The Friends of Maara Roa in Cannons Creek, Belmont Regional Park, invite you to be a Human Bird.
In our "Human Bird" programme, we imitate the birds — but you'll be pleased to know we don't have to eat the seeds!
The Kiwi Conservation Club kids and their families pioneered this programme for us.
In our New Zealand native forests, native birds are the agents of a great percentage of the regeneration of the trees.
There are many species of our trees and shrubs which rely on birds to spread their seeds to other areas.
This is done as birds eat the ripe berries, fly elsewhere, and excrete the seeds — with a little fertiliser attached to help them grow.
It works well!
This activity is really fun for a family, a children's club or school class, or any group which has an ongoing life covering the period needed, and wants to assist conservation.
If you want a copy of these details, view our Human Birds leaflet (PDF file 160Kb) and print off a copy for yourself.
Want to be involved? Please phone Sylvia on (04) 237.4760 or email info@MaaraRoa.org.nz.
Rimu (top) and Kahikatea (bottom)
foliage and seeds.
Mature rimu and kahikatea have scale leaves on their branchlets and produce swollen, fruit-like structures (receptacles) to support and partially protect their seeds.
Rimu seeds, borne on the tips of upturned branchlets, take about 18 months to ripen after pollination.
Kahikatea seeds develop a bluish bloom as they ripen, some six months after pollination.
Birds eat the seeds and fleshy receptacles, and distribute the seeds which pass through their digestive system intact.
[Source:
The Encyclodpedia of NZ (TeAra.govt.nz)]
As part of the Human Birds programme, seed was gathered during summer (2010/2011) and autumn from the following plants.
The 1st number indicates the number of plants collected from. The 2nd, the estimated number of seeds.
Refer to our "What we plant and protect" page to help you with identifying those plants (as many as possible) that we are using (planting) or protecting in this project.
In February and March, successful Seed Collection mornings were held under the guidance of Owen Spearpoint, a Greater Wellington staff member.
Participants took their seeds home, cleaned and stored them, bringing them back for the third session, making the Seedballs.
Thanks to Mana College for letting us use their Art Room for this hands-on activity.
Now the Seedballs are being stored and hardened off till the winter weather
Then everyone will meet again for the "Throwing" morning, expected to be sometime in late June when the soil and moisture is right.
"Throwing" sites will be selected in the Takapu area of the Maara Roa restoration project.
Participants (totalling 18) have come from as far afield as Kilbirnie and Kapiti, and will be able to use this method of native forest restoration in other areas across the region, restoring private farm areas, public reserves, and Maori land, now they have attended the course organised by the Friends of Maara Roa.
On 4th July, the "Human Birds" threw or batted, the seedballs down into the steep-sided gorge of Cannons Creek, which drops away just beyond the gorse and scrub in the foreground.
This part of the valley is accessed from Takapu Road, Wellington, with a 20-minute walk along a Park track then across paddocks above the gorge.
The trees in the background are on the other side of the gorge, on the proposed route of the Transmission Gully motorway.
The gorge area targeted for the seedballs is defined as the "Takapu Conservation Covenant" and is fenced off from stock.
However, the native bush in the gorge is patchy and struggles to survive among rocky bluffs with gorse, bracken and pine trees - a typical site to use seedballs as a regeneration method, rather than attempting restorative planting by hand.
Participants in this programme included several private land owners, Nga Uruora (Paekakariki Coastal Escarpment), Nikau Reserve (Kapiti), and a science teacher from Onslow College.
With ten Friends and ten visitors from other bush restoration projects now able to undertake a "Human Birds" programme in their own areas, the regeneration of steep gullies, escarpments & gorsey slopes of many Wellington region landscapes can be expedited with minimal labour and maximum enjoyment - in the manner of our delightful native birds.
Many thanks to Owen Spearpoint of Greater Wellington, and Janet Hollow of Forest and Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club, for their help in this Programme.
See more Human Bird Programme photos.
The Kiwi Conservation Club children went seed-hunting on 22nd April, and made their seedballs in the following school holidays.
On Tuesday 8th July, it was their "Human Birds" seedball throwing day.
They walked down to the stile on the Takapu Track, and just past that there is an old vehicle track running right along the top of Cannons Creek valley's western ridge.
Walking down that, they threw the seedballs as far as they could down into the scrubby gorse and bush.
To finish off the day, they then walked down the Takapu Track to our planting area for a nature walk with Neil Bellingham.
Here's the article and photos from the Kapi-Mana News 5 August, 2008.
'Human birds' seed collectors
The Kiwi Conservation Club joined with us to collect seeds for both us and Pauatahanui Forest and Bird.
Sylvia Jenkin, Jean Luke and Wanda Tate met them on Saturday 11th March 2006, and helped the children and their mothers collect quite a few seeds.
Those seeds suitable for Maara Roa were rolled into seedballs with potting mix, clay and fertilizer.
Though their original date was postponed because of bad weather, five or six families from KCC along with Brenda Stickley threw the seedballs around the Tawa Finger later in the year.
This technique has been found to be as successful as growing and planting trees.
The children are doing what the birds are doing, have fun doing it, but don't have to eat the seeds!
Kids, you did well, in what is quite a rough area!
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