Come along and forage for wild foods with Maggie and Chris on Wednesday 7 March 2018, 6.30pm. Park at 183 Grant Road carpark and we will meet you there. No need to book but bring along $5 to learn about wild foods and sample some of the foraged delights on offer.
Chris
Posted: 2 February 2018
Kereru on wineberry today collecting seed. Wineberry is one of the fleshy fruited seeds that is difficult to collect - if the kereru find it first! It’s early this year. From Friday onwards we will be collecting available seed - red tussock has already been collected, Carex secta, toe toe and wineberry will be next. Meanwhile, the pond is at its lowest level ever. See you Friday.
Chris
Posted: 24 January 2018
The Nursery will be open for volunteers on Friday mornings from Friday 5 January 2018. There will be potting, moving plants around, weeding, watering, track work to name but a few jobs to be done.
Chris
Posted: 4 January 2018
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