Shaun Lee

January 28, 2014

Philosophy

I found this old thing on my hard-drive. Might help me get focused.
I think the obvious answer is a wetland because those environments were hardest hit buy farmers. Tho interestingly I do not know much about threatened wetland species. Our rivers and shorelines face a lot of commercial & recreational pressure. A wetland also sits at an interesting intersection:

When I visit forests I hear a lack of quality in the silence (lack of bird life)
When I drive through the countryside I see a lack of quality in the monotonous monocultures.
When I kayak in NZ, the water feels empty. I think for me — quality is biodiversity and the water is overfished and often polluted.

It would be magic if I could fill all three buckets with one hose.

January 27, 2014

Decoy (failed)

After a great start at Point England I have ended the season with nothing fledged. The Dots have now left the paddock as the grass has grown too long, the farmer says he was understocked.

EGGS 10
CHICKS 8
FLEDGED 0

So what happened to the chicks? I have never seen any cats and I have looked for them at night and with the camera trap. I got to the point where dog owners are policing other dog owners about staying out of the paddock so pretty safe there. When an OSNZ member came by the paddock to do the count she saw Pukeko attack and kill a Dotterel chick. In an effort to record this behaviour I tried making a decoy.

Decoy Dotterel

A Black Back Seagull circled it but it did not land.

UPDATE: Second attempt with crouching dot and upgraded makeup… also failed. Maybe they are less aggressive when not breeding.
Decoy Two

Disinterested Pukeko