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Easter Art Ramble

As our art space is red-stickered this Easter we are hosting an ‘art ramble’. There are four venues as listed on the map, and you are all welcome to ramble around to each of them between 2pm & 4pm on Easter Sunday, or if those hours don’t suit txt or call the host to arrange a more convivial time, possibly when the sun is shining. The Easter forecast is challenging, but don’t let a howling gale stop you. Slap on a rain-slicker and a pair of red-bands, grab yourself a refreshing rambling beverage, and set forth! The exercise in gale force winds will be bracing, and you’ll cross paths with your fellow windswept islanders while seeing what the island artistes have been working on. Start at either end of the map; it’s a very small island and the distances are short.

Here are a few tempting samples of art to view…

**Desirable bronze lancewood leaves by Jim Wheeler.**

**A natural history plethora of wearable beetles & moths by Lisa West**

**Carolyn MacKenzies ever popular Rakino flora & fauna paintings**

**Beautiful pearls by Harriet Sommerville.**

Wetlands

Riparian planting, storm water mitigation, slope stabilisation.

**Exposed tree roots above cars parked down by the wharf.**

The January 27th Auckland flood has me thinking about flood mitigation because storm water run-off has caused a bank to slip into a stream on our Auckland property, but also the culvert running onto our Rakino property has barely stopped running this year, and has consequently dug itself a stream channel which was once ephemeral, but now seems a permanent fixture.

We want to slow the water flow down so as to avoid scouring and flushing out of sediment, and we want to ensure the water is cleaned of any contaminants before it eventually ends up in the Hauraki Gulf. It’s always been the way to pass run off and storm water to the properties downhill, but I think we need to increasingly look at mitigating at the source, water collection, riparian planting, and establishing ‘cleaning’ plants like carex in wetland areas.

Here are a couple of interesting studies from Landcare Research for perusal..

https://icm.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/research.asp?theme_id=1&research_id=13

https://icm.landcareresearch.co.nz/knowledgebase/publications/public/Roots_October08.pdf

Celebrity interview : Spotless Crake, Pūweto

The following is a transcript of a very difficult to secure interview with a Spotless Crake. No photographs were taken in accordance with his wishes.

Me – So, Pūweto, you’re an unlikely candidate for a celebrity interview because you’re famously reclusive. I’d consider you the Howard Hughes of the bird world, except of course, you’re not much of a flier…

Pūweto – pit-pit-pit-pit (scuttles into undergrowth)

Me – Okay, this doesn’t have to be face to face. If you’d feel more comfortable hiding in the muehlenbeckia while you tell me a bit about yourself that’s fine.

Pūweto – Pock!

Me – Oka-a-a-ay. You’re renowned for being cryptic, sort of mud-coloured and blue-ish, and you have glowing red eyes. Great stuff! Anything else you’d like the punters to know?

Pūweto – Well, okay, I agree to the interview, but NO pictures. Agreed?

Me – Chance would be a fine thing.

Pūweto – Exact numbers of Spotless Crakes in NZ aren’t known because we’re so secretive, and crepuscular which is an excellent word meaning active at dawn and dusk. There are a few of us on Rakino, and I’ve got cuzzies on Tiritiri Matangi, and Great Barrier as well as around various bits of wetland in the upper North Island and other offshore islands. Basically we like lurking in reeds and raupo in swamps where humans aren’t. You guys know hardly anything about us, and given we’ve gone into serious decline since European arrival you probably won’t find out either. (makes a sound like a pelican gargling frogs)

Me – Wow, touchy. How can I help?

Pūweto – Since you ask, for starters you can stop draining our wetland habitats for human activity. When you’ve stopped doing that you can replant the wetland plants you destroyed so we’ve got some plant-based food to eat, and then you can get rid of all your introduced predators so they won’t kill us, eat our eggs, and eat our protein source of invertebrates. M’kay?

Me – You’re quite sarcastic for a small uncharismatic bird. How did you do in Bird of the Year? I heard that in 2021 you came last….

Pūweto – RU-U-U-U-UDE! Some radio hosts made up a cool song about us in 2022, so we didn’t come last. FYI the Shining Cuckoo came last, quite rightly, the obnoxious little usurper.

Me – (trying to steer interview back to less troublesome territory) Umm, I think we may have got a little off-track. Which particular predators are the biggest threat to you?

Pūweto – As you so pointedly alluded to earlier, we’re not known for our soaring flight, so pretty much all of them, but most especially cats, dogs, mustelids, and rats. You humans have got a lot to rectify. Pock!

Me – Okay, thanks for your time. I’m going to plant a lot of carex in the stream for you next planting season, so hopefully our next encounter won’t be so fraught, though I understand your irritation. Please enjoy the rest of your day unmolested. 🙂

Spotless Crakes are found in a number of damp locations around Rakino.

According to DoC “They are a potential indicator of wetland health because they are dependent on the presence of high quality and ecologically diverse habitats and rich food supplies.”

This makes me feel happy in the knowledge that if you plant it they will come. Definitely time to get those native aquatic plants into the ground though…

Labour Weekend Market Day

We haven’t had a market on Rakino for a few years, so a few enthusiastic people have decided to have a crack at reinstating it on the Rakino events calendar.
It’s going to happen this year on October 23rd, 1pm till 3-ish, down at the Hall, after the RRA meeting. There will be a $10 a market table koha to be donated to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust.

If you have bits and bobs to sell, come on down, and if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket, definitely come on down. Come on down regardless.
There will be a sausage sizzle, so bring some gold coins for that, and Jennie Cruse will be busking, so bring some gold coins for her.
There will be t-shirts, tote-bags, cool pottery mugs, preserves, pearls, and much more. The art rooms will be open also, for painting ceramics, and jewels. Cash transfers are available.
If you need more info, email me, lisa@lisawest.co.nz

We look forward to seeing your lovely faces on Sunday. 🙂

EMR Labour Weekend Workshop

I have good news for the aspiring Rakino fish-counting snorkelers.
Many thanks to the Waiheke Local Board who have approved the grant we applied for to fund the Experiencing Marine Reserves workshop to be held on Rakino this coming Labour Weekend. Part of the grant includes funding for an underwater camera for documentation purposes, so with a bit of practise we’ll be able to show the non-snorkelers what lives in the rocky reefs around Rakino.

Also a big thanks to the excellent people at the Waiheke Resources Trust who supported our application. I’m confident we can build on that relationship in future.

Here is the link for anyone who is interested in Rakino-based citizen science;

https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/rakino-marine-monitoring-workshop-registration-422187924447

It’s free to participants, and we’ll supply your lunch. All the details you need to know are in the link, but don’t hesitate to email me at lisa@lisawest.co.nz if you require anything further.

Kākā nesting box project with PFK

Lying in bed I can just see the bottom of the kākā nesting box that was installed high up a large old kanuka tree a couple of months ago. It doesn’t have any nesting kākā residing in it, but in future years it may as kākā numbers increase due to successful predator control, and they spread out around Auckland. Kākā from the Aotea Great Barrier flock have been appearing in Kaipātiki during the winter months for a few years now, though still in small numbers.

The Kaipātiki area on Auckland’s North Shore has a significant canopy area of 30%, a number of mature bush reserves, as well as areas of remnant kauri, so it’s little wonder it would be attractive to winter foraging Nestors. They seem attracted to the gully we live in, I think because it contains a number of tall trees, including kauri, and a variety of food options for generalist kākā, who eat seeds, insects, young leaves, and nectar.

The nesting box project was conceived by Pest-Free Kaipātiki, a local ecological umbrella group who provide tools and expert knowledge to volunteer groups who want to remove invasive weeds and introduced predators from the Kaipātiki environment. It’s a bold project, and the notion that we might one day have kākā nesting a short ferry ride from Auckland’s CBD is exciting.

The nesting box design was drafted up by Burgess, Treep + Knight Architects and from my vantage point looks rather palatial. The ‘hollow’ is a length of 400mm diameter pipe lined with untreated wood, and it has a possum proof roof. Volunteers generously gave their time to assemble the nesting boxes, and they were installed by arborists from Tree Tops. There are six of them placed around areas kākā are known to frequent in Kaipātiki.

**Nest box construction, showing brackets and holes.**

**Nest box interior showing untreated timber planks with kākā footholds.**

**Action shots of the installation by arborists from Tree Tops. Images by Bella Burgess.**

We didn’t know how many kākā were visiting, or their sex. I have heard reports of four kākā roosting in the old pines behind my neighbours, but the most I have seen at any one time is three.

I obsessively photographed and videoed them throughout August and September this year whenever they visited, and finally managed to establish that there was a solitary male who would call in, and a male and a female who would visit together. All three once visited simultaneously, and the cacophony and maelstrom of kākā activity was overwhelming.

**The female kākā, as evidenced by her smaller bill.**

A solo kākā will be harassed by tūī, but two kākā seem more than a match for the local tūī gang.

I set up a project on iNaturalist to diarise and keep track of their appearances. The last entry is September 29^th at 7.54am. It reads ‘Saw kaka fly past bedroom window heading towards Fernglen gardens. Very close to house.’ They may turn up a couple more times before heading back to their Hauraki Gulf island homes to breed, but they won’t be roosting here full time again till next June/July. It’s always interesting to note the dates when I get Facebook memories that mention kākā.

The most important thing is knowing that a healthy female was roosting here for a number of months. I also managed to capture a photograph of them in close vicinity to the nesting box, and on one occasion I saw a kākā perched on it’s roof, but my photo is terrible, and just shows a confusion of feathers to the left of the image. I think that bodes well for the future of the nesting box project. :>

**Two kākā in the treetops with nesting box.**

Many thanks to Pest-Free Kaipātiki for letting me share this project. 🙂

Featured image is of the apple thief.

Some depressing news in Conservation Week :(

Read the latest blog from our neighbours on the Noises here…

I’d like to encourage anyone who is worried about the continuing degradation of the Hauraki Gulf to write to the relevant ministers, David Parker, & James Shaw, d.parker@ministers.govt.nz, j.shaw@ministers.govt.nz

Make a noise for the Noises, and the Hauraki Gulf.

Attention Snorkelers!

This summer Experiencing Marine Reserves is keen to run a workshop on Rakino for aspiring citizen science snorkelers. The plan is to teach participants how to do fish counts and collect useful data so we can track what is happening in the water around Rakino. There are places for up to 20 participants and enthusiasm is high. There are about ten places left, so if you haven’t already registered your interest on the Friends of Rakino FB page, email me, lisa@lisawest.co.nz
The intention is to apply for a grant to fund the workshop.

I’ll keep everyone who is interested in the loop, but we’d also like to have a bit of a get-together this Matariki Weekend on Rakino (weather permitting!) in order to have a chat about the workshop, but also to eat snacks and enjoy a few drinks in good company. Details on get-together yet to be confirmed, but here is the workshop outline for your perusal.

Rakino subtidal survey workshop outline 2022 Download

Tiny Museum reviewed

My documentation of the event could have been better, but I was a tad flustered as I was still running around at 5pm trying to assign numbers to the art work for sale. Thankfully Holly was keeping calm like a professional.

Dylan and Simon were happy to pose for paparazzi shots, but sadly I missed the opportunity to take any photos of the throng. I was too busy debating about how to play sea shanties successfully through the speaker to pay proper attention.
I can confirm the ladies of the Backhouse-Smith household were the height of glamour, and I’m dismayed at my failure to document their fabulosity. 🙁

**Posing for blurry paparazzi shots whilst obscuring Katie Blundell’s fabulous artwork.**

There was a brief flurry of consternation as Billie the Dog opportunistically made off with McCann family heirloom ‘shark-stick’, but the treasure was quickly retrieved, and the saliva removed. As Josh remarked drily “well technically, it is a stick”. I’ve made similar faux pas in galleries myself, so don’t wish to cast aspersions at Billie. Scuba Steve was also a very popular exhibit, as were Dylan’s beach fossicked skulls. A certain wall-mounted viciously fanged skull kept the punters guessing, and many were surprised to discover it was a feral cat.

**‘Shark stick’ in lower center left of image.**

**Skulls, sponges, and viewing devices.**

Many thanks to everyone who came to the opening event, visited the Tiny Museum, brought along delicious snacks, and generously lent their treasures, display units, trees, and artwork over the Easter period. The weather was a little unkind, but the turn out was pretty good regardless. I was particularly happy to see how many Rakino kids turned up with their beautiful artwork to stick to the undersea background!

The purpose of the Tiny Museum portion of the Easter art show was to draw attention to marine and terrestrial environment of Rakino, to celebrate our 20 years predator-free status, but also to make us think about where we might go from here. The displays of gecko & skink posters will remain for now, as will the posters of the photographs taken of the Woody Bay & Otata snorkel trips. There are QR codes next to some items, and if you scan them with a code reader you can find out more about them. There is also plenty of artwork still available. Money was raised for the Westpac Helicopter thanks to Harriet’s generosity, and there is still potentially more money to be raised thanks to a further donation of an art work by Anne McCabe, courtesy of Mark & Julianne.

**Work from Julianne Taylor, Christine Rose, Albie McCabe, and Carolyn MacKenzie.**

**A series of unframed prints from Julianne Taylor.**

**Carolyn MacKenzie’s lovely paintings.**

**Thanks All, and see you next time.**

The Tiny Museum @ ORCA

Easter Art Show on Rakino Island

This Easter we have a theme for the Art Show on account of the fact it’s 20 years since Rakino became pest free. In addition to the usual great art available to purchase we are setting up photo displays about marine and terrestrial conservation on Rakino. There will be glorious gecko, and sublime seascapes.

We have an area we are styling as the ‘Tiny Museum’, an open cabinet of curiosities containing beach combed treasures and objet. We have a large wall dedicated to displaying sea critters created by ‘kino kids, so I’m looking forward to receiving lots of marine flora and fauna to attach to our undersea background.

Below are a few tasters of some of the work on show; more images to come. 🙂