So excited to greet 4 lovely Pateke baby’s this morning. ❤️ It’s been a great year so far with a very early clutch back in May, one of which is now adult sized and resident in our pond still. Really cool to have Mum Dad big brother and the baby’s all together. Our man made pond really does provide an awesome place to live and is on our loop track for anyone to pop in and check them out.
After a couple of weeks of checking and only being greeted by Dad 🦆 we got the lovely surprise this morning to have a whole family of Pāteke pop out to say hi 🥰
We were a bit worried that recent foul weather and flooded pond may have affected this year’s clutch so were very happy to see them all!
Even more exciting was discovering another two Mums with 7 and 6 chicks respectively in different areas of the sanctuary. It's looking like a really good season for these special creatures 🤩
They are super tiny and super cute right now, so if you can make sure you pop in and say hi 👋
Beautiful walk in canopied bush
Beautiful walk in canopied bush
Is it a pelican? Is it a plane? No its a BITTERN! A first for us. We were very excited to spot this fellow flying in and landing in our wetland area. A second sighting was also reported by a contractor at the top of the loop track and the third we filmed in front of Fitzroy house. Australasian Bittern are very secretive and rarely seen, so who knows it could have been living here for many years undetected. Bittern numbers in NZ declined greatly following destruction of 90% of their wetland habitat to create farmland and towns. Although there are occasional sightings here on Aotea great barrier. #australasianbittern #nzbirdsonline #matuku #glenfernsanctuary #aoteagreatbarrierisland
🤠A good ol stump boogie from the other week! Thanks to Benny Bellerby and his team for felling the macrocarpa and to Trident high from Hillary Outdoors who came to help stack it all in the shed for our winter guests. Hoping to utilise the stump at some point as a viewing platform👀 #volunteers #glenfern #tridenthighschool #lumberjacks
Visiting the giant kauri on the glenfern loop track.. across the swing bridge and up to the platform on the ancient talk tree… Glenfern founder Tony Bouzaid as a rite of passage used to take his grandchildren there to sleep the night when they turn 12!
Visiting the giant kauri on the glenfern loop track.. across the swing bridge and up to the platform on the ancient talk tree… Glenfern founder Tony Bouzaid as a rite of passage used to take his grandchildren there to sleep the night when they turn 12!
The air pulsing with cicadas and birdsong, lush bush green to the horizon, and the blue waters of Port Fitzroy, Glenfern Sanctuary, what a place to visit and stay! Christmas 2021!
The Aotea bird count took place on the 3rd of December. We were very happy to have Kakariki feature in Glenferns count this year. There is a small population of these red crowned parakeets over the hill from us in Okiwi, so it has been great to see more and more of them flying over to check out the sanctuary.🦜
After 4 months of the same old lockdown views, you could be waking up in paradise. Fitzroy house still has dates available for February so check out our website to book your summer holiday at Glenfern. Glenfern.org.nz
A lot to say for himself on this drizzly morning. Maybe something along the lines of…“Get out of bed guys the weathers not that bad”? #butitssaturday #kaka #aotea #greatbarrierisland #nzbirds #kauri
After all that much needed rain at the beginning of the week, Brandy returned! Found herself an ice cream container outside our house and claimed the first bath. #rescuerail #bandedrail #nopatekeallowed #nzbirds
Like a pig in mud....this guys chuffed with the rain 🌧 #pateke #brownteal #glenfernlooptrack #greatbarrierislandnz
