Two people, Tommy and Victor, at a desk with a computer and some a prototype camera system, in a 3D printed green box.

Victor Anton at a desk with a computer and some prototypes of Wildlife.AI's new camera system, in 3D printed green boxes. The cameras promise to be more affordable and much more capable for conservation and biosecurity work, especially for smaller bodied species, than traditional trail cameras.

A photo of Tommy in the core of Travis Wetland at the end of 2025 setting up pitfall traps to monitoring invertebrates. Tommy is surrounded by wetland sedges and flaxes with trees in the background on slightly higher ground.

I spent Thursday morning this week at Ōruapaeroa-Travis Wetland, the largest freshwater wetland in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. Once destined for more housing, the local community's protests led to the city buying up the land and restoring it for nature.

I'm […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a spoonbill, a white heron-like wading bird with a long black spoon-shaped bill, feeding in an ephemeral pond with a digger parked on the paddock behind it.

I've been counting birds on my bike work commute between Christchurch and Lincoln, NZ, since 2003. On Friday, I counted my *first ever* Kōtuku Ngutupapa, Royal Spoonbill, on the route.

It was feeding in a paddock that had been recently scraped clear preparing it […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Original post on mastodon.nz

I spent part of my summer on Banks Peninsula with a team from #LincolnUniversityNZ monitoring lizards, invertebrates, and birds. We also, optimistically, put out a set of bat recorders.

Native bats haven't been reliably sighted on Banks Peninsula in many decades but there's always hope that […]

💡 I've been awarded a #BES Small #Research Grant to develop my work on the #RingNeckedParakeet. Alongside #EcologicalMonitoring, I'm running a #ParakeetWorkshop to bring together scientists & stakeholders. Interested? Get in touch to learn more! @britishecologicalsociety.org @salforduni.bsky.social

📈 What we found:
Even after two decades of measurements, predictions of ecosystem behavior remained highly variable and nonlinear. Short-term datasets often miss emergent and unexpected dynamics that only become evident with long-term observation.

#LTER #Sustainability #EcologicalMonitoring

4/5

Had an awesome time at the @NEOF eDNA metabarcoding course at the University of Sheffield a couple of weeks ago. Pretty sure I finally understand how it works now—big win! 🧬🔍
#eDNA #PhDlife #NEOFtraining #EcologicalMonitoring #ConservationScience

A map of my 12 km run route from the edge of the housing in the Cashmere suburb of Christchurch up into the grasslands and forests of the Port Hills (climbing 374 metres). There is a satellite image underlay that shows the land cover. Yellow dots on the map indicate each observation I made of one or more korimako (NZ bellbirds). This map is from my July 2017 run and has 54 yellow points on the map.

A map of my 12 km run route from the edge of the housing in the Cashmere suburb of Christchurch up into the grasslands and forests of the Port Hills (climbing 374 metres). There is a satellite image underlay that shows the land cover. Yellow dots on the map indicate each observation I made of one or more korimako (NZ bellbirds). This map is from my July 2025 run and has 249 yellow points on the map. The natural native forest to the south of the map (the highest part of the run) is now thick with yellow points.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of today's run up through the Ōtautahi Port Hills was just how many more korimako (NZ bellbirds) there are about now compared with when I started doing this survey.

I just checked and on my July 2017 run, I made 54 korimako […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a NZ red admiral butterfly (a dark butterfly with big red blotches and smaller white and blue blotches), feeding from white Viburnum flowers. My full-res photo is at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297849009

A photo of two small red mushrooms with white stalks, on the forest floor. My full-res photo is at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297848989

A photo looking down from head height at a thin-leaved spiny plant. This is a taramea, a kind of NZ speargrass (also called spaniard). They're no longer common in the Port Hills, as they're susceptible to grazing by introduced mammals. I map out all the ones I find and add them to iNaturalist. My full-res photo is at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297848991

A photo of a kererū (NZ wood pigeon) which is a big blue-green bird with a white chest and a red beak. It's perched on a branch at head height about a metre from me. My full-res photo is at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297848998

Today I did my monthly biodiversity run up into the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. That takes my out of the Cashmere suburbs through the planted native forest and grasslands of Victoria Park and up into the old growth and naturally regenerated […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a male house sparrow perched on a wooden deck railing. House sparrows are small brown and grey birds. Males, like this one, have a black blotch under their beak.

A photo of a male European blackbird perched on a wooded deck railing. They're medium-sized black birds with bright orange beaks and an orange ring around the eye. This bird is also banded with a metal band on its left leg and an orange band on its right leg. We call him Buddy and my wife (an ornithologist) banded him in our garden several years ago.

A photo of at least 12 silvereyes gathered around a sugar water feeder to feed. Silvereyes are small olive green birds with a white (silver) ring around the eye.

A photo of a male korimako (NZ bellbird) with its beak open in mid-song. Korimako are medium-sized green birds with red eyes.

Here are my bird results for this year's NZ #GardenBirdSurvey. This is the maximum number of each bird species I saw or heard at one time during the hour.

60 silvereyes (approximately, seen and calling, at our sugar water feeds and in our flowering Eucalyptus […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Home | New Zealand Garden Bird Survey Get out into your garden, count the birds, and build a build a picture of the state of our environment by taking part in the NZ Garden Bird Survey.

I'm heading out into our garden, with my woolly hat on, to do my 1-hour bird count for this year's NZ #GardenBirdSurvey.

The last day for the 2025 survey is today.

https://gardenbirdsurvey.nz/

#birds #nz #EcologicalMonitoring

Original post on mastodon.nz

If you’re going to count some garden birds in Aotearoa-New Zealand this year, this week is the time to do it. Each winter the NZ Garden Bird Survey gives us a snapshot of how our birds are doing. The more people join in, the more we learn about our feathered friends […]

A photo of a tūī, an irridescent blue-black bird with a distinctive white bobble (poi) of feathers under its beak. This is my photo. See https://inaturalist.nz/observations/289447711 for more details of where and when.

Check out what I saw on my afternoon run through Cashmere, Christchurch, NZ.

This was on one of my fortnightly ecological survey runs through the city, 12 km, which I started in 2008. Today is the first time I have seen a tūī on this route!

Yeah! […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

Original post on mastodon.nz

I've previously posted graphs before from my AudioMoth audio recordings from our garden, with the recordings processed through Birdnet to automatically detect (some) of the bird songs.

Counting birds while hanging out laundry is arguably simpler (of you know your birds), and I've been doing it […]

A graph showing the increasing numbers of korimako (NZ bellbirds) seen (or heard) while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the winter). The line spans 2012–2025.

A graph showing the increasing numbers of piwakawaka (NZ fantails) seen (or heard) while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the winter). The line spans 2012–2025.

A graph showing the increasing numbers of kerreū (NZ woodpigeons) seen while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the winter). The line spans 2012–2025.

A graph showing the decreasing numbers of riroriro (NZ grey warblers) seen (or heard) while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the winter). The line spans 2012–2025.

Here are four of the native birds from my weekly #wildcounts while hanging out or bringing in my laundry.

Korimako (NZ bellbirds) are trending up, and are more often in our garden in the winter.

Piwakawaka (NZ fantail) are doing the same.

Kererū (NZ wood […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A graph showing the increasing numbers of kahukura (NZ red admiral butterflies) seen while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the summer). The line spans 2012–2025.

A graph showing the descreasing numbers of copper butterflies seen while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the summer). The line spans 2012–2025.

A graph showing the increasing numbers of NZ blue butterflies seen while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the summer). The line spans 2012–2025.

A graph showing the numbers of monarch butterflies seen while I'm hanging out or bringing in our laundry. The fitted line on the graph wiggles up and down with the seasons (more in the summer). There's no long-term trend. The line spans 2012–2025.

Here are four of the local butterflies from my weekly #wildcounts while hanging out or bringing in my laundry.

Kahukura (NZ red admiral) are trending up, and are more often in our garden in the summer.

Native coppers are trending down (here I've combined the […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of our back garden, taken last week, showing our laundry line (with no laundry hanging on it this day). There are some small trees, a water bath for birds, and an orange sugar water feeder. The lawn needs mowing. On the left of the screen are some of my graphs from my monitoring, since this is a screen shot from my talk about nature in this neighbourhood.

Just before Covid knocked me over at the end of last week, I was fortunate to present a talk at the AGM of the Summit Road Society. That's the long-running local community group dedicating to maintaining and restoring the nature and heritage of Christchurch's […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A graph of the songs and calls of the NZ bellbird, or korimako, between June 2021 and May 2025. The y-axis is how many times in 15 second intervals this species was detected per 20-minutes. The detections for korimako peak in autumn and early winter each year. The graph is made from recordings in our graden with an AudioMoth processed through BirdNet then graphed using R.

A graph of the songs and calls of the house sparrow, between June 2021 and May 2025. The y-axis is how many times in 15 second intervals this species was detected per 20-minutes. The detections for house sparrow peak in summer months each year. The graph is made from recordings in our graden with an AudioMoth processed through BirdNet then graphed using R.

A graph of the songs and calls of the tauhou – silvereye, between June 2021 and May 2025. The y-axis is how many times in 15 second intervals this species was detected per 20-minutes. The detections for house sparrow peak in summer months each year. The graph is made from recordings in our graden with an AudioMoth processed through BirdNet then graphed using R.

A graph of the songs and calls of the greenfinch, between June 2021 and May 2025. The y-axis is how many times in 15 second intervals this species was detected per 20-minutes. The detections for house sparrow peak in summer months each year. The graph is made from recordings in our graden with an AudioMoth processed through BirdNet then graphed using R.

Over lunch I updated my graphs from the AudioMoth bird recorder that runs in our garden in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, New Zealand. I'm coming up on 4-years of continuous recording now, from 2-hours before sunrise to 2-hours after sunset each day.

I find it […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of part of a scrap sheet of paper on which I've written in pencil each time I saw or heard a selection of my favourite birds. You'll see "Bellb" (Bellbird" and "Ft" (fantail) and "Mp" (magpie) here. I write in a shorthand I invented for this. For example, n1xmv is "near one male vocalisation" where near is within 20 metres.

The hand-written shorthand notes on paper from the previous image typed into a text editor, before being pasted into my database, where they'll get unpacked by an R script. The bird vocalisations (v) all need to be at least 10 seconds apart, and if one song is longer than 10 seconds, it gets "..@" on the end of it. I try to track the different song types of the NZ bellbirds, which is why you see things like "doot Doot DEET Doot DEet doot". Everything is consistently noted in 20 minute intervals, with the first five minutes separated by a pipe (|) so I can compare with standard five-minute bird count data.

I was at home with online meetings today. Some people doodle. I sit by an open window and jot down when I see and hear my favourite wild animals.

It's often quickest to write on paper and enter later. I just typed in today's notes, mostly NZ bellbirds (Bellb) […]

[Original post on mastodon.nz]

The rise and fall of bird populations tells us how they, and by extension their habitats, are doing. Birds reflect our impact on the environment, tell us where conservation action is working, and show us where we need to focus more effort.

Just Released: The State of Canada's Birds.

Birds Canada and Canadian Wildlife Service collaborated to create the go-to source for information on the status of every species of bird that regularly occurs in Canada. #ornithology #ecologicalMonitoring #birds

naturecounts.ca/nc/socb-epoc...