Last weekend I ventured to the southern edge of the Waitakere Range for a muddy hike with some serious hills, but that also afforded amazing views of the Manukau Harbour entrance and west coast beaches. The kauri trees in the southern part of the Waitaks have been hardest hit by the kauri die-back disease, and it is possible that this section of the park will be closed off to hikers in the near future. The disease spreads very effectively on people's shoes and they have not been able to stop disease transmission, even with shoe cleaning stations on every trail. However, I recently learned that nearly 80% of people don't use the cleaning stations at all. Grr.
it was a bit muddy...
the kauri tree continually sheds its outer
bark so other plants cannot grow on it
bark so other plants cannot grow on it
chains for the super steep uphill bits
looking back to where I came from...
and ahead to where I was going
the west coast beaches are stunning!
gorse in the gnarliest and more awful plant growing
in this country, but it makes a nice structure for spiders
in this country, but it makes a nice structure for spiders
looking across the wetland
lovely orchid growing near one
of the four stream crossings
of the four stream crossings
the northern side of the loop was
dominated by nikau palm trees
dominated by nikau palm trees
only a small waterfall on this trail
the underside of a fern frond loaded with spores
this is a bit of a kauri branch that fell from the tree. The small cones
on the left and near the top of the photo are male and the big one
on the right is female. The male cones release pollen when they
mature, while seeds develop in the female cone after fertilization.
on the left and near the top of the photo are male and the big one
on the right is female. The male cones release pollen when they
mature, while seeds develop in the female cone after fertilization.
The following day, I had an urban wildlife outing. There is a large pond near our house called Western Springs. There is a tonne of bird life around the pond and babies of all types are abundant right now. The park was filled with people feeding bags and bags of bread to anything that would eat it, which hurt my soul a little bit, but the bird behavior watching was so good that I just had to ignore it.
pukeko - look at the size of those feet!!
pukeko taking a bath
baby pukeko
female paradise shelduck (putangitangi) and her chicks
lone putangitangi chick
black swan and cygnets
fluffy cygnets
royal spoonbill on the upper right;
pied shags on the left
quite possibly the cutest ugly duckling (coot chick)
coot feeding time
Greylag goose and gosling
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