Home visits

The visitors to my island haven are always interesting - they come from above, below and some, like the male kiwi on Wednesday night, just walk nonchalantly past the house. I heard him call as I was getting ready for bed so stuck my head out the window and watched him walk from the tyre pile to the toitoi seedlings, right past the window. There was enough moonlight to see him clearly and no matter how many times I see a kiwi, it still gives me such a buzz to have these close encounters.

Most of the visitors are fleeting but one of them stayed overnight. A beautiful male damselfly, Austrolestes colensoni, got caught in an orb spider's web and although I often let nature take its course, I was talking on the phone and held my finger out for him to climb on to. I then spent the next hour trying to carefully remove very sticky web strands which had wrapped around his body and wings. The damselfly was very co-operative but, with it getting dark and the temperature dropping, I thought the night in a wee box might be a good way to get over his stressful encounter.

Still a few strands of cobweb to remove

The following morning I released him on to a fuchsia sapling and took a few photos before crossing my fingers that he would be able to fly off okay with an interesting tale to tell his children :)!! Only the males are blue; the females are a greeny colour.

My Insects of New Zealand book by Brian Parkinson says that damselflies and dragonflies are of the same 'ancient order of winged insects; damselflies are generally smaller than dragonflies and hold their wings close to their body when resting, rather than holding them outstretched as dragonflies do'. I'm not sure if my visitor just had sticky wings but most of the time they weren't outstretched. There are 11 species of native dragonflies and six species of damselflies in Aotearoa, all of which are carnivorous. There's a lovely photo of a Damselfly (Blue), Austrolestes colensoni, by Phil Bendle on the T.E.R.R.A.I.N website.

Another insect caught by its antenna in a web was this ichneumon wasp - it had Taranaki colours with its yellow legs and black body. I can't find this wasp in my books so not sure if it's a native or not.



I took a break from blogging to check my rat traps and trap #7 had a big female ship rat in it - my first rattie of 2015. There was also a fresh kiwi print on the track and I surprised a whitetail deer that bounded away with its tail held high. It's been a while since a rat's been caught in the trap and I suspect that the cat prints I see occasionally has something to do with it.

There's a number of wood-boring insects here, both in dead wood and on living trees. One trunk I came across was riddled with holes and I could see the back ends of the holes' inhabitants but they seemed to be sleeping the day away. My patience was rewarded when one decided to party through the day and I got a few fuzzy weevil pics before he climbed too high for me.

Fast asleep and waiting for the night - how do they get the holes so round?

The partygoer trying to wake his neighbour

The hyperactive partygoer was on a mission and not keen to pose for a photo

I haven't put this chappie up on NatureWatch so not sure if it's a native or exotic weevil but they sure are hungry critters because the trunk was riddled with holes.

My photo adventure finished back at the house with these wee critters...

We used to call these flicker bugs, I must find out their real name

A leaf roller caterpillar on the rhubarb

A harvestman lurking under some rotting wood