Environment – Shakespear gets Spring ready

Winter is anything but slow or dormant at Shakespear Regional Park. It simply means that preparations have started for spring, with its explosion of life just around the corner. 

Sixteen dedicated volunteers are servicing the hihi/stitchbird feeders with a sugar run three times a week. Ongoing monitoring shows that most of the hihi released in May are now  using these food sources consistently. Earlier on, hihi nest boxes were checked and cleaned. A pleasant surprise was that many of them were also used as shelter by the Pacific gecko/ngārara pāpā.

Kiwi call counts have been completed with around 30 people helping, spread over eight listening sites. As usual it was challenging to find nights with low wind (as it is hard to hear in strong winds) and no rain. 

The data indicate that the little spotted kiwi/kiwi pukupuku are active and well, with the average calls slightly higher than last year. With this month being the start of their breeding season, that is a pleasing result. 

June and July are also key planting months, and fine weather brought out volunteers who did a great job. Families with small children, community groups and lots of other helpers enjoyed some winter sun while they added to the bush areas. And, of course, they appreciated the barbeques afterwards. 

Planning ahead, the nursery already has dozens of seeds, collected around the park, germinating in trays for next year. We clean the pulp off the seeds, wash and dry them, then store them in the fridge until it is time to plant. 

With a lot of ongoing care – potting, repotting, trimming, watering, monitoring for diseases – most seedlings will grow big enough to plant out next winter. However, some like mapou and titoki will need two years. In addition, kanuka and manuka are grown at the Botanic Gardens in Manurewa, from seed collected at Shakespear Regional Park.

A typical announcement of spring is the arrival of newborn lambs at the park’s farm. This usually starts in late July, so spring is already in the air. Just under 500 ewes have been expecting up to 800 lambs. Volunteers were busy last summer building more fences and moving one of the sheds to a better location. Recently we held an education evening for over 70 new volunteers who will help with any orphaned lambs.  

Shakespear Regional Park is a working farm so while we encourage you to enjoy these bouncy messengers of spring, we also respectfully remind the public to stay away from ewes and lambs.