Climate – Page 4 – Southern Light

Variations on the New Zealand parakeet / kākāriki

top: Red Crown NZ parakeet on Codfish Island, photo credit Maggie Evans There are five main species of kākāriki, and in a previous post about gains made in native bird populations I really only touched on the return of the yellow-crowned species to the West Matukituki valley in Mt Aspiring National Park. Now thanks to… Continue reading Variations on the New Zealand parakeet / kākāriki

Forest and Bird Kaki Conservation Field Trip

A great day was had by all at the Kaki Recovery Programme in Twizel on Saturday 5 November 2016. A field trip open to all was organised by Rachel Hufton, a Forest and Bird member to help raise the profile of Kaki; the rarest wading bird in the world and to improve awareness of braided… Continue reading Forest and Bird Kaki Conservation Field Trip

Lake Wanaka’s grebes

For a few years now the grebe, an endangered species, has been in the news regularly making a name for themselves nesting on floating nests tethered to the Wanaka Marina. The whole wonderful story of what is essentially eco restoration, with a decidedly lateral thinking twist can be had by going to the link below.… Continue reading Lake Wanaka’s grebes

DOC seeks sightings of rare kakī / black stilt October 2016

One of the pair of black stilt/kakī that were recently sighted – the left bird is the more common pied stilt. Photo credit DOC

Above left: One of the pair of black stilt/kakī that were recently sighted – the left bird is the more common pied stilt. Photo credit DOC This is pretty exciting and it rather amazes me that these birds have crossed the Southern Alps at presumably their highest point across Aoraki Mt Cook National Park, flying… Continue reading DOC seeks sightings of rare kakī / black stilt October 2016

Capable of flying at speeds over 100 km/h and catching prey larger than itself, the falcon / kārearea is one of New Zealand’s most spectacular birds.

This older male is engaged in courtship ritual and is perched on an old tree stump that at ground level has been used as a nest previously. The female a few hundred meters away was very aware of my presence, and at the time of taking this photo both were engaged in a rowdy discussion, probably about myself whom they know quite well, perhaps questioning whether or not I should be "warned off" in relation to nesting soon.

The photos in the gallery below are extensively captioned, so if you’d like to read more of “their” falcon story, click on any one of them, and please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. All photos by Southern Light..