And Another Coprosma in Our Wetland

This one has white to pale mauve fruit.

And Yet Another Prolific Coprosma.

This is the nicest, sweetest coprosma berries we have discovered.
It is right by our boardwalk at The Riverbank Homestay and B&B

Crazy as Coprosma fruiting.

This Coprosma at The Riverbank has gone overboard this season fruiting.

Our Spotless Crake Chicks

A week later and all seems good. So lovely to see them in our wetland.

Spotless Crake Families in our wetland

Exciting news. We have two Spotless Crake families in our wetland.

Piwak Tahi & Rua and their nest (Piwakawaka)

We had a lot of enjoyment as Piwak Tahi and Rua built their nest below our deck. It wa in an easily observed place. Through the hatching period and early chick raising both parents were sitting on the eggs and feeding the chicks until the male, Tahi  disappeared. Then it was all up to Rua. She really worked hard keeping the remaining chick Tama warm and fed. One night and not far from fledging Tama fell out of the nest. We found it alive and below the nest. Put it back and Rua carried on as if nothing had happened. Feeding, feeding and dodging the aggressive Tui. Tama was quite developed and sitting on the edge of the nest waiting for food. A friend managed some great photos. Sadly the next day we found Tama dead in the nest. It is such a hard life for small creatures.

Tama

Rua feeding Tama

Rua feeding Tama

Tahi sitting on eggs. The nest is mostly constructed of Alaskan Yellow Cedar shavings from my boat building

A worn out Rua

Beautiful Crane Fly

Found this fellow on the boatshed door.
We have not been able to name it yet even though we often see them.

It has been a great year for Clematis at our place

Mingimingi

I so wish I could post the beautiful sweet Mingimingi perfume along with the photo. It is all down our roadside.

Pineapple

Here is our first ever pineapple grown at The Riverbank. We now have Pineapple, Taro (Dalo), Banana, Tropical Apricot. Getting tropical in the North.

Fungi are Fun

Fungi come in a myriad of shapes, sizes, textures and colours.
This one is on our section by the bush on a twig.

Wood Ear Fungi

Wood Ear Fungi (Auricularia cornea) in the Hugh Crawford DOC Reserve, Ngunguru. I like the way I can see clouds and a blue sky on the shiny surface.

Spiders - True Artists

These lovely orb webs are just off our deck in the kanuka.

Spotless Crake - They are such shy pretty birds. Always in a hurry.

Early Morning Spider Web

Early Morning Spider Web - Love the colours.

Praying Mantis Eats Wasp

This South African Praying Mantis is eating a live imported wasp on our balcony. Not fond of either of these insects. The wasps destroy our Monarchs and the Praying Mantis eats everything including our native Praying Mantis.

Hugh Crawford Reserve Kiwi

Every Saturday we visit our camera at this burrow and almost every week Kiwi makes our day with a visit..

This time kiwi enters the burrow, exits then does a bit of preening before going off foraging for grubs.

or visit https://youtu.be/ZOTQg_TFYs4

Australasian Bittern

We had a lovely long visit from the Bittern on the 5th March. This video was recorded by trail camera off our boardwalk.
https://youtu.be/Ph2nrcTa4MM

Never Ending Happenings at The Riverbank

Here we have an avalanche of Pukeko into the wetland pond.

And what is this rat doing! Fortyseven trips across the pond in three and a quarter hours carrying dry pampas for nest building, I assume.

 

These Banded Rail Chicks are old enough to fend for themselves.

It's a Good Year For Banana

Here are two of our seven bunches. Looking great. Cut a large one today.

 

Taro From Our Garden

Taro From Our Garden.
Rel nice and tender to eat. At last we don't have to go to Nasasobu to get good Dalo.

Every live thing gets its photo taken

Here we have a Solver Orb Web Spider. It was making its home by the wall of the house before being removed to the bush where it should be. Quite lovely.

Four Banded Rail Chicks in our Wetland

Four Banded Rail Chicks in our Wetland. Look closely to the right near the rushes for the fourth chicks brief view. This is taken near our Old Mill Ln boardwalk. We have previously only seen one at a time.

https://youtu.be/nnx61vTMMO4

The Hugh Crawford Reserve Cascades Track

Today we defined a track to the cascades in the Hugh Crawford DoC Reserve.
The junction for this hike is marked on the Pink Trail with two pink and one green tapes around a small tree on the left just before one would start heading up the hill on the pink trail. This hike from our Old Mill Lane Boardwalk takes about one hour - not allowing for sight seeing. At the end is a set of small cascades with a beautiful rocky bathing pool. On the return you could also pick up the remainder of the pink trail and complete the loop back to Old Mill Lane.
This is a beautiful bush walk that follows a wetland and stream to this set of cascading waterfalls.
Listen carefully and you may hear or see Matata, Miromiro and Matuku. You might even see Ruru in the tree ferns. Follow the link below.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12qlJH9EIXvYOGwStMwRQz3a3vNaQNOqx