Jon Sullivan

Kia ora! I'm a #nature nut, addict of #iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao, and an #ecologist at #LincolnUniversity in #Aotearoa-#NewZealand.

I spend an inordinate amount of my time counting nature to watch what's changing (see https://wildcounts.org/).

#TwitterMigration #NZTwits #ecology #EcologicalMonitoring #NaturalHistory #iNaturalistNZ #iNaturalist #wildcounts #RStats #Biodiversity

Born when there was 326 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Public Key

npub1m5aelppvhp59ev7hqtvjzq20s2fhy6c6g4fh2mk49zkkcgw0sa4sk2rwdh

NIP-05 Address

joncounts@mastodon-nz.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsd6wulsskts6zuk0ts9kfpq98c9ymjdvdy25m4dm2j3ttvy88cw6cpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qx0w4ap

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1m5aelppvhp59ev7hqtvjzq20s2fhy6c6g4fh2mk49zkkcgw0sa4sk2rwdh

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-08-08 22:05:47 UTC

- reply

Note that the black-fronted dotterel does not just foot-tremble, it “indulges in foot-trembling”.
Such decadent birds.

2026-08-08 21:54:47 UTC

- reply

I’ve been reading more about this foraging behaviour by gulls. It’s called “Foot Paddling” and various gulls and other coastal birds around the world do it. I found a 1999 article by a geologist at the University of Auckland, Murray Gregory, who gets excited about the possibility that gulls’ foot paddling puddles might be visible in the fossil record.
Also, when small birds do it, it’s not “foot paddling”, it’s “foot trembling”, as in “The recently arrived Black-fronted dotterel also indulges in foot-trembling.”
https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/22db3351-f34b-4d84-b6b0-354f7f6e8b76/content
#gulls #birds #AnimalBehaviour

2026-08-08 05:25:24 UTC

Over the past three days I’ve run and walked 54.2 km (and made 4,480 species observations). I’m going to sit down for a while now. :-)
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/058/206/306/246/715/original/ff7f0cb926f9acfc.png
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/058/206/525/123/080/original/e925d5d226e54762.png
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/058/206/715/082/591/original/197f1068b32bd857.png
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/117/058/207/150/372/284/original/d503e713d416ab5d.png

2026-07-27 10:11:48 UTC

Most of my afternoon today was spent in #QGIS with one of my Masters students Dee Patel.
We're preparing my long-term bird monitoring data around Christchurch, NZ, for analysis. Today we gridded up my four standard bike transects into 1 km sections, surrounded by approximately 1 km square polygons.
Dee's particularly interested in how the conversion of farmland to urban housing affects birds.
Next Dee will be doing some clever analysis of my distance sampled bird counts to estimate the density of each bird species in each grid cell in each month over the past 12–23 years (depending on the route). She'll then compare those densities with land use changes from the NZ land cover database.
It's going to be interesting to see what patterns emerge.
#EcologicalMonitoring #birds #nz #ecology #LincolnUniversityNZ
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/991/363/325/299/696/original/138c5083cbaccfb6.png

2026-07-23 07:59:47 UTC

Here's NZ's Southern Alps at sunrise this morning, as seen from Ōtautahi-Christchurch city. My wife described the sky as "mega-pink."
My camera isn't quite doing justice to the intense pinkness of it all.
I've just uploaded my big versions onto Flickr if you want to zoom in and get lost in them.
https://flic.kr/p/2sqE94B
https://flic.kr/p/2sqDvhZ
https://flic.kr/p/2sqFvm6
https://flic.kr/p/2sqDvhP
#sunrise #nz #photography #Flickr
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/968/207/932/487/150/original/e831328b3db9df48.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/968/207/938/894/112/original/0a440a2869636490.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/968/207/933/212/020/original/9ba8fcb7ce36c59b.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/968/207/935/453/474/original/2526663aedb99d25.jpg

2026-07-15 19:52:21 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kwn5 Perhaps we should just call this the Age of Cheating.

2026-07-04 20:33:33 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…r5lt Thanks. Was that more of a shrub than a tree? It looks like the shrubby Cook Strait kōwhai, *Sophora molloyi*. That always flowers from late autumn into early winter. I haven’t got a good sense yet whether that’s shifted earlier.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/taxa/407299-Sophora-molloyi

2026-07-04 11:03:20 UTC

You're not the only one confused by the warming weather. Yesterday I found this harakeke (NZ flax) flowering in the middle of Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.
They're supposed to flower in October–November. #iNaturalist has only three observations of NZ flaxes in Canterbury flowering in July. Two were in 2025, and now mine, the earliest, in 2026.
While the tauhou (silvereyes) seem pleased to find the nectar, I don't like the chances of this harakeke getting pollinated this year as the other plants near it are not flowering yet.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/378005816
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations?month=7&place_id=8479&taxon_id=51756&term_id=12&term_value_id=13&verifiable=any
#ClimateChange #nature #nz #botany #Phormium #iNaturalistNZ
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/861/351/688/728/005/original/4065a4f2c71dbc01.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/861/351/690/751/758/original/a517690ef4014172.jpg

2026-07-03 05:12:07 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…5974 I’m not sure. Australia got it from Antarctic birds though so sick birds could reach us from either direction. It makes sense for us to be on the lookout for sick birds, especially seabirds.

2026-07-03 04:31:44 UTC

Hopefully this is a false alarm. I can imagine how intense it must be for giant petrels to ride out storms over the open ocean.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/660641/giant-petrel-found-dead-on-farewell-spit-to-be-tested-for-bird-flu
#nz #birdflu #H5N1 #birds

2026-06-19 09:58:29 UTC

- reply

Another notable observation from my survey in the hills today is this kōtukutuku (NZ tree fuchsia). This is one of NZ's few deciduous native trees and it's supposed to be leafless for the winter and leaf out and flower in the early Spring. And, yet, here's this tree starting to leaf out and flower now.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/373188803
#botany #ClimateChange #nz

2026-06-19 09:44:18 UTC

This afternoon, I did my monthly 12 km biodiversity survey up in the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. Here are some of the many species I recorded (most of my 1,213 observations are still waiting on my photo as audio notes waiting to be transcribed).
Tīrairaka South Island fantail: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/373183270
Kahukura butterfly: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/373183278
Kererū: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/373183269
Korimako: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/373183279
All the whaupaku (NZ five-finger) trees in the hills are in flower at the moment, which has the korimako excited. We need a lot more of these planted in the city's gardens.
#nature #nz #birds #butterflies
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/776/085/818/622/153/original/684d224f569dc2d4.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/776/085/819/321/995/original/61ebd6bfc262c9bc.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/776/085/819/847/093/original/cd508994950443a1.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/776/085/825/257/302/original/8c0e3cb2ee8c0d6d.jpg

2026-06-19 06:57:39 UTC

For the #LifeWellLived theme of #JukeboxFridayNight, here's "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", an old song adapted by Pete Seeger in 1950 and reimagined here by Jackson Brown and Bonnie Raitt in 1998.
"Now we're old and ready to go
thinkin' about what happened a long time ago
We had a lot of kids and trouble and pain
But oh Lord, we'd do it again
Kisses sweeter than wine"
It's the simple things that make a life well lived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDYud-tNVxU

2026-06-12 22:25:35 UTC

In case you haven’t seen it elsewhere, today there is a nationwide protest against NZ’s Definitions of Woman and Man Amendment Bill. To quote the rainbowgreens Instagram page, that’s “a proposed law that threatens the identity, safety and wellbeing of trans people”. Proposed by NZ First, the bill has the support of ACT and National, and so can pass into law unless we make a LOT of noise and make National realise that centre NZ abhors this.
Personally, my daughter is trans and I am furious about this. Perhaps I’ll see you at the Bridge of Remembrance at 1pm.
The protests are happening here:
🏳️‍⚧️Tāmaki Makarau/Auckland: Myers Park, 12pm
🏳️‍⚧️ Kirikiriroa/Hamilton: Civic Square, 12pm
🏳️‍⚧️Pōneke/Wellington: Civic Square - 12pm
🏳️‍⚧️Ōtautahi/Christchurch: Bridge of Remembrance, 1pm
🏳️‍⚧️Whakatū/Nelson: 1903 Square, 2pm
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZd-0enE8nT/?img_index=5
#nzpol #transRights #prote
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/739/453/188/168/191/original/26f41e5c37bd794d.jpeg

2026-06-12 07:27:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…07nd @nprofile…538q Good billboard. For clarification, do you know if this is posted next to this Anglican church or did the church itself post it?

2026-06-10 06:52:56 UTC

I was thinking this evening, while biking home trying to deal with yet another power-microphone splitting dongle that’s nearing the end of its life on my iPhone, that, while I have no interest in having a Google-powered Siri AI on my iPhone, one feature I’d still *really like* is a *headphone jack*. One that has a line-in function for microphones as well as line-out for wired headphones, alongside a separate port that can power the phone. Like in the ancient times. That would be really handy for my field work, and vastly more robust and reliable than any solution I’ve come up with since.
I’m starting to understand what it might have been like in the Middle Ages of Europe when people looked back to the Ancient Greek philosophers for wisdom.

2026-06-09 07:12:40 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…szhx Awesome! And it’s great to see all your smiles. 😀

2026-06-04 21:20:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…6g3g @nprofile…v9wr Good question. I’m not sure if it’s a specific cultivar that is doing this. Quite possibly. In recent years I’ve noticed that some of the city’s flowering cherries in recent years have had a small flowering attempt about now and then go big later near Spring. We’ll see what this winter brings.

2026-06-04 10:15:17 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v9wr Yikes, indeed. It's very early.
I saw my first cherry in flower today too. Nature is getting increasingly out of whack as we steer the world's climate into uncharted waters.
We'll soon see whether these are just a few confused trees and most of them flower in August-September, as they usually do. Or, not.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/368274702

2026-06-04 09:00:05 UTC

As the sun was setting, on my bike commute home this evening, there were these striking, converging rays in the eastern sky. I read that they're called anti-crepuscular rays.
The were like search lights in the sky.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55312508492/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticrepuscular_rays
#weather #sunset #nz #photography #AntiCrepuscularRays
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/690/996/074/075/539/original/30a66b30927c4c39.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/690/996/080/181/043/original/b5ec0823a420a068.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/690/996/099/871/992/original/e10dcb3d744c5a9e.jpg

2026-05-30 21:16:59 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ffxt @nprofile…wj33 I always have a folding hand saw tucked away in my back pack. I target those scattered weeds moving into new areas, to slow down their spread.
Dense infestations require more attention (and herbicide gel) and are best left for dedicated teams.

2026-05-30 21:10:31 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…pl7c Hmm. I’m reading that Pew report now. Depressing! Also, that Forbes article is sloppily written. Maybe an AI summary?
Examples:
Forbes: “KEY FACTS Pew released new data Thursday that shows only 48% of Americans believe climate change is the result of human activity—a view shared by a vast majority of scientists—and fewer people believe it now than when the same question was asked in 2019 and 2022.” That’s their leading paragraph.
Pew: “Americans’ views on what, if anything, is causing climate change have been largely stable since 2016.” (In bold in the report)
(In 2019 and 2022 the survey responses were slightly higher, but in other years lower, leading to no trend. It’s oddly sensationalised cherry-picking by Forbes.)
Forbes: “The vast majority of active climate scientists (97%) agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change, according to NASA.”
Just 97%?!
Pew: “Almost all climate scientists say the planet is warming, and that this is caused mostly by human activity.” Pew links that sentence to a 2021 science paper which concludes the following. “Out of a group of 153 independently confirmed climate experts, 98.7% of those scientists indicated that the Earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels. Among those with the highest level of expertise (independently confirmed climate experts who each published 20+ peer reviewed papers on climate change between 2015 and 2019) there was 100% agreement that the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity.”

2026-05-30 06:04:48 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ffxt @nprofile…wj33 Ah, over there. Yes. Logging it would be good. It's amazing any cultivated pines of wilding species are allowed anywhere in this landscape.
Hawthorns a whole other issue. That's exploding in this wider landscape, and not nearly enough is being done to slow it down. There are so many less widely planted woody weeds like hawthorn that are now coming up hot on the heels of wilding pines.

2026-05-30 00:56:55 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ffxt @nprofile…wj33 That's weird. Did you get a photo? Was it instead across the road on Flock Hill Station? I'd be interested to learn what pine has been planted as, on the face of it, this seems pretty stupid given how much money has been spent, and continues to be spent, on wildling pine control there.

2026-05-29 07:24:51 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…a8pz Thanks. That is a good read. Lots of points worth thinking about.
“Wealthy countries build industries, deepen infrastructure, improve energy resilience, cultivate skills, create export capacity. …it’s not rocket science. But it’s the opposite to modern business management thinking. It’s that type of thinking that’s badly broken both Boeing and New Zealand.”

2026-05-26 08:47:32 UTC

We've been waking to autumn fog over the Canterbury Plains in NZ these past few days. This morning before work I set my camera on its interval timer to make a timelapse.
Here's the result. It's surprising how dynamic the fog bank is, flowing by like a river.
If you keep watching, you'll see the fog gradually retreat back to the mountains as the sun comes up.
https://flic.kr/p/2sfb4dX
#nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #fog #weather #timelapse #Flickr

2026-05-24 09:34:16 UTC

I just finished reading an interesting article in #QuantaMagazine about recent research on bird eyes. Unlike our inferior mammal eyes, bird eyes lack the network of blood vessels covering the retina. When an optometrist shines a bright light in our eyes, we see a network of blood vessels that block parts of our vision. Sleight of hand from our brain removes this from our perception, but it permanently limits what we see.
Birds retinas don’t do this at all, and it turns out that this is made possible by using a form of glucose-driven metabolism that doesn’t require oxygen. That’s crazy for such an energy intensive tissue. No other species alive today do this, and it likely evolved in dinosaurs.
It’s wild stuff.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-bird-eye-was-pushed-to-an-evolutionary-extreme-20260513/
#birds #evolution #eyes #biology

2026-05-15 08:16:27 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…r5lt Yes, it's still a bit of a puzzle.
Around Christchurch, the culprit is likely the almost complete historical removal of our wetlands and native forest. The Canterbury Plains forest was burned off in Māori times and the forest cloak over Banks Peninsula was reduced to about 1.5% by English settlers hungry for timber and farmland.
Tūī are nectar hungry things and for a while there would have been very little about to find.
Forest is now regenerating widely across Banks Peninsula, and forest and wetlands have been planted around the city to the point where we have more native forest cover now than when the English settlers arrived. As all this young habitat grows up, it gets better for our bush birds.
Add into the mix all the mammalian predator control going on and things are looking up.

2026-05-15 07:47:18 UTC

I found a tūī in Victoria Park this afternoon!
These birds are still rare around Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, so finding one is always a treat.
It put on a grand concert for me too. Have a listen.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/361632658
#birds #nz #tūī #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #iNaturalistNZ
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/577/476/860/861/639/original/1820b73b917058f0.mp3

2026-05-02 09:33:54 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v9wr @nprofile…unhv Yes, it's one of many signs that natural world is out of kilter. We're only at the very beginning of the ecosystem chaos and extinctions that are coming.
I'm still struggling to believe that we're willing to risk tipping the Earth into a hot-house climate for tens of thousands of years, and the likely collapse our civilisation, just so the richest people of our generations can make a few more bucks.
It's like shooting yourself in the foot, but with a bazooka.

2026-04-19 08:28:12 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zxp6 @nprofile…wj33 @nprofile…nhss Nice. I hope Pete keeps visting.

2026-04-18 10:18:11 UTC

My day today included *two* puddle bathing piwakawaka, NZ fantails, at two separate city reserves.
It's getting a bit dry in the city and small puddles are getting popular.
Meep Meep!
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/350755648
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/350755647
#nz #birds #fantail #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/425/182/011/385/937/original/6a59e534bc6a1072.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/425/182/433/083/435/original/07162c7f9cc08d41.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/425/182/886/189/910/original/c1242f10803793e6.jpg

2026-04-17 09:10:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…uyu7 Neat. I like that they individually thanked in their paper all of the people that took all those flower photos on #iNaturalist. This is the way.

2026-04-16 20:44:17 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v23w What bollocks. That sounds like some parroting of fossil fuel industry propaganda.

2026-04-15 09:37:11 UTC

I'm seeing lots of baby birds around Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, in April, like autumn is the new spring. It's really strange. Winter's not far away.
From today, here are two mother ducks with young ducklings and some pukeko chicks.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/349979497
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/349979508
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/349979527
#birds #phenology #ClimateChange #nz
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/408/037/351/190/249/original/f4942cab6833c0f6.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/408/037/377/250/468/original/f803e90ef3340352.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/408/037/364/511/854/original/f377c09a715d0e51.jpg

2026-04-15 08:56:51 UTC

Bellbirds are back, baby!
The first korimako, NZ bellbird, was spotted today back on campus at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I got a photo and one of the postgrads recorded it singing.
About this time of year korimako have finished breeding in the forest reserves of the Port Hills and some birds go roaming out across the less suitable habitats of the Canterbury Plains. A few find the university campus. It's usually the male birds that get this far out, as was the case today.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/349975490
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/349975490
#birds #nz #bellbird
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/407/877/740/859/957/original/d906d8fd79833398.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/407/877/756/303/499/original/2b5bf7993babce77.jpg

2026-04-12 23:17:08 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nqtz @nprofile…ffxt In that case I'm thinking about you now, as I have *hundreds* of feijoas in our kitchen at the moment. 😀

2026-04-12 20:55:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nqtz @nprofile…ffxt $USD2.99 each!! 😮

2026-04-11 06:40:54 UTC

Of the flies I saw today, this one is my favourite. It's the ngaro tara or three-lined Hover Fly (*Helophilus seelandicus*), a New Zealand endemic species.
I like the sleek colour pattern. It would not look out of place on a coverable sports car.
While the adult is sleek, the larva is a rat-tailed maggot with a long snorkle out its rear end that allows it to eat decomposing matter in stagnant water.
I saw this while on my weekly biodiversity run this afternoon through Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/348889144
#diptera #flies #entomology #nz #Syrphidae #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #iNaturalist
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/384/658/187/281/426/original/549a43ec8258a22f.jpg

2026-04-11 05:30:32 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ffxt @nprofile…nqtz Speaking of pickles, I just searched and there are recipes for pickled feijoas.
(I usually just eat them all raw though. I'd need more restraint to try recipes like this.)
https://gardenbetty.com/sweet-hot-pickled-feijoas/

2026-04-10 23:00:55 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nqtz Some of the feijoas in Christchurch are going crazy already. These fruit are from my sister's feijoas. The ones in our garden are not quite there yet.

2026-04-10 22:43:16 UTC

It's the season to be appreciative of #feijoafizz.
I think it was @nprofile…rp72 here who first told me about this neat trick. Don't throw your feijoa skins away. Put them in a clean bottle (or jar) and fill with water and leave them for a day or two.
The fruit flavour leaches into the water and the yeasts in the skin lightly ferment. The result is a feijoa flavoured lightly fizzy drink.
The recipe linked below goes all in and uses sugar. I've just been sticking the skins in bottles, waiting, then drinking.
It's surprisingly flavourful and refreshing.
http://www.thriftykiwi.co.nz/meals-and-snacks/feijoa-fizz
#feijoa #nz #drink
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/382/797/984/695/275/original/e6540dbf08c2764b.jpeg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/382/797/960/141/165/original/daad508c6b179ea2.jpeg

2026-04-08 20:18:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7760 Seems OK for me at the moment although it has glitched out occasionally previously (503 errors and whatnot).

2026-04-08 08:58:27 UTC

So. Much. Colour!!
Here's my pick of the sunset photos from this evening. When Ōtautahi-Christchurch turns on a sunset, it goes all in.
(My full-resolution photos, plus a few more, are at Flickr, eg https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55194998475/)
#sunset #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #photography
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/368/243/386/686/051/original/514b864f091e1cf9.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/368/243/416/025/846/original/2a1ff5ae5bfe42d3.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/368/243/417/077/072/original/773a532b37445de6.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/368/244/497/879/001/original/754a2f0713f71ccd.jpg

2026-04-04 21:58:19 UTC

I spent this week up in the Craigieburn Forest Park of the NZ Southern Alps helping to teach our Masters level Conservation Biology course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.
This is the first year we've run the course field trip at this location. We did so to better understand how nature is recovering after the big December 2024 fire in the area.
We were joined by retired restoration ecologist and pine expert Nick Ledgard, who spent much of his career working at the site. Nick now has a set of restoration trials set up to learn how to increase the native cover in the burnt area. The worry is that if left alone it will transition to a largely weed dominated vegetation.
@nprofile…43ks joined us for the first days of the trip to help us monitor the soil invertebrates establishing in the burnt areas, which we're comparing with the unburnt areas.
#restoration #ecology #nz #FieldTrip #universityFieldTrip
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/348/618/793/945/981/original/bd09f5b470ee92e8.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/348/618/808/672/338/original/d054f440aa253cb8.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/348/618/815/468/547/original/a67f5fc2da335e83.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/348/618/828/398/477/original/9cdf53935bf7a3e3.jpg

2026-04-02 07:57:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…lant It really was. Mike Casey has an impressive interview style, calm and direct and factual.

2026-04-02 07:24:09 UTC

Q+A's Jack Tame has a good interview with Rewiring Aotearoa’s Mike Casey on the need to quickly electrify NZ’s machines to run on New Zealand-made energy and ramp up rooftop solar. I like the way he pitches this as the clearly obvious and sensible solution, which it clearly and obviously is.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/03/29/fuel-price-blowouts-push-nz-towards-electrification-advocate/
#TVNZ #RenewableEnergy #NZ #JackTane

2026-03-29 19:47:00 UTC

My day's just started but already my word-of-the-day has got to be "semi-zygodactyl."
"This is a pattern seen in owls and ospreys, among other birds, and it means that the fourth toe can be rotated backwards on a bony flange so that it can face in either direction as the bird wishes."
http://synapsida.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-thrush-beaked-consort-bird.html
#birds #synapsida #zygodactyl

2026-03-27 06:41:49 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…6g3g Yes, perhaps that is notable. In both of the last two university cost-cutting rounds, the Agriculture and Life Sciences division solved its budget shortfall by jettisoning ecologists. We lost about a third of our ecologists through these two rounds (we’ve made several hires since then). Grant Edwards was the AGLS Dean the second time, and I think was head of the Agriculture Department the first time. He’s not new to this form of problem solving.

2026-03-27 04:21:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…6g3g I wonder if instead there's some ulterior motive here. Perhaps senior management wants to re-focus the university as well as save money, which makes voluntary redundancies a way to achieve both. They can pick who they let go.
If it was just about saving some money in the short-term, when our student enrolments are historically high, then losing this many staff and institutional expertise seems counterproductive.
(I don't like it either way.)

2026-03-26 09:21:36 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…6g3g Hear hear. Losing 5% of our staff will definitely have consequences. Surely there's a better way.

2026-03-25 19:17:16 UTC

It's a weird time to be working at #LincolnUniversityNZ.
We've bounced back from the earthquakes and covid lockdowns and there's been an optimistic buzz in the air. The earthquake damaged buildings are mostly replaced and in the last few years #LincolnUniversityNZ has had some of its highest enrolments ever. Last year it graduated the highest number of graduates in its 147 year history.
Ironically, getting more enrolments than expected has been bad because that doesn't equate to more government funding, which instead continues to decline in real terms. NZ universities receive about *a third* less funding than the OECD average.
The solution, we learned from the Vice Chancellor Grant Edwards yesterday, is that the university is going to have to lose 40 of it's about 700 staff. Presumably those that remain will, once again, need to pick up the slack.
This kind of austerity is squeezing the life out of NZ's universities. The same thing is happening to the science sector. NZ's newly combined Bioeconomy Science Institute also going through redundancies so it can survive on less government funding.
Please remember this at the upcoming election. Investing tax dollars in research and higher education is *good* for the country.
😔
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/590629/lincoln-university-to-cut-40-full-time-equivalent-jobs
https://insidegovernment.co.nz/record-graduation-for-lincoln-university/
#LincolnUniversityNZ #jobcuts #austerity #science #universities #AcademicChatter

2026-03-23 18:58:27 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…vvev @nprofile…pg4v
> Back then, Luxon said the next Government would “accelerate the transition to EVs” by spending an extra $170m on building the necessary infrastructure.
>
> According to National’s policy document, an extra $42.5m would be spent each year over four years.
>
> As of this week, the Government is yet to spend a single extra dollar beyond what the previous government had allocated. That’s right: zero.
NZ’s lack of investment in EV infrastructure shows, too. Two weekends back I took our EV from Christchurch over Arthur’s Pass to Westport and back via Lewis Pass. The charger at Arthur’s Pass was broken, one of the two chargers at Greymouth was broken (the other slow), the only charger in Westport was broken, the Reefton charger worked but was only 25 kW, and one of the two chargers at Springs Junction was broken.

2026-03-20 07:52:16 UTC

While helping out Heidi Allan with her field work earlier in the week, crossing NZ's South Island, I also (of course) counted nature along the way and took photos of notable species I found. I've uploaded some of them to #iNaturalist.
When it comes to little things like insects and smaller plants, Aotearoa-New Zealand is still in the early stages of exploration. It's almost trivially easy to make important observations. There's so much still to document.
Here are five of the most notable things I found on our three day trip.
The first showy mistletoe species between Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura (Yellow Mistletoe at Mount Terako): https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/343867527
The first observation of the pretty little fly *Maorina gourlayi* from North Canterbury (the 5th observation from anywhere on iNaturalist and 15th on GBIF): https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/343609762
The 1st record of the rare native earthworm-eating snail *Wainuia edwardi* from Mount Terako, and 37th observation on iNat: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/343863343
The 1st record of a Bobilla cricket from Westport: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/343677893
The 1st record of steelblue ladybirds in Westport and the 2nd anywhere on the West Coast: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/343677847
#iNaturalistNZ #biodiversity #nz
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/260/393/222/102/595/original/3cd98d1c21be2883.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/260/393/225/912/302/original/1b77e6a95c86b33e.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/260/393/226/200/831/original/88dd456b6a4bb5ce.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/260/393/226/851/824/original/a7f8781679aef214.jpg

2026-03-19 09:44:32 UTC

- reply

One of the extra challenges, when setting up a make-shift science desk on the forest floor on the West Coast of NZ's South Island, is stopping the curious local weka from pecking at or running off with your equipment.
We had to be constantly vigilant while Heidi was working.
😄
#birds #nz #weka
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/255/184/314/763/054/original/51cc84f865305023.jpg

2026-03-19 09:13:05 UTC

Earlier this week I had the good fortune to help #LincolnUniversityNZ ecology Masters student Heidi Allan with her field work.
Heidi's got an ambitious big-scale discovery project going, looking at the beetle communities in native NZ beech forest canopies all the way from Kaikoura on the east coast to Punakaiki on the west coast, and from the lowlands up into the Southern Alps.
The beetle community in NZ's beech canopies is largely unexplored, and has never been sampled at anything close to this scale before. Heidi's bound to find lots of new things. She'll also greatly increase our knowledge of how this community is affected by climate.
Here are some photos from our trip. Along with Heidi are John Marris, the curator of our university entomology museum, and our university's herpetologist (and lover of creepy crawlies) Jennifer Gillette.
#fieldwork #ecology #nz #entomology
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/255/022/575/379/654/original/d512f0a788b77f73.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/255/022/616/224/232/original/a0ea5ae89c8e9c36.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/255/022/758/083/191/original/246a531c3dd5e366.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/255/066/351/407/816/original/2910df0b71a7d685.jpg

2026-03-12 10:02:47 UTC

I can get lost in moths. They're one of nature's art galleries.
Here's a close-up of the wings of NZ's Greater Alpine Grey (Ichneutica virescens).
You can zoom into the full-resolution version on Flickr at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55143236921/
See the whole moth on iNaturalist NZ at: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/342554964
#mothodon #Lepidoptera #moths #nz #photography
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/215/619/793/045/517/original/9c30108e6ab5cf4d.jpg

2026-03-12 07:32:21 UTC

Today it was like I got *two* radioactive spider bites.
Now I’ll have the super powers to resist COVID *and* measles, and at no cost (thanks NZ!).
#HappyToBeVaccinated #covid #nz #measels
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/215/026/021/072/258/original/b294ced0acd76e9a.jpeg

2026-03-08 18:35:55 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…r22f Thanks. They’re like miniature, colourful roofing tiles. On a moth.

2026-03-08 04:33:29 UTC

- reply

Surprisingly, a springtail expert on iNaturalist has suggested a species ID for this springtail. I wasn't expecting it to be able to be identified to that detail, but it certainly matches the description. It looks like it's *Bourletiella arvalis*.
That makes the springtail a lot more interesting than the moth it's on.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (#GBIF) has 334 observations of the moth species (178 of which are from iNaturalist).
GBIF has only 16 observations of this springtail species from New Zealand. If confirmed, my little hitch-hiker here will be the 17th.

2026-03-07 23:40:00 UTC

Sometimes a moth is more than it seems.
I looked twice at this moth photo I was uploading to #iNaturalist. There was an orange spot on one wing. A parasitic mite?
No! It's a globular springtail!
I'm not sure if it hitched a ride into the moth light on this moth or came in on another insect.
springtail: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341756456
moth: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341756462
#phoresy #Collembola #Springtail #entomology #NZ
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/190/520/408/395/343/original/74acd1a081e1dc2b.jpeg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/190/520/457/798/799/original/643a20054785544b.jpeg

2026-03-05 19:35:22 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…llw6 Thanks. Seen that. It's excellent.
(Did you know that Rosemary Mosco was on Mastodon? She hasn't posted in about a year though: @nprofile…qezd)

2026-03-05 08:16:51 UTC

Moth? Moth!
Here's the NZ endemic moth, the appropriately named Exquisite Carpet, *Asaphodes adonis*, which I just uploaded to #iNaturalist. It's known only from NZ's South Island.'
It's always a treat to find these.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341348871
#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #nz #entomology
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/175/573/324/726/061/original/3900a3d278a14844.jpg

2026-03-02 08:48:12 UTC

Here's a triangle that loomed in the sky as it approached Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, yesterday morning.
Soon afterwards the blustery rainy cool weather arrived and stuck around for the next 24 hours.
https://flic.kr/p/2rZ9p6t
#photography #weather #nz #triangle #clouds

2026-03-01 22:57:49 UTC

It's a cold blustery cloudy day in much of Aotearoa-NZ (it's hailing outside as I type this) so to brighten up your day here's a snowberry yellow moth.
I just uploaded my photo from 2023 to iNaturalist as I work through my backlog. It's now the 29th observation on iNat of the species and will be the 33rd on GBIF once my ID is confirmed.
As the name suggests, the caterpillars of this pretty yellow moth eat NZ snowberries (Gaultheria species).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/340853987
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55123719913/
#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #nz #yellow
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/156/368/359/073/827/original/8f09f3f1434871d2.jpg

2026-03-01 20:06:09 UTC

Have you seen my bag of weather? I left it in New Zealand.

2026-02-27 09:16:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…tu5v @nprofile…m6ql Nice! That is excellent.

2026-02-27 04:09:39 UTC

- reply

As a country New Zealand should be paying more people to work on taxonomy. Taxonomy is the foundation of biodiversity knowledge, and we still know very little about a lot of NZ's biodiversity.
According to a Science Learning Hub article from 2019, there were 360 taxonomists working in NZ (on all taxa, marine to terrestrial, birds to microbes), "although only a subset of these are employed in full-time roles".
In comparison, according to the NZ Law Society, in 2021 there were 15,769 lawyers in New Zealand. One lawyer is paid a lot more than one taxonomist.
This is no shade on lawyers. A society needs a functioning legal system. We also need functioning ecosystems and healthy biodiversity, and one of the essentials of that is knowing what species we have and where they are and how they're trending.
https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2829-taxonomy-the-science-of-species-discovery
https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news/publications/lawtalk/lawtalk-issue-960/snapshot-of-the-profession-2024/
#taxonomy #nz

2026-02-27 04:07:24 UTC

I've been continuing to upload my backlog of moth photos to #iNaturalist and am being reminded of how there are still *a lot* of NZ insects that don't have formal scientific descriptions and names.
Here are three of my recently uploaded moths that can only be identified to genus because they are unnamed. They've been given tag names on iNat while they wait in line for a taxonomist to figure out exactly what they are and how many species they are.
In 2010 it was estimated that about 11,000 endemic terrestrial insect species in NZ had names . About 7,000 were still waiting to be named. So, about two of every five NZ insects species still lack even a name.
That was mentioned in a report to government in 2021 about how we don't know if there's a general decline in endemic insects here. It concluded that "there are insufficient data to determine the overall state and trend of insect populations in Aotearoa New Zealand."
As a country we could be doing a lot more.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/338694677
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339970870
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/340090084
#taxonomy #biodiversity #entomology #insects #mothodon #nz
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/140/572/662/612/343/original/6edf2f652c16eea2.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/140/572/663/430/422/original/c45d0cf3c8066d37.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/140/572/663/338/700/original/8c9c3a30188cdc84.jpg

2026-02-27 02:13:53 UTC

Check out this outrageous NZ harvestman photographed by sebastiandoak earlier this month near Charleston on the west coast of the South Island.
It's called Algidia viridata ssp. bicolor (yes, another incredible endemic NZ invertebrate still lacking a catchy common name). I've never seen one, but I want to!
The photos on the obervation are CC-BY Sebastian Doak.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337191626
#entomology #nz #Opiliones #harvestman #green #iNaturalistNZ #iNaturalist

2026-02-26 08:27:20 UTC

I’m watching a concert on Arte where Duran Duran, in 2025, is doing a cover of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer.
Our insane timeline is not even trying to make sense now. Are we sure we’re not in a simulation?
😀

2026-02-25 19:10:21 UTC

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 there's a colony or two out there somewhere. If you know the Peninsula, we put our recorders out at Tutakakahikura, Ellangowan, Panama Rock, Mount Pearce, Hay Reserve, and Montgomery Reserve. All have areas of old growth forest with some gnarly old trees where bats could roost.
Sadly, the results are in and we detected no bats.
:ablobsigh:
#ecology #EcologicalMonitoring #nz #bats #BanksPeninsula

2026-02-21 06:49:52 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xpag Antlions arr terrifying only for tiny things like ants. Here's my photo with a scale bar (0.5 mm increments).
Usually all you see is the jaws at the bottom of their pit. The rest of the antlion's body is just under the surface out of view.
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/107/279/106/749/845/original/9b972a5065e1ff11.jpg

2026-02-20 23:36:42 UTC

Here are a couple of lesser known native NZ species, which I've uploaded to iNaturalist this week from my backlog of moth light photos from NZ's North Canterbury mountains.
Pseudoscorpions are minute ground-based predators that often hitch a ride on moths (they wait on flowers for a lift). We occasionally see them at moth lights where they've dropped off their rides. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339490489
The antlion was living in the sand under the shelter where we set up our moth light. Just like a lion, they live in a pit of loose sand and eat anything that falls in. Wait, no. Why are they called lions? They're more like a Sarlacc from Star Wars. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339347432
#iinvertebrates #entomology #nz #iNaturalisttNZ
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/105/539/338/355/272/original/5baecd40f537a5d2.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/105/540/149/752/042/original/a37296869bf12e9e.jpg

2026-02-20 21:02:15 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…xj5e I expect they’re salps. (Or slaps as my spellchecker wants to call them. Salps slap.)
https://inaturalist.nz/observations?taxon_id=122325

2026-02-20 09:50:14 UTC

- reply

The new shared path in my photo runs along what is about to be a big new housing subdivision in Halswell. It's pretty empty now, but the houses are just starting to be built so soon there will be lots of pedestrians using it. There's a designated bus lane now, which is clever, but it means there's no longer space anywhere on the road for a cyclist.

2026-02-20 09:48:09 UTC

If you have to put up a sign asking cyclists to please use your shared pedestrian path, you've designed it wrong.
As a commuter cyclist, I want to get from point A to point B as fast as I can, without dying. Just like a car driver.
When given the option of riding on the road verge, or weaving in and out of people walking their dogs with headphones on and children walking to school and friends walking along chatting to each other, and giving way to cars at every little side road, then I choose the road verge. So do people on road bikes zipping past me at >30 km/hr.
I really like the separated cycleways that Christchurch city has built. They're safe and fast and well used.
I worry about the recent proliferation instead of "shared paths" in new road developments which combine cyclists with pedestrians and discourage bikes from being on the road at all.
Shared paths are useful for children on bikes, if we teach them how to ride around pedestrians, but they're impractical for an adult cyclist trying to travel 20–30 km/hr.
Please, let's keep investing in separated cycleways for cycle commuters. That's what will get more commuters out of cars, not shared paths.
#cycleways #bikeTooter #nz #biking
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/102/232/278/187/109/original/7ae0cbfdfd34a9e0.jpg

2026-02-20 08:34:29 UTC

Here are four of the species I found today in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.
Here's a caterpillar of mōkarakara, the NZ magpie moth, eating leaves of the European groundsel, Senecio vulgaris. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339402946
Here's a Puapua-a-Autahi, NZ's Anemone Stinkhorn Fungus, the first I've seen this season. They're really strange looking fungi. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339402950
Here's a red fly agaric mushroom, from the Northern Hemisphere, which was at the base of a patch of pine trees. It's odd to see a lot of these about now. I expect they're responding to our unusually wet summer. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339402947
chatter-chatter-chatter
And, here's one of the many, many Kihikihi Wawā, NZ chorus cicadas, about the city. They're an elegant insect up close, and a *loud* insect at just about any distance.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/339402945
#iNaturalistNZ #nature #nz #fungi #insects #entomology
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/101/981/365/892/795/original/8ce94a166cb4bb7f.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/101/981/368/677/654/original/110b98a840314207.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/101/981/370/404/695/original/5b07b3bae80da346.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/101/981/372/212/977/original/fc85247ea4c138cc.jpg

2026-02-16 04:58:14 UTC

For the third in my hat-trick of exciting NZ Lepidoptera news stories, here is an observation over Christmas of a Mokarakare · Rauparaha's Copper (Lycaena rauparaha). It's likely the first seen anywhere in or between Lincoln and Christchurch in over a century.
Rauparaha's Copper butterfly was described as a species back in 1877 by Christchurch lawyer and lepidopterist R. W. Fereday (there's a career combination you don't often see these days). He collected specimens in Kaiapoi and Fendalton, Christchurch city, in 1866 and 1867.
The butterfly still can be common in coastal areas further north in NZ, but it's been very rarely seen anywhere in mid-Canterbury over the past 100 years.
There was great excitement in 2014 when Chris Morse uploaded to iNaturalist some photos he'd taken in 2004 of Rauparaha's Coppers along a muehlenbeckia-lined farm hedge in Irwell, Canterbury. Since then, there have been several sightings of the butterfly around Irwell, but never to the north.
That is, until Christmas Eve 2025, when Will Frost photographed this one in his garden between Lincoln and Prebbleton.
Hopefully it's the beginning of a gradual expansion back into its home territory.
Photo CC-BY-NC Will Frost.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/333646061
#butterflies #Lepidoptera #nz #CitizenScience #iNaturalist #iNaturalistNZ #entomology
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/116/078/513/876/505/055/original/cb8438f6e39c7ab0.jpg

2026-02-13 09:17:06 UTC

- reply

It struck me during Carl's talk that massive, general LLMs are yet another technology that, through the competitive haste of capitalism, we’ve unleashed globally without considering all of the likely effects on things we value (like social cohesion, functional democracies, and a healthy biosphere). As usual, we’ll now live through all these consequences and will scramble to undo the worst of the damage.
We’ve done the same with chlorofluorocarbons, DDT, acid rain, whaling, forever chemicals, cars,... It’s what we do, but every new global-scale technology is a gamble that it won’t irrevocably damage civilisation and the biosphere. Eventually we’re going to lose that gamble.
To drive a large, global high-tech civilisation for thousands of years, we have to learn to be *much* more restrained and future smart. Are we capable of that?
#SustainableFuture #UnintendedConsequences #LLM

2026-02-13 09:14:45 UTC

I went to a fantastic seminar today at the University of Canterbury by Carl Bergstrom (@nprofile…dnd9), titled “Information Foraging in a Social Media World.” Carl has been applying his knowledge of how information flows through ecological and evolutionary systems to better understand our digital information networks.
He views humans as fundamentally information foragers, and he compared the massive digital information network we’ve built to the excess of high calorie sweet and fatty foods. Neither are necessarily good for us in excess.
Information used to be hard to find and we spent a lot of our time processing it. Now we live with a hyper-abundance of information and we spend most of our time filtering information instead of processing it. Carl hinted that this ratio of filtering to processing differs between the generations, something that teachers need to consider.
He ended with LLMs, describing LLMs as fundamentally depersonalising, as they insert themselves between people in our digital information networks. He is also concerned about how easily LLMs can be used at scale to manipulate people, and communities of people, for commercial and political purposes.
In universities he sees the need for a radically trans-disciplinary crisis discipline focused on information. We quickly need to better understand, and anticipate, all the social changes that are happening.
It’s a lot to think about.

2026-02-13 07:29:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nlzd Worst fire safety advice song *ever*. 😄

2026-02-09 04:37:13 UTC

Today I learned more about Wasp Parasitizer Moths, in the genus Chalcoela.
Why doing something dangerous like be out in the open for days eating cabbage leaves when you instead can be inside a *wasp nest* eating *wasp larvae*.
Respect.
(The moths are among candidates being considered for paper wasp biocontrol in the Pacific including NZ.)
https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/29597
https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.19811.02086
https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/assets/Events/biosecurity-bonanza/2024/29-July-24-Brown-Biosecurity-bananas-paper-wasp-biocontrol.pdf
#Chalcoela #moths #NaturalHistory #mothodon #Lepidoptera #entomology

2026-02-06 05:05:35 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nlzd I'm always impressed with your breadth of knowledge of music.

2026-02-06 05:04:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…6g3g Good article. It takes slow, steady work to build solid things that last.

2026-02-06 04:58:59 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nlzd Crumbs! Where did you excavate that from? 😄

2026-02-06 01:20:09 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…yh4s Great (although not for the squirrel). I see the hawk is banded. Can you make out the number on the band on your photos? Someone will want to know that.

2026-02-04 05:27:06 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…et3t Neat video. I've read about Blue Duck Scenic Reserve but I don't think I've ever been into it. I must go sometime.
Also, that's a lot of bellbirds. When I was in Riccarton Bush yesterday I only heard 3–4 singing.

2026-02-03 20:00:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…et3t Yes, I’m the same. The forested Canterbury Plains that the first Polynesian settlers saw about 800 years ago would have been *extraordinary*.
I guess we’re lucky we’ve still got a few tiny scraps like Riccarton Bush (and Talbot Bush and Lords Bush) to offer us a glimpse of what it was like. And to grow from!

2026-02-03 09:24:46 UTC

At the end of today I stopped off at Riccarton Bush, the old growth forest fragment in the heart of Christchurch city, NZ. It was lightly raining which made the forest look extra green. The forest is centuries older than the city and it's definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.
Here's one kahikatea tree I found that had taken a somewhat curvy route up to the canopy. I took a panorama to squeeze it all into one photo.
https://flic.kr/p/2rUSKk9
#tree #RiccartonBush #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #panorama #photograpghy #Flickr

2026-02-02 21:51:31 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…rrtm Woah. That's a colossal yew tree. Any idea how old it is?

2026-02-02 07:12:02 UTC

It’s good to see bird window strikes getting some attention in the NZ media, here with a story today in #RNZ about lots of kererū hitting modern windows in Dunedin. A lot of birds hit windows. In Akaroa it’s been glass balustrades on decks that tūī have been flying into.
What’s missing from this story is that this is a solved problem–there are ways to manufacture glass windows that birds can see–and some cities and states internationally require this in their building codes.
The second link below is a recent new story from Winnipeg in Canada which last year past a bylaw requiring bird friendly windows. After building industry lobbyists pushed back this year, claiming this was too expensive, bird advocates put together the costings for the Winnipeg council showing that, with proper planning at the design stage, the extra costs are negligible. The bylaw was upheld.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585726/modern-windows-suspected-of-being-behind-rise-in-serious-kereru-injuries
https://naturecanada.ca/news/blog/bird-friendly-strategy/
#birds #conservation #WindowStrikes #nz

2026-02-01 08:59:08 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…w9yw That's curious. No, I don't have any immediate explanation, other than to mention that it's been a weirdly cool and wet summer, at least down here in Christchurch, and quite a few insects are a bit late of the mark. I wonder if your local insects will peak later?

2026-02-01 08:57:18 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…6n2p Great. They're impressive insects at all stages. Last time I reared a gum emperor from a caterpillar, I was surprised that it stayed nine months as a pupa before the adult moth emerged.

2026-02-01 07:50:36 UTC

- reply

Between festive moths and grumpy moths are elegant moths. Here's one of the Opogona comptella that showed up at my moth light last night.
They'd look good on a runway in any high fashion show.
This one's an Australian species that established in northern NZ then spread southwards. Its caterpillars have been found eating dead wood.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336923284
#mothodon #moths #insects #entomology #nz #Christchurch #Ōtautahi
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/994/266/525/201/178/original/5b4da9dbcac09be3.jpg

2026-02-01 07:26:48 UTC

Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at home last night, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.
I first thought there was a bird flapping in the bushes, before it appeared. This one was pinker than most I've seen, and it happily clambered about on its big fluffy feet.
They're more like Pokémon than real moths.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336921630
#moths #mothodon #Christchurch #NZ #Ōtautahi #insects #entomology
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/994/160/312/622/042/original/f1eab5384105d77c.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/994/160/315/462/326/original/2114ff1552e4c3c8.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/994/160/315/913/672/original/eba208a544c1367f.jpg
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/994/160/316/286/033/original/569f81c49b0b562b.jpg

2026-01-31 09:26:06 UTC

As much as I loathe LLM "AI" built from hoards of stolen data, machine learning "AI" has become terrifically useful.
This past week I had 10 audio recorders set out in the forest and nearby grassland, all recording non-stop from Monday afternoon to Friday morning. That was on our recent university field ecology field trip.
Today I downloaded all the files to a hard drive (156 GB of data) and then I set my little M1 Macbook Air to work, using the offline desktop BirdNet app to identify all of the birds in the recordings.
It took most of the day, and now I have a 42,284 row spreadsheet of birds detected.
It really feels like magic.
Here's a quick sorted lists of all the bird detections with species IDs with a confidence score >0.9.
Together with the students in the course, we'll laterl compare how birds have changed since we started doing this in 2020, and how the birds in the grassland differ from the forest.)
#birds #BirdNet #ecology #nz #MachineLearning
https://o.mastodon.nz/media_attachments/files/115/988/969/153/823/618/original/bc0fcaa2e7ed265a.png

2026-01-31 05:51:12 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…r769 The first coverage I saw of these protests was this story with the disappointing headline, "Twin protests set to cause traffic woes for Auckland."
Perhaps I shouldn't read too much into this but my first read of that headline implied that the majority of New Zealanders would be more concerned about traffic delays than the issues being protested about. That's concerning.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585480/twin-protests-set-to-cause-traffic-woes-for-auckland

2026-01-31 05:14:10 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nqtz Exhibit B: the New Zealand flatworm (Arthurdendyus triangulates) that's been eating up the earthworms of the UK and Ireland.
https://www.nonnativespecies.org/assets/Uploads/ID_Arthurdendyus_triangulatus_New_Zealand_Flatworm.pdf
#InvasiveSpecies #nz #UK

2026-01-30 06:55:57 UTC

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, Detector Gadget has been called out of retirement to track down a rat:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585514/13-year-old-rodent-sniffer-dog-back-on-the-job-after-rat-found-on-predator-free-island
#RNZ #conservation #nz #dogsOfMastodon