My Account
Many thanks to everyone who came to help with the annual planting at Shakespear Open Sanctuary. The weather did not help much and heavy rain meant we had to cancel one of the scheduled days, which happens only rarely. To make up for it we ran an unscheduled extra day at short notice and still got 70 helpers.
The planting site was on and around the huge slip across from the picture-frame carpark, making the planting out a very muddy and slippery exercise. But in a few years that hill will look very different and there will also be a much easier walking track up to the lookout.
The first 40 tieke (saddlebacks) have now been joined by another 10, this time from Tawhuranui. Because they live close to the ground they were almost wiped out by predators and once existed only on Hen Island, so translocations like this try to mix up existing populations to accelerate any genetic diversity.
They have already spread all over the sanctuary, so you might now hear their very distinctive call in any bush area. Volunteers have been tracking them down and then installing nesting and roosting boxes in their neighbourhoods to try to anchor them in place. If you see a box you’ll know what it is so please don’t approach it or open it. Unfortunately at least a couple of these birds have moved just outside the pest-proof fence, so we are trying to lure them back. They are very partial to oranges, so the idea is to fix slices to trees and then slowly move these back inside the fence.
Kauri dieback continues to spread around Auckland at an alarming rate, but so far Shakespear Regional Park appears to be free of it. While the organism responsible can actually swim through soil moisture toward a kauri tree, the main means of spread is almost certainly by infected mud on people’s boots. The disinfectant will not penetrate mud so if you come for a walk at Shakespear Regional Park, please make sure that your shoes don’t have any mud on them. Use your hose and a brush – and also then use the gear provided at each track entrance to spray the disinfectant on your shoes as you arrive and as you leave.
SOSSI volunteers are doing our bit by gradually upgrading the main tracks with gravel so that they’re mud-free as well, though this is a slow process.
Our initial program of re-introducing threatened bird species has now come to an end, but next on the list is the wetapunga (giant weta).
Wetas are very ancient insects and date back to when NZ was part of Gondwanaland. There are 70 or so species and this one is the largest. At one stage they survived only on Little Barrier Island (sound familiar?) but captive breeding has proved to be very successful so they are now being re-established in safe locations. They can grow to be the size of a mouse so will be a spectacular addition to the various creatures which roam the open sanctuary at night.
You’ll already see glow-worms and maybe hear a kiwi if you walk up Waterfall Gully at nightfall. So watch for our guided night walk there in Conservation Week, September 21.
