Welcome rain

Oban has fared a lot better than the drought-stricken areas - we've had some light rain at nights and quite heavy dews but even so, our temperate rainforest had become as dry as cornflakes. Today's steady rain is most welcome and I can almost hear the sigh of relief as plants, trees and birds soak up the moisture. The beautiful filmy ferns, of genus Hymenophyllum, will transform from shrivelled, black, dead-looking leaves to lush green translucent fronds, often only one cell thick. There are at least 21 species of filmy fern on Stewart Island; I have a lot to learn to be able to identify them all!


Hymenophyllum ferrugineum

(above and following) Hymenophyllum spp - will put these pics up
on NatureWatch to get an identification

Recyclable packages of tiny sori - part of my thumbnail for size

 My big clean-up around the section is progressing slowly but surely. I had a bit of a setback last week when my scrub-bar (brushcutter) started making strange noises and losing revs. I don't want to do more damage as it doesn't seem to be a tuning problem and will take it down to work on Monday to see if it can be fixed here on the island.

Neat and tidy driveway - just before the scrub bar packed up

Many Islanders use mussel buoys for gardening in; I've tried a selection of ways but found the larger ones tend to splay out if they are cut lengthwise. Dale, the local policeman, has come up with this way of cutting them - a lot neater and more room for the roots...

Dale's bright idea - the bases are riveted on

With this in mind, I put my name down for some old ones and they've just been delivered. I've now got to chainsaw some of them in half and cut rings out of the others for the bases - oh, and get a rivet gun from somewhere :)

Old mussel buoys waiting for the chainsaw

The new dog run is at a standstill until I work out how I can make a removeable section. The door is too narrow to fit the mussel buoys through so, once the netting is on the walls and roof, it will be impossible to get the buoys inside. I'm putting wire bracing diagonally on the sections for strength and will tie the micro-climate cloth netting on to the bracing - this way I won't need to put the wire netting on, or that's the plan at present! Subject to change as I try and suss it out.

Our last cruise ship for the season, the Bremen, visited on 7 March - it's always nice to see the village full of interested tourists but I'm sure the tourism operators will be glad of a rest as the 'season' dies down. A number of schools are visiting this month and camping/tramping around the Rakiura 'Great Walk' Track; a great opportunity for them to hear, and for some of them, see kiwi.


The Bremen at anchor in Paterson Inlet

The NatureWatch.org.nz website is very addictive, especially once you start putting up your own pictures and getting them identified. It's great that beginners have access to such learned experts AND that the experts can have a vehicle for passing on their knowledge. Here's internet technology at its best and I hope you'll take advantage of it to learn more about the environment in which you live. It's also offers the best comedy - if you could see me dancing about trying to photograph a hover fly or doing contortions trying to snap the looper caterpillar that wouldn't stay still then you'd laugh long and loud :)

 

I haven't seen many wasps here until this year; the warm, dry spell has obviously favoured them and a number of wasp nests are causing problems - both in the village and in the bush. A DOC worker had to be medi-vacced off Secretary Island earlier this month when he was stung multiple times and reacted badly. There's a large nest on my rat line at Deep Bay which needs to be detoured around and I see that the pub has cans of fly spray sitting on the outside tables. What a shame social wasp species were accidentally introduced in New Zealand - they have no natural predators here and we now have some of the highest densities of wasp populations in the world. There's some good information on wasps on the DOC website here

 

Time to do the dishes and maybe put up another few observations on NatureWatch - have a serene Sunday.