january 2010 horowhenua, royal forest and bird protecton society newsletter

8/8/2019 January 2010 Horowhenua, Royal Forest and Bird Protecton Society Newsletter

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January 2010 Newsletter

President: Robert Hirschberg Phone 06 364 3680 Secretary: Belinda McLean Phone 06 364 5573

WELCOME TO THE BIRDS

This was held on Saturday 31 October at theHolben Reserve at Foxton Beach. Many of ourmembers were joined by a busload of peoplefrom Palmerston North and the Forest & BirdGreen Rig. Debbie Waldin and a band of helperswere the Big Birds.

We split into two groups, for a long or shortwalk to get as close as possible to observe thebirds, especially the Godwits.There were several spottingscopes set up which provided anexcellent way to see theGodwits at close quarters.

On 27 February 2010 there

will be a farewell to the birdsat the Holben Reserve Foxton

at 10am.

WILD RIVER CELEBRATIONWe certainly turned on a wild day in our areafor the 28th November outing to the OtakiGorge to celebrate our local wild river. The

stormy conditions seemed to be centred on theWest side of the Tararua Range with thecontinuous heavy rain and high river levelsleading to an early postponement of this event.

Other branches seemed to be more fortunateand there were reports of well attendedcelebrations around the country. Lower HuttBranch had a particularly large turn out.A great deal of planning and preparation hasgone into this event so the committee hasdecided to re-schedule and maybe put it on ournext programme.


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HELEN BAIN

Helen was Communications Manager at Forest &Bird, and was the editor of Forest & Bird, ourmagazine. Tragically she was drowned whilecrossing the Ruamahanga River in the Wairarapaon 29th December. She was on horseback and theriver was in flood, when the horse stumbled andshe fell hitting her head on the stones. Helen wasa very keen horserider and was secretary of theWairarapa Endurance Club.

Most of her working life Helen had been ajournalist, a parliamentary secretary, and she wasa very intelligent and effective manager ofCommunications at Forest & Bird. She had thereputation of being feisty, calling a spade a spade,but very competent, and full of fun.The November journal wholly about rivers was aproud achievement and she had already preparedthe February issue which also has an edgy note

for conservation before leaving on her Christmasholidays. She will be greatly missed by hercolleagues and all who knew her.

Joan Leckie

DECEMBER POT LUCK

LUNCHEON20 members met at Norm and Joans atMakahika Road to celebrate the end ofa successful year with Forest & Bird. It

was good to see that some of our mostsenior members were able to be with us.

After a very pleasant convivial time wehad our shared lunch and the men didthe dishes while the committee had abrief meeting. Then it was off on anexploratory walk, climbing over manyfences along the way and watching out

for interesting birds and plants. A mostenjoyable way to end the year.


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A VERY SPECIAL TRIP TO F&B

RESERVES IN THE RANGITIKEI

We met up with our local guide, Hugh Stewartfrom the Rangitikei Branch, at Blue Gum corner15kms North of Bulls. He climbed aboard one ofour vehicles and we set off in convoy with the

intention of visiting 3 podacarp forests during theday. Our first stop was along the way to PrycesReserve to view the seven terraces clearly visibleand dating back 300.000 years. In geologicalterms this is regarded as the best example ofterrace sequences to be seen in the world andPryces Reserve is on one of the youngestterraces. It was gifted to the Rangitikei branch in1943 and the other reserves, Lairds andSutherlands, were subsequently gifted.

Pryces impressed us with the many boardwalksover the wetland areas, a giant leaved rangiora,the many giant podocarps and the parsonsias(native jasmines) in full flower scrambling up thetrees.

We moved onwards to Lairds Bush and had lunchoverlooking the bush listening to the birdsong.Webecame very friendly with a group of horses thatwere very interested in our group. This bush was alittle hillier, again had giant podocarps, some

ground orchids and huge mounds of nest epiphytessurrounding many of the giant trees. These plants

perch high up in the trees and absorb moisture sothat they become very heavy and eventuallyduring a storm they dislodge from the tree andend up below. No wonder they are called WidowMakers!

Our last stop wasat Sutherlands,the 2nd one, in theTurakina Valley.

We walked alongthe red track asfar as the MaoriFood pits admiringthe large leavedmaidenhair ferns.

We just viewed McPhersons bush from the roadon our way out of the valley as we just ran out oftime and it was a quick journey home with a stop

off for refreshments in Bulls on the way.As one of our party remarked on the return

journey - This is what Forest & Bird is all aboutenjoying our native bush and preserving it forfuture generations

MONEY MATTERSCongratulations to Julie Curran on her salesmanship.Our 2010 calendars were sold out in record time

bringing a profit of over $500 to our branch. As weare one of the smaller F&B branches this extra moneykeeps our branch ticking over nicely.

Many more people are bringing along goods for ourBring and Buy table at our monthly branch nights and

at our last meeting the goods sold earned us over $50.Please continue to bring along excess produce and anysurplus goods in 2010.

We have also heard that the application Naomi madeto the Eastern and Central Community Trust wassuccessful and we have $1000 so that we can continueto print our newsletters in colour. Well done Naomi.

Margarette


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We would like to thank the Eastern &Central Community Trust for their grantwhich is enabling us to produce ournewsletter in colour.

DID YOU KNOW?

Return AddressHorowhenua Forest &BirdC/- L. Berger5 Gordon PlaceLEVIN

Pohutakawa Metrosideros excelsa

This tree at Te Araroa on the East Coast ofNZi s reportedly the largest and oldestPohutakawa in NZ. It is 65 feet tall with itsbranches spreading over 120 feet all round

and is reputed to be over 600 years old.

The tree was greatly favoured by earlyEuropean settlers for boatbuilding as itstimber was immune to seaworms and itsnatural bends lent itself to boat construction.Possums love the tender fresh shoots and whenconcern arose about the wholesale destructionof the tree in the 1990s PROJECT CRIMSONwas formed with the aim of restoring the species.It has been an incredible flowering year here

in Horowhenua with masses of blooms ranging in colour from pink to bright crimson.

BEACH PATROLSThe October and November patrol days werepretty wild weather wise, but our December one toKuku beach was most enjoyable. We all love goingto Kuku as it is such a dynamic, unmodified beachand every time we visit it is very different. Thetide was full in and the river had moved back Northleaving a large lagoon to be skirted to get to thebeach itself.

After speaking to a man with some local knowledgewe headed South on the inland route and eventuallygot around to the beach.

Along the way we saw about 60 oystercatchers andsome pied stilts on a narrow strip of sand withsome of both species obviously showing signs ofnesting. Two separate flocks of godwits took tothe air which was quite an impressive sight. TheBlack Backed gulls are again nesting on the dunesto the North and when a man and his dog walkednear to them hundreds of birds took to the air

screeching noisily. Our first patrol for the NewYear is to Waikawa beach so do come and join us.

Geoff Monk

january 2010 horowhenua, royal forest and bird protecton society newsletter

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