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#ōtautahi

0 posts0 participants0 posts today
Jon Sullivan
Public

Along the New Brighton coast and only since about 2016, we've also got the clapping cicada, *Amphipsalta cingulata*. When Thursday's Waitangi Day hikoi reached New Brighton Pier, I heard a distinctly different cicada calling. It's got a pulsing, ascending rattle. It has spread down into the South Island from the North Island this century, presumably in response to the warming climate.

inaturalist.nz/taxa/342370-Amp
#insects #nz #cicadas #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
4/5

00:00/00:16
Jon Sullivan
Public

In Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills, but not Christchurch city, there's the chirping cicada *Amphipsalta strepitans*. I informally call it the maraca cicada because it reminds me of someone shaking a maraca. I don't yet understand why this species is not in the city itself. It cuts out at around the edge of the housing in the Port Hills.

inaturalist.nz/taxa/342372-Amp
#insects #nz #cicadas #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
3/5

00:00/00:19
Jon Sullivan
Public

In Christchurch city and the Port hills and Banks Peninsula, we've got the Kihikihi Wawā or Chorus Cicada, *Amphipsalta zelandica*. Its calls sound like pulsing static. These are the cicadas that make a cacophany from the trees of the botanic gardens and Hagley Park. They are abundant and all of them singing together is *loud*.

inaturalist.nz/taxa/81881-Amph
#insects #nz #cicadas #Ōtautahi #Christchurch
2/5

00:00/01:02
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Jon Sullivan
Public

Here are some of the male korimako (NZ bellbirds) that have visited the sugar water feeders in our garden this week, singing up a storm.

I've realised that they're so used to us now that I can stand by an open window within half a metre of one of our sugar water feeders to photograph them and they don't seem to mind at all. Magic! (And often loud.)

inaturalist.nz/observations/25
inaturalist.nz/observations/25
inaturalist.nz/observations/25
inaturalist.nz/observations/25

A photo of a korimako/NZ bellbird, an oliver green mid-sized bird, perched at a sugar water feeder in our garden. This feeder is made from an upturned wine bottle. The bird is one of the banded birds that visits our garden (this one's right teal). I've put the full-res photo on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54265859810/
A photo of a male korimako/NZ bellbird, an oliver green mid-sized bird, looking at you. It has a deep red eye. It's got a dusting of orange pollen on its forehead from the last of the local harakeke (NZ flax) flowers. I've put the full-res photo on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54265674318/
A photo of a male korimako/NZ bellbird, an oliver green mid-sized bird, perched at a sugar water feeder in our garden. It's perched on a metal rebar perch next to the feeder. I've put the full-res photo on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54265860020/
A photo of a male korimako/NZ bellbird, an oliver green mid-sized bird, all puffed up and singing. The make loud and complicated bell-like songs, hence "bellbird". I've put the full-res photo on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54265444196/
#birds#nz#nature
*
Jon Sullivan
Public

When I was out for my weekly run on the weekend I bumped into local botanist William Reinders, down on his hands and knees peering at a dandelion.

He showed me a small patch of grass just over the fence in the horse paddock, with three species of Rytidosperma grass, two native to NZ. One of them, R. merum, is "At Risk (Declining)".

William is the top plant observer in Christchurch on #iNaturalistNZ. He's so far found 1,541 plant species in the city.
#botany #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #grasses

A photo of some small grass seeds held between a thumb and finger. This is the native grass Rytidosperma clavatum. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/258418283
A photo of William Reinders holding a distinctive seed of the Australian wallaby grass, <em>Rytidosperma racemosum</em>. He describes the seed as looking like a ballerina. I have the full-res version of this photo on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/54265309128
A photo of botanist William Reinders hunched down looking carefully at a grass seed.
A photo of botanist William Reinders hunched down looking carefully at a grass seed.
Jon Sullivan
Public

You know how you go for a run but it's slow going because you're looking for myrtle rust on all the planted ramarama hybrids and then you spot a mating pair of Zorion guttigerum flower beetles on the flowers of a ramarama hybrid and you've got to stop briefly to photograph them?

Maybe that's just me. 😄

They're a stylish pair of beetles though.

inaturalist.nz/observations/25

A photo of a mating pair of flower beetles (species Zorion guttigerum, a New Zealand endemic) next to a white flower. The beetles are long and thin and iridescent blue with two orange spots. You can see a higher resolution photo at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/254478857
A photo of a mating pair of flower beetles (species Zorion guttigerum, a New Zealand endemic) next to a white flower. The beetles are long and thin and iridescent blue with two orange spots. You can see a higher resolution photo at https://inaturalist.nz/observations/254478857
#nature#entomology#beetles
Jon Sullivan
Public

I saw a juvenile korimako/NZ bellbird in our garden today. It's the first juvenile this season that I've seen visiting us.

Juveniles look a bit scruffy, and have a dull cheek stripe, similar to the white cheek stripe of adult females.

Unlike the adults' flamboyant songs, juveniles just go "zick, zick, zick." I've added a short recording of it to my #iNaturalistNZ observation. Click the link if you'd like to listen.

inaturalist.nz/observations/25

A photo of an olive green bird perched in vegetation in a garden. It has orange pollen on its forehead from feeding on New Zealand flax.
A photo of an olive green bird perched in vegetation in a garden. It has orange pollen on its forehead from feeding on New Zealand flax.
#birds#NewZealand#nz
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Jon Sullivan
Public

I had a lot to do today so instead I took a break and photographed the flies on the chicken shit in our garden. 😄

They're quite pretty when you look up close. There were five species. Here are four of them.

inaturalist.nz/observations/24
inaturalist.nz/observations/24
inaturalist.nz/observations/24
inaturalist.nz/observations/24

A photo of a blue-bottle fly head down on some chicken shit. The tesselated markings on the bright blue abdomen make it a European Blue Blowfly, *Calliphora vicina*.
A photo of a bluish blowfly. This is the Australian native fly, the brown blowfly, *Calliphora stygia*, now common in NZ.
A photo of a hairy blowfly on some chicken shit. This fly has a bluish abdomen and bright yellow on the base of its wings and on some of its mouth parts. The latter feature makes it a species in the genus *Xenocalliphora*. This is a native fly, one of * Xenocalliphora neozealandica* or *X. clara* (according to Dipterist Steve Kerr on iNaturalist NZ).
A photo of an iridescent green fly with red eyes. This is the European Greenbottle Fly, *Lucilia sericata*.
#Diptera#nature#fly
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