Our chairman, John Sumich, compiles a newsletter every three months. Click on one of the headings (or images) below to download a pdf file of that quarter's newsletter. They provide an entertaing and very readable summary of what has been going on in the Ark.
Newsletters
June 2010 Newsletter
Moby and Punga
Moby and Punga; not quite the same ring to it as Romeo and Juliet but hopefully these star-crossed lovers have a better fate. In fact so far they are neither star-crossed nor uncrossed nor even lovers but perhaps by spring they will at least be more than casual acquaintances.
Topics:
• Recent kokako release
• Canopy Corps
• Rare plants for rare fauna
• Schools adopt bait stations
• Contractors
March 2010 Newsletter
Hillary Trail Opens
With beaches, bush, dune lakes, towering cliffs, waterfalls, Maori and European history, the new Hillary Trail offers a varied and scenically interesting multi-day hike of up to 70 kilometres in the Waitakere Ranges..
Topics:
• Hillary Trail
• The High Ground
• Further Expansion
• Better Biodiversity
• Kauri Dieback
• Help from Hohepa
December 2009 Newsletter
The Year of the Robin
Undoubtedly the introduction of new birds has been influential but this year is certainly turning out to be the year of the robin...
Topics:
• Robin release
• Kaka breeding?
• Weiweia Wayfarer
• Outward Bound
• Kokako Capers
September 2009 Newsletter
Kokako Release
Clear ringing bell tones, octave jumping cadences, mews and soft burblings all carried magically in the valley where invited guests walked in the early post-frost morning. Accompanying us to the release site where the first kokako to be seen in the Waitakere Ranges in over 50 years...
Topics:
• Kokako release
• Acoustic anchoring
• Filming in the Ark
• Ark signs
June 2009 Newsletter
A Day in the Life of Robin B94055
In the distance, the wup wup wup of the helicopter faded away in the early morning, and we settled down into our thermals again quietly waiting for our quarry in the half-light and the cold damp of the Mangatutu Forest.
Topics:
• Robin release
• Concert for the Birds
• Visiting groups
• Ark reaches Auckland University Tramping Club hut
• Ark house just a whisker away
March 2009 Newsletter
Worth Their Weight in Gold?
When Yvonne Vaneveld spotted a small broken egg amongst the undergrowth below a large kauri tree, she knew instantly that this was a significant find...
Topics:
• hihi make themselves at home in the Ark
• Auckland Zoo makes an 'Urban Ark'
• Stoat Tales
• Tomtit Territory
• Fernbird spotted
December 2008 Newsletter
Curiouser and Curiouser
It's not only Cheshire cats in Wonderland that are curious animals; our hihi are providing many fascinating glimpses of a socially complex bird. It is known from previous studies on the island sites where hihi breed that up to 40% of the eggs in a clutch may have been fertilised by one or more males other than the putative partner. But does a non-dominant male have a further role in this cuckolds nest? Andy Warneford, our hihi monitoring contractor, reports a male feeding a chick that seemed to have its siblings being fed a short distance away by a dominant male associated with an observed nest. Was this a non-dominant male easing his conscience?...
Topics:
• hihi chicks start to fledge
• Ark expansion
• Meet the manager
• Rodent monitoring shows great results again
• PTA - kauri under attack by new pathogen
• progress towards a new Ark base
September 2008 Newsletter
Strange Birds
....Some 4 km away from the Cascade Kauri Park where we released hihi this year and last, are several homes along a bush- fringed dead-end road. Yvonne and Mike's home overlooks native forest extending down to Swanson, but they were aware for many months of hihi calls in the valley below them. Placing sugar-water feeders that the birds are familiar with was the right inducement. Soon, the hihi was coming close to the deck railing on which the feeder was mounted...
Topics:
• What the hihi are getting up to
• skinks are important too
• roving robins
• concert report
(Click here to download full newsletter)
June 2008 Newsletter
Double Act
An autumn as busy as this is unlikely to occur very often, but Ark in the Park rose to the challenge of two translocations, one in April, the second in May. After our translocation of whiteheads in2004, there was a rapid dispersal of some of these birds through the Waitakere Ranges with sightings as far away as Huia, [20 km] after only 3 weeks. With unbanded chicks seen 12 km away in the first breeding season and sightings also in the general Ark area, we knew the birds were still present...
Topics:
• hihi capture and release
• whitehead capture and release
• news of overseas volunteers
• hihi monitoring
• track improvements
(click here to download full newsletter)
March 2008 Newsletter
Hihi Success Rewarded With Another Transfer
February marked the passing of 1 year since the first release of hihi at Ark in the Park, perhaps the most significant release yet in the history of hihi translocations, given that the vegetation of the Ark most closely resembles the mature North Island forest habitat hihi would once have predominantly occupied, as compared to the other release sites to date. The results of the first year have yielded many positives, with hihi readily utilising the abundant natural food on offer at the Ark site, as well as the sugar water feeders they were familiar with on the less botanically diverse Tiritiri Matangi Island, their original capture site. A further positive sign was the discovery of two nests in natural cavities during the breeding season (as well as ledglings seen from a third), despite the fact that all Ark birds would have been raised in eye-level nest boxes on Tiri...
Topics:
• success of 2007 hihi transfer
• bus shelter transformed to an Ark gateway
• third breeding season for robins
• the support given by Friends of Arataki
(click here to download full newsletter)