Rowi Project Blog

Yesterday Hayley, Stephanie (who was volunteering with us for a few days as part of her Duke of Edinburgh programme) and I set off to collect an egg from ‘N Pair’ – otherwise known as Houdini and Godzilla.

Godzilla is a suitable name for this bird as she is notoriously stroppy and in the past we have not risked removing her eggs in case she ended up damaging the shell from stomping in protest. However, it was decided that we should attempt an egg lift on the pair’s second egg of the season to ensure stoats didn’t get to it first!

It was a great day out in the bush for me, the first sunny day in Franz Josef for around two weeks and my first time out into the field since the Untouched World Programme. It was good to get back into it (although the hills were a bit steeper than last time I walked that line!).

It is lovely in the Okarito Kiwi Zone at the moment as the manuka is flowering and the rata, which is a nice addition to the leafy brown and green colours of the canopy.

Hayley tracking the rowi

Hayley located the ‘N pair’ with a TR4 tracking device. She found a close signal off to the left of the track – low and behold we were practically at Godzilla and Houdini’s front door!

The burrow was at the base of a huge tree and veered to the left so we couldn’t see the birds or an egg. We reached in and couldn’t feel anything except mighty, Godzilla-style stomping…

In order to protect the precious egg and avoid stressing the birds, we decided to leave this pair to do their thing and not hang about.

Fearsome Godzilla may have won this battle but we will be visiting her and Houdini once again for a chick catch in a month or so.

Another great day in the bush!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 8:36 am by Lucy – Rowi Field Ranger and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.