juvenile saddleback

kaka on ulva island

it's hot...

decided to start moving some of my shit this afternoon but not particularly fun in 30+ degrees. Managed to collapse my bookshelf on my head which wasn't much fun either. has been far too hot to do anything this weekend - tinkered with the guitar a little but that's about it. still somehwat limpy but getting better, although the physio reckons that i will be out of the field for 6 weeks which is the remained of my contract, so there goes any fun for the rest of the summer.

stewart island

weka

holidays and gammy knees

i should really write a big story about my lovely holiday and its associated dramas but i've been sitting in front of this computer for over 8 hours a day for the past two days and i really can't be arsed. so....i'm stealing my blog entry from cam who was there and has summed it all up nice and succinctly. will add my own photos tho at sporadic intervals.

needles

i never really thought that i was good with needles. i'm not horridibly girly squeamish but they're not something i'm particularly fond of. so the thought of sticking a needle thicker than a bit of no. 8 wire into the neck of an endangered species wasn't really all that appealing. but after poking a frozen chick and some mallards, i was let loose on some whio ducklings. and it was fun!! perhaps a wee bit too much fun. in fact, i could quite happily stick microchips into pretty much anything now.....any volunteers??

hobbits in the dead marshes

the summer nature programme had a trip to the kepler mire where they filmed the dead marshes for LOTR, so i went along to help out, complete with eleven cloak. slopped around in the mud for a couple of hours, chasing kids with goose bones and helping them catch bugs and stick them to sundews. lots of fun!!

duck catching

is a fun pastime when there is snow on the hills and the river is in flood. but it's even better when you scam a helicopter ride to save 3 hours of walking in the rain. went in yesterday and caught a pair with 2 ducklings. banded those and then walked out from castle today, catching another pair with 3 ducklings on the way out. not a bad way to spend a couple of days. ended up coming out a day early which means i dont' have to work an 11 day week - yay!!

brrrrr

i woke up this morning to snow down to bushline!! Hello people, it's the 3rd of january; it's supposed to be summer; and it's snowing!! What's up with that!?!

Managed to get myself featured in yet another television production yesterday. i am now the star (well, one of many stars) of a documentary series on biodiversity hotspots around the world, together with my ducks. the presenter dude was pretty cool and gave me his card at the end of the filming. President, Conservation International. Man, this is one pretty important dude. Good thing there were no trucks or incubators involved :)

Happy New Year!!