Pitpat error I have finally finished reading the February 2015 Forest & Bird magazine from cover to cover. I really enjoyed reading it but just wanted to point out a factual error I noticed in one of the articles. In the Going Places article ‘Chasing Grey Ghosts’ about a trip into the Cobb Valley near Nelson, it says: “And Tim, our expedition botanist, found a threatened Pittosporum patulum (‘pitpat’) endemic to the region.” Unfortunately this is not correct, as P. patulum is not endemic to the Nelson region, but is distributed more widely from Nelson down to the Lake Hawea-Lake Ohau area. See the NZPCN website for a distribution map http:// www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=88 P. patulum is a nationally endangered species but I suspect few people will have heard of it. Unfortunately New Zealand’s threatened native plants don’t tend to receive the same amount of attention or recognition as our threatened fauna, so it would be great if the Forest & Bird magazine could help raise the profile and knowledge of our special flora even more.
WIN A BOOK Forest & Bird is giving away three copies of Galapagos of the Antarctic – Wild Islands South of New Zealand by Rodney Russ & Aleks Terauds (Heritage Expeditions $72). To enter the draw, email your entry to draw@ forestandbird.org.nz Please put Galapagos in the subject line and include your name and address in the email. Or put your name and address on the back of an envelope and post to Galapagos draw, Forest & Bird, PO Box 631, Wellington 6140. Entries close on July 3.
Melissa Hutchison, Christchurch We certainly do intend to continue to raise the profile and knowledge of our threatened native plants in the magazine. Our apologies for the error, thank you for bringing it to my attention – Editor.
A genuine grey ghost Having read your article ‘Chasing Grey Ghosts’, I must try to describe an experience I had with the South Island grey ghost, yes a genuine sighting many years ago – 11 January 1972 at 9.30am in the morning to be precise. My cousin JW Harding and I had been on a tramp to Boulder Lake in Kahurangi National Park. We became aware of a particularly melodious tūī. Looking up, from my angle, I could only see long legs and a dark grey bird, I couldn’t see its head. “That’s no tūī, I said.” From Jim’s angle he could see the orange wattles. I had used up all my photographic film so we just listened spellbound to its magnificent song. No wonder it has the alternative name of ‘organ’, add flute
50 years ago
The winners of Professor Penguin: Discovery and Adventure with Penguins by Lloyd Spencer Davis are: Ian McLean (Auckland), Erica Newport (Nelson) and Michael Stace (Kapiti Coast). Your books will be posted. to that as well! It was sheer magic. I notified DOC when we returned to Nelson, they sent a team, but they found nothing. So the record became an ‘unconfirmed sighting’. But for my cousin and I, we have no doubt whatsoever. Ian Townsend, Levin Ian is the winner of Buller’s Birds of New Zealand by Geoff Norman
Erosion in New Zealand Considered the World’s Worst Professor Robert Dils, a leading United States conservation expert, is reported to have said at Rotorua that by world standards New Zealand erosion was probably the most rapid and extensive that could be found on a large scale anywhere. Our steep hillsides are unusually susceptible to erosion. The causes of the disastrous state of many of them today are fairly well known, and not the least of those causes is the hordes of noxious animals let loose by those who could not envisage the terrible consequences of their actions. Doubtless they acted in ignorance, but today the results of having these animals browsing in the bush and on our mountain slopes is apparent to anyone with eyes to see and the honesty to admit. Extracted from Forest & Bird Magazine, May 1965
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