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Shakespear Open Sanctuary Society Inc (SOSSI)
Seabird shenanigans It is all go for the seabird restoration project at Shakespear Open Sanctuary! Thanks to a number of very generous donations from members of the public and funding from Auckland Council we were able to purchase three solar-powered speaker systems for the project. These were installed by a terrific bunch of Tuesday volunteers at the end of April and have been broadcasting seabird calls out into the Hauraki Gulf by night ever since. Less than a month later, the cameras we have set up to monitor the sites have shown the first visiting birds inspecting the cacophony coming from the speakers at all of the sites. We are aiming to enhance the population of Grey-Faced Petrels at the sanctuary to begin with, as this is the species already present (although in very low numbers so far). However, the first visitors caught on camera appeared to be Diving Petrels and possibly Fluttering Shearwaters. We can’t tell whether or not the birds were the same individuals, but the time and date stamp on the photos show that the visitors were at the site at different times during the night and across different nights. Either way, it was very exciting to see the first birds checking out the speakers. Hopefully they are convinced to nest at Shakespear Open Sanctuary in the near future! Several Millwater residents are already members of SOSSI and this on-going support is much appreciated and is very important to the future of the Sanctuary. We still need more members – there is no commitment to take part in the physical activities at Shakespear Park (unless you want to volunteer). It still costs only $10 for one year but we’ve added two new options which we’d much prefer you to use (so we don’t need to do this every year). These are: • $40 for 5 years; or • Automatic Payment of $10 per year (until you cancel it), via PayPal; and • You can pay online at www.sossi.org.nz/supporters/ by direct credit, credit card or PayPal, or send a cheque to SOSSI, PO Box 790 Whanga- paraoa, Auckland 0943.
Term 4 registrations are now open! Are you or anyone you know interested in cheerleading? We have a range of teams to suit all ages and abilities! We will be running the first round of trials for our 2016 competition season throughout this term so if you are thinking about joining us there is no better time to start than right now! Contact us today!
info@pacific-cheer.com • 09-428-3013 / 021-137-3047
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