Bushy Park Forest Sanctuary, Kai Iwi, Whanganui

Surrounding the historic Bushy Park homestead is the 89 hectare Bushy Park Tarapuruhi Forest which is a Forest & Bird Project.  

The forest is a rare example of North Island temperate lowland forest. Lowland forests such as Bushy Park historically harboured the largest and most diverse communities of native and endemic plants and animals. 

Bushy Park Tarapuruhi is unusual in that it survived (most lowland forest was clear felled) and it is relatively unmodified; there has been no logging or burning of the main forest. It was also fenced to exclude domestic livestock in the mid/early 1900s and is now surrounded by a 4.8km pest & predator fence protecting the forest and birdlife from introduced mammals.

Astelia epiphyte 

David searching for frogs. They were having their very own concert in the Bushy Parks wetland. But so typical of frogs, they stopped as soon as they spotted us.

I think the little jetties are so school & other education groups can check out the pond for bugs & insects.

A male Hihi/Stitchbird on high alert. There's a feed station nearby & several males are trying to use it hence this one zipping about chasing them.

The stitchbird was both rare and poorly known about until the 1990s as few people had an opportunity to visit the single remnant population on Little Barrier Island. With careful management & conservation Hihi can now be seen at several protected sanctuaries.

The female Hihi/Stitchbird is hardly ever seen because the boys take over the feed stations. This one approached but was soon seen off (hence the blurry photo, you have got to be quick to capture them!).

Ratanui the big rata tree of Tarapuruhi/Bushy Park is 36.2mtrs tall. Hard to believe that this rata started out as a small vine that grew up it's host tree and then sent out roots down to the ground, became established & slowly swallowed up its host (often a rimu). And look at all those 'widow makers', large clumps of the epiphyte astelia. Epiphytes growing on a tree that started life as an epiphyte.

A big plump Kereru/Wood pigeon grazes on the homestead's front lawn. Our native pigeons often graze on the ground in large flocks, I once saw a group of around 50 or so birds in a paddock in Golden Bay. And if they're not grazing they are often being goof-balls, chasing each other, rolling over, doing mock attacks & aerobatics just off the ground.

There were so many Tieke/Saddleback in the forest, they were calling to each other, flying about & pulling apart rotting trees on the ground & scratching about in the forest litter but they are very hard to take a photo as it's so dark in the bush & they are so fast in amongst the tangle of undergrowth. So as I was checking out the homestead garden...

... I don't know who got the biggest fright, me or the Tieke when I heard some rustling in the undergrowth & crept up to see what it might be. And look who popped out!

Tieke are endemic (found only in NZ) and classed as 'relic'- a small population stabilised after declining. North Island Saddlebacks (and South Island Saddlebacks) are found only on predator free islands or in protected mainland sanctuaries. Because they are weak fliers & spend a lot of time on and near the ground they are easy prey for predators especially rats & stoats.

Did you know that the South Island Saddleback/Tieke has a different coloured juvenile to the North Island Tieke? South Island juveniles (commonly referred to as ‘jackbirds’) are covered entirely in chocolate brown plumage for their first year whereas North Island juveniles have the adult black plumage with the beginnings of the coloured saddle. 

Tieke/Saddleback Jackbird- Ulva Island, Rakiura/Stewart Island

The homestead's lower carpark is also a POP #4565 (park over property), with a maximum of 3 vehicles a night at $20 for two people ($7 extra person). We visited Bushy Park in the ute but thought it would be great to stay & wake up to a dawn chorus although I think our size rig would be borderline getting up the narrow drive & manoeuvring around in the carpark.  

Totaranui- Bird Antics

Catch-up

Let's see if I can keep the typing (talking) to a minimum on this one, I still have another Totaranui blog to post and I don't want to get too far behind again. 

As I said previously, Totaranui (Abel Tasman National Park) is a great place to spend some quality birding time but the trouble is, if you're a photographer and a birder, you end up with screeds and screeds of photos to process, and way too many you want to share. I managed to whittle them down to these few; some cute shots, some fun shots, a couple of unusual shots and a sad one too.

I finally found some weka chicks during the second week, in fact after only seeing a couple of chicks during the first week, they were suddenly everywhere, although the parents do keep them hidden in the bush most of the time. 

It's easy to spot a weka who has chicks; if they find food while foraging out in the open they suddenly take off, running very fast (they are comical to watch), making a beeline for the bush, clucking loudly. Not a great strategy if you don't want predators to find your chicks I would have thought.

A few weka head down to the beach very early to check out the overnight tide lines, weaving up and down to the water and round and round in circles along the beach like some drunken sailor. It was cute to find adult footprints with tiny chick prints running alongside one morning. But it was also disappointing to find dog footprints one day. Dogs are not allowed in the Park but obviously someone thought the rules didn't apply to them.

I found this older Weka Chick standing out in the open all by himself. He suddenly decided he was out of there and ran off calling loudly for Mum 'Arrrggghhhh.....she's after me, she's after me, heeelp!!'  (and my settings were not ready for his quick departure).

This has to be one of the most unusual photos I have taken of a bird (and now a favourite). An acrobatic (pole dancing someone suggested) Kereru/NZ Wood Pigeon out to get the tastiest Tree Lucerne shoots at the end of a very thin wispy branch. They are very versatile and agile birds for their size but this is something else.

I was walking back to camp when I thought I saw some paper caught in a bush. It wasn't until I got closer that I realised it was a Kereru hanging upside down. It was so absorbed in hanging on while stripping off the tastiest shoots that it didn't take any notice of me as I crept closer. When it eventually spotted me it let go and hit the ground with a thump, before flying off. 

The pigeons were often the subject of my lens, there were just so many of them about. Here they are; chasing each other, stretching for shoots and flying off in the wrong direction when I was trying for some flight shots.

Even though they are quite slow flyers they tried my patience many times as I attempted to get those flight shots.

And sometimes they just played peek-a-boo...

Here are a couple of comparison shots- one taken in the shade and the other in the sun. While there seemed to be some slight variations in colouring amongst birds, you can still see how iridescent the head and in particular the breast feathers are here. That green is quite spectacular and stands out like a sore thumb when you're scanning the trees for birds.

Spring wouldn't be spring without ducklings and especially our native Paradise Shelduck ducklings. Here's Mum (one of the few native females that are prettier than their male counterparts)

And Dad (who is still quite handsome)...

And their four gorgeous fluffy ducklings... 

It's hard to believe that this isn't a pond they're swimming in, it's a small depression that has filled with water (so much rain over winter) alongside the 'Grand Entrance' trees. They also swam in another couple of large muddy potholes on the edge of a track on the other side of the trees. 

And it's where I headed each time I wanted to check in on the family. Although they spent a lot of time at the pools they would also do a loop each day, waddling all the way up to our campsite bay, cutting through and then heading back along the estuary edge to their pools; quite a feat for 4 tiny ducklings. 

I say 4 but it wasn't long before it became 3 and then 2 ducklings. Anyone who has been following my blog knows I'm a sucker for ducklings and it usually ends in heartache so I try not to become too attached to them.  But how can you not resist these cute bundles of fluff?  

"Please will you just sit down Mum!" says this duckling who reminds me of the 'Joker'. Check out his 'grin' (click to enlarge the photo), it's a dirt line from dabbling in the pool.

I was sitting on the van steps one afternoon when the family came waddling through, now with just the two ducklings. I reached inside to get my camera and went to take a photo just as a weka came racing out from underneath the van and grabbed one of the ducklings. I managed to click off a couple of shots as I raced towards the melee waving and shouting (excuse the photos, once again I wasn't expecting so much action). Here you can see the duckling in the Weka's bill,  Mum was quickly after it, trampling the 2nd duckling as she chased. 

Dad was a bit slow off the mark, the weka still has the duckling but dropped it soon afterwards. Weka are known to predate ducklings and I've also been witness to one stalking a Pukeko chick at Lake Kaniere on the West Coast. 

The family departed at a very fast pace down the estuary track, quacking and cheeping to each other. Later in the evening, when I checked in on them at the pools, there were still two ducklings.

But the next day they were down to one. It's a tough life being a duckling, it's no wonder they usually have so many.

Totaranui- Bird Paradise

Real-time

This must surely be the grandest entrance to a DOC Camp in all of New Zealand. This is Totaranui at the northern end of the Abel Tasman National Park and the Abel Tasman Great Walk. The trees, alternate London Plane & Macrocarpa, were planted in 1856 by the first European settler & landowner, Williams Gibbs. He wanted an imposing entrance for visitors arriving by sea (the only means of access back then), and he sure got it, albeit many years after his passing. 

Gibbs established a farm of over 7000 acres here at Totaranui and supplied Nelson with milk & dairy products. He also built two holiday cottages which he rented out to holidaymakers. Even back then this little pocket of coastline was a popular holiday destination. Sadly the Macrocarpa looked to have succumbed to disease or old age as there were only large stumps in their spots! Ngatara, the farm homestead (see the link in the next paragraph for photos) is now owned by the Crown and used for school camps.

If you don't arrive by boat or on foot, Totaranui is accessed via a 12km narrow winding gravel road from Pohara in Golden Bay. And it's where we have been parked up for the last week. We've driven the road before but just as a day trip in the ute, this time we brought the 5th-wheeler along for the ride.

The road was fine, it's up and over a small range and not as bad as some we've been on. Just a couple of sharp switchbacks and a little narrow in places but with lots of areas to pull over if you meet other vehicles or need to let others pass. We timed it to cross over late morning when most of the traffic would have been ahead of us and any day-trippers would still be enjoying their visit.

The DOC campground is a very popular destination for holidaymakers and at the height of the summer season there can be over 1000 people in camp. It's a huge place with over 23 large bays for camping, each bay can hold anything from 10-20 campsites; fire pits (bring your own firewood) and picnic tables are a central point where campers can gather. There also fresh water available in every bay, a refuse collection area nearby and a dump station for campers (not day trippers as it's very expensive to empty septic tanks this far out).

Each bay is bordered by bush and some have the estuary as a backdrop, they stretch right along the beach although there is no camping on the ocean side of the road. There are numerous ablution blocks dotted about with flushing toilets, cold showers and more impressively, laundry tubs with hand mangles!

We have our bay to ourselves and at the most there have only been 8-12 vans in each night. If I didn't know any better I'd think we were here by ourselves. Most have headed to the end of the camp beside the estuary where they can access the boat ramp and do some easy whitebaiting in the numerous streams that flow from the estuary.

We arrived in the sunshine and had a couple of lovely days before the heavens once again opened up and it rained solid for nearly three days. Luckily we have been able to access the internet through the big wet.  Netspeed has been a Godsend, although even with the big booster Yagi aerial pointing all the way across the bay to Nelson, it's been mostly borderline and often we have only been able to connect to read but not contribute.

Just like Kaiteriteri, Totaranui also has the same beautiful golden sand; this is looking south into the Park and towards Awaroa...

...and north to the end of the bay... 

 ...where the huge estuary empties into the ocean twice a day. 

This is just a tiny section of the estuary and at high tide it's at least thigh deep.

The bird life is prolific with, unusually, the most common sighting being of the Kereru/NZ Wood Pigeon.

I'm sure there's at least a few hundred birds around the camp; any casual glance into the surrounding bush, under the tree canopy or up to any bare trees produces three or four birds glancing down as they rest during the day. 

This one was perched precariously in a small bush; wings spread, sunning itself in the warm afternoon sun. 

I counted at least 20 birds feeding in a patch of tree lucerne which they have nearly stripped bare. 

They squabble, flap, bash and bumble about through the soft vegetation with most staying put as I pass by. It's such a treat to see them at such close quarters.

Sadly this bird with the odd coloured feathers is not well, it has a wound on it's neck which may have been punctured by a branch as it landed to feed.

While Kereru and Tui swoosh and soar about above us, down on the ground Weka and Pukeko roam throughout the camp. Here a Western Weka stretches and spreads it's wings as it soaks up the warm sunshine (I know how you feel mate!). I had to laugh the other night, I forgot to turn the water pump off and when I visited the little room at some unGodly hour the pump swung into action along with what seemed like the whole population of weka screeching out their alarm calls at the noise.

I have been surprised by the lack of chicks on the ground for both the weka and pukeko although I did manage to spy these two chicks with their parent hidden in some tussock. It's either a little too early or they are being kept out of harm's way- I've seen weka stalk and attach pukeko chicks and I know pukeko kill ducklings so they'd likely kill weka chicks too. 

And looked who else popped up- a regular visitor at Kaiteriteri- a male California Quail with his partner. I've only spotted the two birds although I've heard a few calling but there are nowhere near the numbers we saw at Kaiteri.

It's not only the humans who are whitebaiting in the estuary...

...this Kotuku/White Heron is a regular visitor snatching at the small fry swimming up the channels...

...that weave their way through the Jointed Wire Rush.

Along with a pukeko who was also grabbing at the whitebait swimming past in the clear water.

While walking around the edge of the estuary I disturbed a weka digging for and munching on tiny crabs. 

I'd noticed a track through the estuary when I was looking at the google map of the area so yesterday afternoon I went exploring. The 'track' was on an embankment with a fast flowing stream on one side and a swamp on the other and I had to fight my way through so much gorse it wasn't funny. It left the road back near the entrance to the park and reached right out into the estuary coming to an end not too far from the north end of the campground and just across the reeds from where we are parked. The deep stream and high tide stopped me from heading home this way. 

I was very excited to find some deer prints in the sand about three quarters of the way along and could see where they'd walked down to a bush and munched the ends off it. There was also a wide swathe of bent reeds through the swamp where I think they may have made a quick exit. 

But best of all I saw five highly secretive Fernbirds/Matata, one carrying nesting material. More like a mouse than a bird, Matata creep silently through the undergrowth very rarely making an appearance above. I heard them 'clicking' long before I spotted the first one, but then one made a dash across the sand from a bush on the embankment down into the reeds, looking very much like a mouse with a feathered tail. I sat quietly for about 20 minutes before this one made an appearance from out of a gorse bush. It soon flitted across and down into the reeds too.

 Totaranui, what a great place to bird watch!