Kiwi News

Breeding season is over for our kiwi. 11 chicks this year, up from 9 last year. The big surprise was Pistachio and Koura. Lets hope it’s the beginning of lots more babies from them. Their chick was named Ruby G by Bruce Fraser.  

Smokey and Dacty came up with two good eggs, and for the third clutch running, a third egg that he’s buried. The older egg was external pipping when we lifted them and hatched 4 days later. We’ve called it Charlin (Charlinolobus, long tail bat).

Prue and Lynn from Te Whakakaha Trust came out with Natalia and me and totally enjoyed the egg lift experience and sleeping in the forest. The extra hands were much appreciated as we had a slippery steep sided creek to get the egg boxes back across. During the night we heard several distant kiwi calls, probably Kaha, Tahi and their mates and Smokey, close by, before he went to bed. No possums which is a relief. Nicola collected the eggs from us and transported them to Rotorua. Thank you! Driving when sleep deprived is not good.

Two tweenies, Moses and LePew, are keeping the team on their toes. We hope we know where they are but have yet to confirm it. They would make a good pair if they stumble upon each other. Our sponsor Zespri has named Nino’s chick Toddy.

Kiwi work for the next few months will be changing out boy transmitters and checking that girl leg bands are secure. The coming excitement will be attempting to get transmitters back on the missing boys. If anyone is keen to help please speak up. Requirements for this work are: Good hearing, being comfortable in the forest at night, know what a kiwi sounds like, have a compass and know how to use it. We can teach you if you’re keen and available. Please contact oktvolunteers@volbop.org.nz if interested. 

Unfortunately there was an unexplained chick death at Warrenheip. It was too far decomposed to find the cause. If my maths is right we have 20 kiwi on transmitter and three boys to catch. Warrenheip has 11 chicks and the Hatchery has two chicks and one egg.