Christopher Stephens

Birds, moths, geckos, skinks, orchids! (to name a few). All up on @iNaturalistNZ and openly licensed. Provisional CMKMStephens elsewhere set up for sinking ship

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

A BIG tick on my wishlist, the South Island Lichen Moth (Declana egregia).

Check your $100 bill the next time you have one for some mysterious reason people 💸💸

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

If the bus replacement is 12 mins later then, what's the fucking point? The next train is in 7 mins and will easily beat it to Wellington.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Until such time as I do move entirely, this is still a place to scream Fucking @metlinkwgtn , with cancelled commuter trains at peak time on the HVL, with bus replacements that don't exist, on a day pouring with rain.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

@Invertebratist Colin Miskelly and Annemieke were mostly pulling from burrows, a couple were picked up hanging around in the surface (prospecting burrows, looking for a fight, etc)

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

and here's some Fairy Prions and band checking.

Apart from maybe some documentation with photos I'm not sure I did anything useful though. I did hold/restrain a Fairy Prion briefly - it wasn't happy about it - not the little claws in 3rd photo.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

That's probably enough, so I'll just leave you with this perfect day.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

I've realised I forgot about the NI Mātātā / Fernbirds.

Having been translocated several years ago now, the island is FULL of them. Peeping (verbally, visually) at you at all times, in all places.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Took excessively detailed macro shots of the flower of the NZ Iceplants

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Rauhuia (Linum monogynum ssp. monogynum) likewise.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Clematis forsteri was just starting up

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Botanically, the best thing was probably finally getting to see Cook Strait Māhoe (Melicytus orarius) in its prolific full flower.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

@shaunryan I'm certainly a weevil enthusiast, but I've only seen 55 species...and there are 100s of them in NZ alone: https://t.co/HlrP2WuitW)

perhaps even an Honorary Associate Weevil Cadet through a bit of field work on Mana and elsewhere.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

For the pit trap monitoring, it's due to the weevils again, ie, how do lizards and invertebrates fare after the flax weevils have annihilated all the flaxes they liked to live in? I've never handled so many lizards before, but great experience.

Northern grass skink

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

No trip to Mana Island is complete without coastal jumping spiders.

These are 'Marpissa marina', though almost certainly a complex of different species across the country.

I had to wait perfectly still above the spider's lookout pebble, as they kept going down among the rocks.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

My 'big' score for the weekend was finally getting some photos of Hutton's Speargrass Weevil (Lyperobius huttoni)

These were translocated from Te Kopahou Reserve on on the Wellington south coast. I've never managed to find them there, nor on Mana until now.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Male and female korimako going nuts over flowering and fruiting Five-finger/psuedopanax/houhou

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Male bellbird/korimako, surveying the kingdom.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

A pōpokatea/whitehead

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

Overall, and without having any intent of groping them, the birds were a bit hard to get shots of - unusual. Usually I come away with a zillion kākāriki photos.

Here's some of the better Yellow-crowned kākāriki photos.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

On the 2nd night I hadn't been tasked to anything, so I went out to the cliffs for the artificial burrow monitoring - checking occupation and bands of Fairy Prions/tītī wainui and Diving Petrels/kuaka.

Here's a Diving Petrel

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

To round off the geckos and skinks, a side goal on the island was to get some more shots of the McGregor's Skink - a big one that likes sunny beaches, and is relict to just some offshore islands.

and this was achieved.

[Christopher Stephens @CMKMStephens]

and by day...so long as there were flaxes left!