated warbler dashing from branch to branch looking for whoever was on his (I presume his) patch.

Burst photography mode and 60 or 70 photos later I now have around 5 shots I can use.

Garden Prep.

Garden partially covered and shedding light rain

Today is overcast and a bit raw, with a light easterly. But we have had a few really lovely days, and so Iris & I took the opportunity to prep part of our vegetable garden. This involved digging out one of the compost bins and spreading over the winter pea straw garden cover, and then a couple of days later rotary hoeing it all and then covering it all with a black plastic cover. This keeps any rain off, and being black absorbs heat, warming the soil. We take it off in fine weather to encourage drying. Sails temps are quite high, at around 9.3 dec C, so hope to get the early potatoes planted soon.

Spring Daffodils

Spring Blooms

Although it is still winter, spring bulbs are starting to flower, giving us a taste of the spring just around the corner, and a couple of late winter Rhododendrons are adding to the garden colour.

Rhododendron cornubia

…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
[email protected]
www.sailsashore.co.nz

64 3 219 1151
0800 783 9278

Each year Iris does a count of the birds in our garden over a 1 hour period. This “snapshot” is part of a national survey by Landcare Research, Forest & Bird Society, The Ornithological Society & Fairfax Media.

Birds Recorded from Sails Ashore:-

Bellbird                             …. 1
Dunnock                           …. 2
Grey Warbler                  …. 2
Silvereye                          …. 2
Blackbird                          …. 3
Chaffinch                          …. 10
Native Pigeon                  …. 1
Kaka                                  …. 1
Black Backed Gull           …. 4
Red Crowned Parakeet  …. 4
Song Thrush                    …. 1
Starling                             …. 4
Tui                                     …. 3
Variable Oystercatcher  …. 1

Birds Recorded from Kowhai Lane:-

Bellbird                             …. 1
Dunnock                           …. 2
Grey Warbler                  …. 2
Silvereye                          …. 2
Blackbird                          …. 1
Chaffinch                          …. 19
House Sparrow                …. 2
Kaka                                  …. 3
Grey Duck                        …. 1
Red Crowned Parakeet  …. 1

However in addition we regularly see Fantail, Weka, Red Poll, Yellow Hammer, and Australasian Harrier, hear Cuckoo, Morepork and twice in the last couple of nights…. Kiwi.

Kiwi around the Village

When I first arrived on Stewart Island in 1969, Kiwi were unknown around the village, and the closest birds were in the Christmas Village area, several miles up the north coast. But now they are regularly seen within the village and on the roads, and guests have several times seen them on Trail Park in the evening, as well as on some of the local walking trails.
The birds we heard recently… male & female were quite close, probably no more than  100 metres distant. The first evening was at 0100, and the second around 0600.

Little Blue Penguins

And  a few days ago on Ulva with 2 New Zealand couples we found several Blue Penguin tracks on Sydney Cove beach. These birds had over-nighted ashore and are the first of the season investigating nesting sites for the coming breeding season.

Fuchsia in Flower

Fuchsia start to show blossom around the middle of July, and we are starting to see Tui investigating the new nectar source.

Iris puts out sugar water and seed for our birds, but this year most really haven’t been all that interested. Kaka of course are great pan-handlers and are regular visitors, but Tui have been only occasionally, and bellbirds hardly ever. Even the Silvereyes don’t seem particularly interested.

…. Peter & Iris, Sails Ashore
11 View St,
Stewart Island,
[email protected]
www.sailsashore.co.nz

64 3 219 1151
0800 783 9278