Kingfisher and kawakawa wrangling

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Kingfisher perching on rain gauge and occasionally pooping into it!

We have a resident pair of Kingfisher near the house that nest in a big old Phoenix Palm beside the swimming pool. They have a luxury roost!   On the lawn about 20 metres away is our rain gauge, and one (or maybe both) of the Kingfishers recently decided that the rain gauge was a brilliant perch for sitting quietly and catching prey.   Clever stuff, except they sat and delicately pooped straight down into the rain gauge!  Pete was getting a bit miffed with having to constantly clean it out and it was hampering his rain recording accuracy too!   What to do!?  From my experience with bird behaviour, I suggested Pete plant a higher perch in front of the rain gauge

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Rain gauge perch solution!

in the direction the Kingfisher usually sat.  It worked perfectly!  No bird likes to be out perched!  S/he now takes her place daily on the specially made perch with dowel just the right width for best grip.  I watched this morning as it scooped up a skink and sat on its new perch, consuming its prey in seconds.

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Happy camper

 

 

 

 

 

In that same area is one of four little Kawakawa saplings that I planted to see if I can grow these native medicinal trees to supplement the ONE mature Kawakawa tree we have on our 6ha.  Our beautiful 5m high x 3m wide verdant Kawakawa tree is near the house, behind the vege

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Mature established Kawakawa tree.

gardens.  It’s growing below a sandy/clay cliff of about 20m, at the base of a little hill we call Pig Hill (cos we had Kunekunes there once).  I love this Kawakawa tree which is sprouting candles again this spring.  It’s a taonga/treasure that clings on about a metre up the cliff where it must be relatively free draining.

Concerned that we only had this one tree, a few months ago I bought four young Kawakawa saplings about half a metre high from a local grower.  I planted one in the same bank/cliff about 10m along from our thriving Kawakawa, but this new one is struggling.  Its leaves are a pale washed out green.  The second one, I planted across the shady race from the happy older tree, among other natives like karamu coprosma and pittosporum.  Its doing well with lots of new dark green leaves.

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This kawakawa sapling is happy and healthy.
The third sapling I planted in among flax bushes and Ti Kouka/cabbage trees at the back door but it was too wet there in rain events, so I moved it to a bank off the garden and it held on a while and then died off.
After a very slow start, the fourth Kawakawa sapling, planted between two bottlebrush saplings further along the garden bank, is looking good and starting to thrive.  Kawakawa seem very sensitive native trees that need  dappled shade, good wind shelter,  reasonable drainage and other natives around them.
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Flower ‘candles’ starting to emerge on our happy Kawakawa tree.
To my delight, I also discovered today that we have ONE healthy little Kawakawa seedling naturally occurring below the BIG happy Kawakawa tree!  One way or the other, we should have some more Kawakawa tree success here soon! 😆

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