Author: Barry Dent

Akatea

Metrosideros perforata

This vine climbs on trees to the canopy and is quite common on Puangiangi. Young plants will also scramble over rocks and even colonise grassy areas. It is the only Metrosideros on the island apart from a few adventive pohutukawa which we are trying to eradicate as that tree is out of range. Metrosideros perforata is potentially threatened by myrtle rust, which does not seem to have arrived on the island.

(What is this about? I’d like to get photos of all the trees, shrubs, climbers, ferns on the island and publish the photos on the website. Each species will get a page when I get enough reasonable photos.)

2025 Sooty Shearwater Season: Birds and Tech Cooperate, So Far…

For several years, I’ve been trying to record what happens underground during breeding season. The chosen burrow has either been inactive, the egg failed to hatch, or the camera filled with water. This year I’m optimistic: after a false start with one study burrow, when the sooties did not show up and a moulting penguin did, Burrow 8B is active and I’ve got a camera suspended at the side of the nesting chamber, about 300 mm underground and at the end of the metre-long access tunnel.

I missed egg-laying, but recorded hatching. This video shows the 5-day-old chick on the night of 27 January. If the chick survives to fledge in May and the camera goes the distance, I’ll be able to compile a video showing most of the season.

The IR lights have a faint red glow (850 nm) and the birds pay the camera no attention, except when it turns on for each session and makes a quiet whirring noise. They sometimes seem to notice that but within a second or two they are back to whatever they were doing. The chick is very quiet- turn up the sound to hear it, but not when the adult is calling at the start of the video!