How do birds feed? How do they catch the insects, sip the nectar and dig for huhu grubs? How do birds walk, or sit in trees, or swim? How on earth do birds build an intricately woven nest with only a beak and feet?! We spent the afternoon really looking at the parts of our NZ native birds that make them suited to their habitat – by looking closely at their different beaks, feet and nests.
BEAKS: We pretended to be different kinds of native NZ birds by using tongs, chopsticks, a paint brush and pliers and experimenting on how birds feed in different types of habitats. We had a river bed, the forest floor, a pond, a rotting tree log, kowhai flowers and tussock lands, and we were amazed at the adaptations that birds have – they are pretty clever as to how they have evolved and adapted!
FEET: We guessed whose feet were whose – there was really good answering – I was impressed! We counted claws and toes, noticed if they were webbed or not and looked at how big their claws were!
NESTS: We headed to the pond and collected the types of materials that we thought birds would use to build a nest and then we spent time building a nest. We then looked at actual nests – and we immediately had a new found appreciation for how skilful birds are at weaving those nests that are very intricate. We also pondered over different types of nests, and how they are not all the same! What wondrous adaptations birds have made in different environments.
Big thanks to Chris and Brian at the Southland Community Nursery. We have held a number of Kiwi Conservation Club events at the nursery during 2017. It is an awesome venue, offering us an inside sheltered building (when needed!) surrounded by nature’s taonga.
Happy Holidays to all you KCC members and enjoy being out there in nature exploring.
Bronwyn, KCC Coordinator Southland
Posted: 17 December 2017
What a fantastic morning! Fourty-five people came to help celebrate another wonderful year at the Community Nursery. During 2017 over 1000 people, mostly school children, have come to the Nursery, lots of diverse workshops have been held (thanks to ILT Foundation funding) and Friday morning nursery volunteers have been as active as previous years. It’s estimated that around 8-10,000 native plants are grown and planted out each year, with volunteers taking plants away for their efforts and sale of plants to the public being the main source of funding for the general Nursery and Education Centre expenses.
Chris particularly thanked Brian for his inspiration and support, Linda and Ray for Nursery support, Bronwyn for school support and Dawn for support of everything conservation! All are such valuable friends, we couldn’t do without them. But… the Nursery is a community of people that support each other and everyone’s contribution makes it the success that it is.
On the day there were lots of activities – largely self-directed – from making Mexican Christmas decorations, to weaving Christmas wreaths from natural materials, making flax flowers, making and sailing boats (again from natural materials), making giant bubbles with Alan Admore. The final event was the traditional Christmas pinata (with a less than traditional donkey design!) where the blindfolded children had fun trying to break it open – eventually Zade delivered the blow that spilled the contents for everyone to gather up!
Honorlea was there with her “Kakariki Natural Beauty” Body Products made from natural materials and Darren brought along hand crafted breadboards for those last minute Christmas gifts.
Of course food always helps oil the wheels and everyone tucked into a glorious spread of offerings brought by everyone who attended.
Have a very Merry Christmas and we will re-open on Friday 5th January 2018!
Chris
Posted: 17 December 2017
The Community Nursery will celebrate the year by having a Christmas Break-up for volunteers and supporters on Friday morning 15 December 2017.
Bring along some yummy food to share, help decorate the Nature Centre and have fun catching up with friends. If you havent been for a while come along and share the fun. There will be boat building activities for children and no doubt other activities too!
We will have native plants available for your last minute Christmas gifts or planting projects, or that native Christmas tree!
We will also have Honorlea with her “Kakariki Natural Beauty” pop-up shop 10am-2pm - those last minute Christmas gifts, all made of natural products, will go down really well - please bring cash! To see a range of Honorleas products - see photos below and more on the News page of her pop-up shop at a recent workshop.
If you cant make it on the 15th, thanks for all your work and support this year - we really appreciate it.
Chris
Posted: 4 December 2017
The Gladstone Keas ventured partway around the Pond Circuit Track using our senses to connect with all the really special NZ native trees and other living things in our community nursery forest - through look, smell, touch and listening. The different leaf shape, colour, smell and roughness; the spotting of seed pods and flowers; and talk about the extinct moa all featured with some awesome theorising and question asking by the Keas.
The potting up groups managed to pot up around 40 cabbage tree seedlings with enthusiasm! The young cabbage tree seedlings look like flax and are brown so quite different from the green trees seen around the pond that are flowering so well at the moment.
A quick run around the freshly mown grass circles expended the last of the Keas energy before they headed home.
Chris
Posted: 4 December 2017
Waverley Park students were on a mission – to find out about native plants and choose some for their school garden. Chris led the group around the pond with each student looking for their special native plant – matching cards to plants in the field. Touching, smelling and leaf shape helped identify a range of natives.
Back in the nursery, the students chose a range of native plants to take back to school for their planting project giving the nursery a donation to cover the coast of the plants..
Chris
Posted: 4 December 2017
