Ruru and Rifleman habitats helped by Ryman retirees tackle bird and insect biodiversity loss. Residents at Charles Upham Retirement Village have built boxes upon boxes – dozens of them – for native New Zealand species rifleman/tītipounamu/rifleman and morepork/ruru to nest in.
The Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust was on the lookout for the nesting boxes for the morepork and rifleman, plus a batch of wētā hotels suitable for New Zealand’s favourite native insect.
So, it was Ryman residents from the Rangiora village to the rescue to help the peninsula conservation project.
BPCT Wildside Coordinator Alice Webster said the trust is now working on placing both the bird nesting boxes plus the wētā motels that are suitable for the two species of endemic tree wētā found on the peninsula.
The Charles Upham residents – led by Lynn Andrews took on the nesting box and wētā motel task with fervour. The group, also including Colin Dixon, Alan Orchard, Murray Giles, Ross Stewart, Terry Courtney and Gwenda Johnson, put together 43 nesting boxes for ruru, 50 nesting boxes for rifleman/tītitipounamu – New Zealand’s smallest endemic bird, and 50 wētā motels.
Webster and BPCT General Manager Maree Burnett are working to get the nesting boxes and motels out on the peninsula as part of efforts to support the regrowth of local populations. Pests such as possums, rats and hedgehogs continue to harm bird and invertebrate populations. The rifleman and ruru nesting boxes plus wētā motels give these creatures safe habitats to rest and nest in.
"The trust are very grateful to the residents of Charles Upham for their work on what was not a simple construction project," said Webster.
