Tiritiri Matangi Island visit

It was a wonderful way to end my time on the PTSF by having a trip out to Tiritiri Island in the Hauraki Gulf during the July school holidays. The hours boat trip was enjoyable but the abundance of birdlife on the island was incredible.Within 5 minutes we saw many saddlebacks scratching in the sand finding tasty treats. Then a friendly N.I. robin hopped amongst our feet as we sat,listened and watched in the bush. Three takahe grazed out in the open and the tui feeder at the visitors centre was absolutely overloaded with tui! Another highlight were the huge number of stitchbirds and bellbirds at their feeders as we walked along the walkways. The fabulous views and great weather all helped make this a truely memorable day.

Symposium Day

To conclude our PTS Fellowship we all had an opportunity to share the science work we had been involved with through power-point presentations to our peers. As well we evaluated the programme we had been part of and got told of other teaching and learning opportunities through the Royal Society.

Everyone got presented with a certificate on completion of this special time.

I have loved all the great experiences and new people I have met while being part of this Fellowship.

Final Curriculum Days

All 32 teachers from around the country on the Primary Teachers Science Fellowship met in Wellington for two days to conclude our Curriculum days. We looked at resources and discussed ways we will take back science to our classes and schools.

Keruru browsing

Two large woodpigeon were having a great time browsing on tawa and mahoe trees close to the start of the walkway at Rotokare.

They enjoyed eating the leaves and buds of these native trees.

The keruru were a noisy pair as they flew from bush to bush and happily ate any berries or leaves around.

Setting up Invertebrate traps

Bryan is doing some study through Massey University and as part of this he needed to set up a couple of lots of pitfall traps for invertebrates to hopefully fall into!

We used the two locations reasonably close to the road and carpark for this.

I had helped set up the traps in the summer and we had fun locating the spots needed again.

Bryan, Sue and I had a lake walk in the process and enjoyed the beautiful flora and fauna of Rotokare as well.

Visit to Maungatautari

Melissa the Rotokare educator and I spent a couple of days visiting Maungatautari Ecological Island in the Waikato this week.

We were met by Gemma the educator and we watched a lesson she taught to children from a Te Awamutu school. Many of the things Gemma spoke about were similar to the things Melissa teaches children at Rotokare. It was great to see Gemma's lesson and then head into the native bush at the Southern Enclosure at Maungatautari.

We also enjoyed excellent meals and accommodation at 'Out in the Styks'.

Guided Bush Walk at Rotokare

I enjoyed taking two school groups on guided bush walks around the lake at Rotokare.

The rain came down and the track was muddy in places but the children from St Josephs in Stratford and a number of parents coped well!

There are lots of really interesting trees that are worth identifying on this walk.

They include mahoe,kawakawa,rangiora,lancewood and our only native palm the nikau.

Also magnificant tawa,pukatea and kahikatea are beautiful trees throughout the swampier areas. The range of ferns is also noteworthy as well as the pretty copper and green leaves of the parataniwha.

5 Minute Bird Counts

We had an enjoyable 'cluster meeting' in the provinces of three Primary Science Teacher Fellows.
Kim from Hamilton came down and met up with Pat and Janet in Taranaki for a couple of days.
We visited Pat's workplace at DOC New Plymouth and looked out at Tupuae Marine Reserve from Back Beach then spent a morning doing 5 Minute Bird Counts from points around the lake at Rotokare.
We managed to hear and see lots of Paradise and Mallard ducks,fantails and silvereyes.

A highlight was hearing and actually seeing a secretive fernbird amongst the raupo.

Bryan from Hawera also joined us and many thanks to Kara for organising and accompanying us-what a large number of bird calls she could recognise!

Viewing a robin at Rotokare

While collecting some Lizard traps in the Reserve I was lucky enough to be in the company of a very friendly North Island robin. It happily searched in the leaf litter for anything to eat and didn't mind me getting quite close for this photo.

Possibly the same robin has been seen in this spot during the late summer-we hope it has a mate out in the bush as well.

Birds I have seen often at Rotokare include fantail, woodpigeon,tui and bellbird plus various ducks and shags on the lake.

Bushy Park

Bushy Park is approx 30 minutes out of Wanganui.

Within the grounds there is a lovely old homestead plus a large amount of native bush.

I enjoyed some easy short walks and the native trees-a fantastic old Northern Rata,which started life as an epiphyte-being hosted by another tree!

At Bushy Park there is a predator-proof fence-similar to Rotokares and a shorter rodent fence as well.