Friday Feathered Friend
This week we again feature words and a picture from Louise Thomas, who recently ventured to Whanganui.
"The Chief Porter and I have been hunting the Nankeen Night Heron for some time. Randomly calling into Ūpokongaro to the spot “Behind the Door on 4” where others before us have clocked the birds, but, for us, with no success. On Monday we were crest fallen to find the café shut, but thought we would head a little way up Makirikiri Valley Road and drop down into the gulley and scout along the stream that runs into the Whanganui River at Ūpokongaro.
The recent rain had made the stream brown and swollen, water was lapping up onto the shelf with the slight track covered in wandering willy (tradescentia). It was wet, slippery, and muddy and our pants were wet up to the knees just walking through the undergrowth. We were buzzed by fantails and wax-eyes, but saw nothing of the night herons behind the area where the café is.
We pushed a little further upstream, straddling rotten logs which crumbled under our feet and slipping in the thick wet weed. I was about to call time of death on the operation, when the Chief Porter spotted a creamy patch against the dark tangled trees overhanging the stream. It was like magic, three night herons materialised from the gloom, their bodies glowing like warm rich butterscotch.
All three had slicked back black hair, but one roosting in the tree, hunched over like an old man, also had two long thin white feathers waving down his back like crazy antennae. One was actively hunting in the stream, pulling at aquatic plants in the hope they might be tasty, the other perched above and moved along the branches quoorking encouragement about the activities below. Nankeen night heron (Nycticorax caledonicus)."
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.6% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.8% Critical thinking
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29.8% Resilience and adaptability
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2.8% Other - I will share below!
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Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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