Ancient Tiritiri Matangi: Adventures in "Deep Time". The Fungi
Ancient Tiritiri Matangi: Adventures in "Deep Time". The FungiAuthor: John SibleyDate: 16/06/23We have been travelling through “Deep Time” from the dawn of Earth’s history when living things first appeared, some 4,000,000,000 years ago (4,000Mya or 4Ga). It is thought the Fungi evolved about 410Mya just before the land was colonised by plants. Today they form one of the most diverse kingdoms with varied ecologies, lifestyle strategies and morphologies (outward shapes). Their members include single-celled yeasts, filamentous fuzzy moulds and familiar mushrooms. Although once classified with the plants, they share more features (including genetics) with the Animal Kingdom. Part of our fascination with fungi is that they have a secret “hidden life” in the earth beneath our feet, emerging above ground only to disperse their spores into the air – popping up overnight as a wonderful variety of “fruiting’ bodies. Some of these “mushrooms’ are very poisonous to humans while others are delicious to eat! Yet other fungi raise our bread, brew our beer, flavour our soy sauce and cheese, and cure our ills (antibiotics and statins etc.) It is estimated that this hidden fungal horde with their vast subterranean network of feeding threads at least equals and perhaps exceeds the biomass of the more visible Plant…
A tech upgrade
A tech upgradeAuthor: Stacey BalichThis text has been collated using the Hihi Conservation 2022 - Annual ReportDate: 16/07/23The Hihi Conservation 2022 Annual Report shares that for nearly the past three decades it has been a rite of passage for every hihi hatched in a nest box to receive a set of colour bands when they turn 21 days old. On one leg, they have two colours; on the other, they have one colour and one metal band. This allows researchers to individually identify the birds which supports monitoring, management and research. Dr John Ewan shares in his report that on Tiritiri Matangi all female hihi nest in nest boxes, so every bird in the population can be banded before fledging. This means family relationships are known for every hihi on the island. Observing and locating individual birds requires enormous manpower and data can sometimes be limited by the size of the field team and environmental conditions. This can sometimes result in incomplete band reading or misidentification. In 2015, the Hihi Recovery Group began exploring how to modernise hihi monitoring. They selected a technology called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID involves attaching a tiny computer chip storing a unique identification number to an animal. Special RFID ‘readers’ are then placed in key locations throughout the environment to ‘read’…
One of the most interesting trips I have ever had in my life
One of the most interesting trips I have ever had in my lifeAuthor: Gabrielle Yan (Year 5/6), Summerland SchoolDate: 15/06/23Tiritiri Matangi was one of the most interesting trips I have ever had in my life. The ferry ride was great, amazingly clean to say the least. The first bird we saw was a bellbird, which had the voice of our school bell, which was very familiar as we have been hearing it for years. Along the way we saw many fantails and bellbirds, so many that they didn’t seem all that rare anymore. We heard a tūī singing near the feeding area, which had been surrounded by all sorts of birds. On the ground lay lots of skeleton leaves which were pretty much transparent with skeletons that looked very much like fibre. Our guide, Bob, showed us a tracking tunnel with laminated pictures of predators’ footprints. While we were taking a rest on a wooden bench, we spotted the biggest New Zealand pigeon ever, perched on top of a very large Nikau. On the way to the lighthouse, we made a wish while touching NZ’s oldest rock (80 million years old) and looking at the youngest (Rangitoto). Right before leaving the forest, we had a finger puppet hunt. The finger puppets were in the shape of native birds and other creatures, which was the most adorable thing ever. After we left the forest, we saw around 3 takahē, which was chasing after the…
Tiritiri Matangi Island On Active Service
Tiritiri Matangi Island On Active ServiceAuthor: Stacey BalichThis text has been collated using Tiritiri Matangi, A Model of Conservation by Anne RimmerDate: 13/06/23During the Second World War (1939-45) the island was part of the Auckland Harbour defences. The day after war broke out, 12 Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve signalmen landed on Tiritiri Matangi to identify all approaching vessels. The Navy duplicated much of the Auckland Harbour work of identification. At first, the two services shared the Auckland Harbour Board facilities but it soon became apparent that the Navy needed its own building. The military then built the Port War Signal Station, near the lighthouse, linked to gun emplacements on Whangaparaoa, Rangitoto, North Head and Waiheke Island. The Port War Signal Station had a view from Kawau Island past Aotea Great Barrier and the Coromandel to Auckland but, significantly, the Tiri channel was obscured. Ships at sea were forbidden to use their wireless in wartime, so communication with them was by flags, semaphores or Aldis signal lamps. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour (7 December 1941), the US poured money into New Zealand’s defences and the Army established a Fortress Observation Post on Tiritiri Matangi. The Army rebuilt the Fourth House, concreting the outside and adding a concrete tower. The Fortress Observation Post gave…
King's Birthday Working Weekend
King's Birthday Working WeekendAuthor: Karin GouldstoneDate: 08/06/23On Saturday 3rd June a keen team of 16 volunteers boarded the Explore Ferry to make their way across the sea to Tiritiri Matangi. After settling into the bunkhouse, some bird watching, lunch and a health and safety briefing Talia, the Department of Conservation Ranger set up the working groups. Armed with shovels, shears, secateurs, hedge trimmers and wheelbarrows we tackled the long overdue maintenance on the upper Wattle Track. After a couple of hours with the odd interruption of kōkako, toutouwai/ robin and other wildlife we had a yummy shared dinner. We continued where we left off on the following day and we made amazing progress. In the evening some went exploring or put their feet up. Others went for a night walk and found tuatara, kororā/ little penguin, kiwi pukupuku/ little spotted kiwi, pāteke/ brown teal and wētā punga. Monday was our last day and was spent packing, cleaning and finishing off some jobs before another stroll around the special island. Thank you to Paul, who set up a yoga session in the Visitors Centre. Supporters Working Weekends The Department of Conservation and the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi greatly appreciate your participation in our General Maintenance Volunteer program. The work of volunteers is an integral part of the island’s success as one…
Disrupted breeding season comes to an end
Disrupted breeding season comes to an endAuthor: Kathryn JonesDate:07/07/23The tīeke breeding season started with a translocation of four eggs from nest boxes to Auckland Zoo. The zoo has a permit to take a small number of tīeke from the Island to supplement the captive population.
Taking eggs and raising chicks in captivity has several advantages over moving adult birds, not least the lack of stress to the birds.
The curator of birds at the zoo, Juan Cornejo, visited the Island in October and collected fertile eggs from three boxes. At least one fertile egg was left in each so the parent birds still had the opportunity to raise a chick.
At the zoo, one of the chicks had difficulty hatching and died shortly afterwards, but the other three, a female and two males, thrived under the care of zoo staff – 18 feeds per day at first! They are now healthy juveniles and will eventually be on display in the forest aviary.
TīekePhoto Credit: Kathryn JonesHeading Photo…
Up and out, camera ready and heading towards the sunrise kōkako calls
Up and out, camera ready and heading towards the sunrise kōkako callsAuthor: Darren MarkinDate: 21/03/23Staying overnight on Tiritiri Matangi often means an early start. Up and out, camera ready and heading towards the sunrise because kōkako calls. As always, another exciting day is ahead. I know what birds I’m likely to see but the surprise is to see them in an unexpected way. This is so true of kōkako. Will they be on the ground, low down in the bush, more than one together, feeding, calling, petting ….?? On this particular day, I had been out wandering most of the time. Once the ferry had departed, I headed for the Wattle Track and sat on my stool behind the large bench which faces the lower/ bottom water trough. Listening for the faintest of kōkako calls. All quiet to begin with. Out comes my book. Patience needed. Several chapters later, I hear them. Behind me, up in the trees, calling to each other, very quietly as they feed. Just the odd notes, but I only need one. Book down, camera, ears and eyes are now on full alert. They are now above me. Suddenly, Te Rangi Pai comes down and begins drinking at the water trough. In swoops her partner, Hemi, very quickly and he begins feeding her the small green berries. The element of surprise is there, right in front of me. Amazing. She soon hops away, along the fence and up into the trees. Hemi…
Common Stuff
Common StuffAuthor: Mike DyeDate: 22/05/23My first venture down the slope behind the Fog Horn shed brought me to a little grassy patch where my tripod could stand. Peering through the telescope it was not clear whether all the squatting red-billed gulls were on nests, but this twin-peaked rock, just south of the bay, was obviously a favoured breeding site. Weaving a heavy tripod through a tangle of flax and cabbage trees was a bit cumbersome but, on reaching the northern side of this little promontory, a large curl-shaped rock came into view with a colony of gulls dotted along its ridge line and, below me, binoculars revealed a small rocky platform crowded with busy occupants and obvious nests. I’d been invited to assess the breeding numbers of common inshore seabirds around the coastal fringe of the island. How do you view our coast from the land? So many steep bush-clad slopes and hidden gullies! Old hands will have known much of the territory but for me, it was an exciting new exploration. In that first year, I located a small colony of black-backed gulls on a handful of rocky islets just off the North-east Bay track. As I ate lunch, after counting those gulls a reef heron carrying fish flew into the bay. On landing, two juveniles came scrabbling out of the bushes to meet the parent – the only proof of its breeding in the ten years this…
Annual Kiwi Call Survey
Annual Kiwi Call SurveyAuthor: Janet PetricevichDate: 03/05/23Kiwi pukupuku/ little spotted kiwi were first introduced to Tiritiri Matangi in 1993 (10 birds) with a further 6 released in 1995. Two birds were lost early on but 14 went on to contribute to the genetic pool.
As part of the population monitoring of this translocated species, Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi first conducted a kiwi call survey in 2009 and have subsequently done so in March of every year, apart from 2012, 2015 & 2020.
During the survey, Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi volunteers are stationed at ten listening spots around the island. The survey starts twenty minutes after sunset and lasts for two hours. Listeners record the time a call is heard, the sex of the bird calling and the compass bearing and approximately distance of the call, from the listening site. The listening sites are the same from year to year and the survey takes place when there is no moon during the survey hours.
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Bringing light to part of Tiritiri Matangi history
Bringing light to part of Tiritiri Matangi historyAuthor: Jonathan MowerDate: 23/04/23On January 1, 1865, the new and then richly red Tiritiri Matangi lighthouse first shone its light over the Hauraki. Although that light has been continuously operational since that day, how the light has been generated has changed many times. First lit by colza/canola oil, it changed consecutively to using paraffin, and acetylene, then to electricity first from diesel generators, then from a cable link to the national grid, then reverted back to diesel generators and ultimately to solar power with diesel generator backup as it remains today.
Cyclone Gabrielle and other weather events in February caused deep scouring to parts of the island’s coastline and in doing so brought to light part of this history when it uncovered parts of the submarine cable that in 1967, linked the island to the national grid and ended years of diesel power generation. Laid across the sea bottom, the cable stretched in a loop from Pink Beach near the end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula, across Whangaparaoa Passage to Tiritiri Matangi Island where it exited at the northern end of Hobb’s Beach and travelled inland.
