ABOUT US



ABOUT US
We are from Cornwall, England.
We love to travel and to explore places in a campervan. We find wide open spaces exhilarating
and do lots of walking. Show us an accessible hill or mountain and we want to go up it.
We like watching birds but are not twitchers. To be honest Lawson is more into bird spotting than me but what I find amazing
is the diversity of birdlife, and the fact birds of all sizes continue to live side by side with us humans. So, in the course of our explorations
we may make a detour to the local dump because more often than not it will be one of the best places to see birds.
We are sure New Zealand will not disappoint us when it comes to birds but what about other wildlife and natural wonders?
Will we encounter anything to beat the sight of polar bears on sea ice at the North Pole?
And what will we think of the house at Paraparaumu that Ron and Vivien have built? All will be revealed.......

Sunday, 16 February 2014

Weed whacking 2

How could I have forgotten the possums in my list of NZ pests?And a surprising one is the hedgehog. Yes,the hedgehog, which was introduced to the country to deal with garden pests but is now decimating the bird population by eating their eggs.
While we were up in Mount Cook country we visited a black stilt conservation project. It seems there are only about 200 of these birds left in the world - all in South Island, NZ. The project is doing very well at collecting eggs, hatching them and returning the young birds to the wild but predation means that very few survive; hedgehogs were amongst the predators blamed for this.
Perhaps NZ could send a few back to us?

Captive Black Stilt

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