Author: Barry Dent

Koromiko

Hebe stricta var. atkinsonii and Hebe stenophylla var. stenophylla

These shrubs are colonisers and are also part of the stable shrublands on Puangiangi. H. stenophylla has smaller, narrower leaves than H. stricta. I know, they are meant to be Veronica now, but Hebe will still do, thanks. The variety atkinsonii is arguably no longer recognised, but I include that to acknowledge Chris Horne and the late Barbara Mitcalfe, who broke it out as that variety and did such a great job on the 2012 botanical survey despite very poor weather at times. The summertime flowers are a good source of nectar for insects and lizards. Our only post-release record of striped gecko (so far) was on koromiko. Very common shrubs that everyone will know, or at least know their local variant.

H. stenophylla in summer
H. stricta trackside
Above and below, H. stenophylla flower detail
H. stricta with wider and larger leaves
H. stenophylla colonising grassland along with tauhinu and Pseudopanax arboreus

(Part of an ongoing effort to photograph all the vascular plants on the island. Each species will get a page when I get enough reasonable photos.)

2025 Sooty Shearwater Season: Chick Feeding Time

This video from 6 February shows the 15-day-old chick and how it feeds. The adult bird may have travelled a great distance to bring back the semi-digested crustacean soup that it is regurgitating for the chick. I can’t tell one parent bird from the other, and because the system can only cope with 4 hours of recording per day we can’t be sure of adult comings and goings. The chick is being left alone for up to 3 days at the moment, but sometimes an adult bird arrives every night. They are thought to swap between catching quick feeds locally and flying to the polar front on a long expedition for presumably better-quality food. Note the mites on the adult bird. When the chick is alone it is vulnerable to predation by weka. I don’t know if weka can fit in this burrow and it’s fair to say we haven’t seen any evidence of weka getting a chick on the colony in 12 years.