Rock Wren Facebook Page

Lets hope Facebook can do for rock wren what it has done for Tunisia and Egypt;-). Some cool photos of Kerry Westons Phd fieldwork...and for some more pics check out Danillo Heggs site....Danillo's place is actually in my opinion the most inspiring New Zealand outdoors/tramping site there is, bookmark it now.

Tuke sightings?

Kerry Weston from the University of Canterbury is currently completing the first ever Phd on rock wren (I stand to be corrected). Please help her with any sightings...

On Avalanche Peak

A great picture of a Tuke on Avalanche peak taken by my Mum last summer. Good on you Mum 1) for climbing a mountain 2) for finding a rock wren!

Rock Wren in the Otira

I have recieved these great reports about rock wren sightings in the Otira Valley. As one of our only alpine highways this is definitely one of the best places to view Tuke. It is also a place where there is talk of doing more to protect and understand them.

In fact it is more than talk, the Arthurs Pass Community Centre protecting Raroa in the Bealey and surrounds no doubt aids the rock wren as does the trapping and 1080 programmes down the Otira. Soon stoat traps may be moving up the Otira to again secure this valley for Whio, Raroa and Tuke!

James, reliable report from Robin Delamere, ex-DOC of 6 rock wren in Upper Otira Valley map reference 898110, 11.30 am, 9/1/2010, fine cool weather. Appeared to be pair with 4 immature young ones. Cheers.

Hi Jamie, attached are two images (adult) I took this afternoon of Rock Wren in the upper Otira Valley. These are part of a family of 6 (2A 4J) found on that "island" section of moraine just above the "boulder garden" - as streams run both sides they might of created their own predator free paradise. Their nest is under some large rocks in the centre of their territory (they were circling it about 10m radius), they have used chamois hair taken from a decaying carcass about 400m higher up. I delivered them a Weka (road kill) and placed it high on the cliff above them in a predator free area with 360º clear view around - one of the Juv's followed me up there - be interesting to see if they use it.

There is another pair (no Juvs seen) in that area of scrub/rock opposite the scree that runs off Philistine Bluff (about 400m downstream of bridge), they seem to be on the true-right (but that just might be their curiosity of me).

Allison Ballance and Tuke

I haven't been active on the Tuke front for a while, but a trip to Arthurs Pass where I plan to get to know in more detail the Tuke and their mountain basins is staring me in the face.

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.

Some Piccies!

Gareth Hopkins and Becky Wilson from DOC Fox have been doing some rock wren work in deepest darkest westland. Recently they sent me through a couple of their research reports and some photos. I'll summarise the reports in time, but first a couple of best photos...

Rock Wren Nest's

A correspondent sent me through this extract from Herbert Guthrie Smith, a famous New Zealand naturalist and author of the classic "Tutira".

"Guthrie–Smith, H., Sorrows and Joys of a New Zealand Naturalist, 1936.

Extract
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The orifice of the nest pierced into a fibrous mass of overhanging roots. Partly within and partly beneath this densely matted live growth was built the nest. As we discovered afterwards when ransacking the deserted structure, its remarkable bulk was composed of skeleton leaves, finely shredded grass, and feathers. On this comfortable cushion — the feathers were laid most thickly on the bottom of the nest, or, rather, within this overarching bower — reposed the chicks.

Of the 791 feathers counted, over seven hundred were those of Ocydromus australis (weka), and perhaps O. finschi and O. brachypterus. There were feathers also of considerable numbers of the kakapo and kiwi, showing how high these species ascend in their alpine wanderings; there were also a few kea and a few pigeon feathers. When counted by us, in spite of the deluges of the two preceding days, the interior of the nest and the feathers themselves were fresh and sweet, they betrayed no signs of mould or damp.

Unlike the bush wren which is constantly taking dry feathers in and wet feathers out both during incubation of the eggs and rearing of the young, the rock wren seemed to prefer to make a thorough job at the beginning. Warmth and dryness are obtained once for all by bulk of material, the natural oil of the feathers massed together helping to exclude any dampness that might penetrate, firstly through the live root mass, and, secondly, through the exterior shield of shredded grass and skeleton leaves.

Really interesting stuff. It would be tempting to think that the absence of weka, the vacumn cleaner of the New Zealand forest might have a positive aspect for rock wren, but maybe not! Below is a photo we took of a weka on a recent trip to Kapiti Island.