Another month ticks over, the mornings get darker and yay, it's the weekend again! I've had a busy week at work and am working extra hours in the Visitor Centre so have a good excuse for not starting the tyre wall! It's been fun talking to visitors about this super-special island and exciting when they call in the next day to say that they saw kiwi around the village overnight. More frequent sightings seem to be happening - there's not many places in New Zealand where you can claim to see kiwi walking down the main street of your town!
On Wednesday afternoon I heard a number of korimako (bellbirds) sounding their alarm call not far from my house. They were still at it when I checked my rat traps so I detoured off the boundary track to investigate. A poor morepork was sitting hunched up in a ponga tree and eight or so korimako were flitting around and squawking loudly. I came back home to get my camera - will try to add some audio as well as these pics if I can remember what to do (note to self: import MTS file into Audacity, save audio to MP3 file. Open Windows Movie Maker and add photo, then add music. Save movie for email, then Insert this video on blogger!!) - 30 second file is 750Kb.
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As big a zoom as my camera can do. The orange bits are just dead leaves
with the sun shining on them |
It's autumn which means that fungi are back, here's a couple from my boundary track on 21 April...
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| I think this is a Revolute inkcap, Coprinopsis spp |
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| Close-up of above |
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| Not quite sure what this is - one of the 'helmets' perhaps?? |
My vege garden has been neglected and I'm late planting seeds for winter crops. I received vege seeds in a Ploughman's bread promotion and decided to give the cherry tomatoes a go despite it being two months late. The seeds struck well and I put the seedlings in the shade house; half in the plastic greenhouse and half out in the open. There was a distinct growth variation between the two with only the ones under plastic getting flowers on - and today I picked my first (and only!!) red tomato!
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| Not quite enough to make tomato sauce but it did taste yummy |
A resident wanted a vine identified over Easter; she said that it was rampant in her garden and wanted to know how to get rid of it. It wasn't one that I'd seen before and it wasn't in Hugh Wilson's book,
Stewart Island Plants. I took photos and put it up on NatureWatch where Maurice promptly identified it as Coral Vine,
Berberidopsis corallina. There's not a lot of information on this plant so passed the information on to Environment Southland, but if it's anything like its South American cousin, Darwin's barberry, then it needs to come out as soon as possible.
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| Evergreen scrambler Berberidopsis corallina |
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| Small round flowers |
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| Under leaf with distinctive oval shape and serrations with small prickly points |
