I found this fantastic piece of writing by Allison Ballance while googling around. This piece won Ballance the 2007 Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing. It is a great meditation on place and change. Ballance connects with the environment, specifically the mountains of the Southern Alps but in doing so she maintains her perspective. She can see how the mountains like us change, sometimes quickly.
Ballances two main themes are glaciers, and yes tuke, or Rock Wren. Here are a couple of teasers...
I fell in love with the rock wrens, which an early New Zealand climber described as ‘looking for all the world like boiled potatoes with their jackets on, set up on hairpins and let loose on the rocks.’ I nicknamed every bird in our study area Bob, for their endearing habit of constant bobbing
there is a big difference between the potential effects of global warming on rock wrens and glaciers. The worst case scenario is that both will disappear, but the similarity ends there. The rock wrens are irreplaceable – they will join four other ancient New Zealand wrens in the ranks of the extinct. Glaciers are made, not of flesh and blood, but of frozen water; if the world cools, they have the ability to rise from the dead.
Hey Jamie, Great to see wrens seen in Arthurs. Incidentally, it was a fantastic year for the rata flowers as well. Reason for commenting is to suggest that it could be a good idea to encourage people to list their sightings of rock wrens (and other species) using the NZ Biodiversity Recording Network. It is relatively easy to get the hang of and will allow these sightings to be captured and recorded. Using NZBRN would help to keep an updated map of the species distribution.
ReplyDeleteCheerio, will see you in Welly for the nationals
Steve Pawson