Makarora Field Camp!

BIRDING CAMP!

17/01/24

Well well well! Let me just tell you about the coolest thing I got to be a part of in New Zealand: Makarora Field Camp!

With fourteen kids ages 14-18, I got to help execute the coolest camp for kids ever. With a focus on biodiversity, we covered topics ranging from research techniques, shorebirds, migrants, eBird, moths, bats, conservation dogs, and geophysiography! 

Let's get into it! 

Day 1

Rachel and I started bright and early in Wanaka prepping the last few supplies for camp. We arrived in Makarora around ten for setup. With bird posters, maps and camp pamphlets, the classroom looked like a bird wonderland. I was so excited to get started. Kids started arriving around three and we got to give them a brief run down of all of the activities we had planned for the week. Mist netting and point counts were up first! We stayed in the beautiful Wonderland Makarora Lodge which provided adorable a-frames for everyone to stay in. I even got my very own room, lucky me!

We played a little icebreaker game (led by yours truly) and then went on to have a delicious dinner. After dinner, Graeme led us in a demonstration on how to set up mist poles and proper knots. We had a grand ole time and headed to bed early for our early morning. 

Day 2

Today was mist-netting day... WAHOO! I have a bit of experience with mist net set up, tear down and scribing, but I didn't think we would be able to get nets up as fast as we did! We separated the groups into Group 1 and Group 2 so both groups could experience point counts and mist nets either today or tomorrow. Today, I was with Group 1 or Young Birders NZ. Throughout the camp we had a variety of birding knowledge, and let me just say I was blown away by these kids. Some of them had birding knowledge that I hadn't even begun to grasp until college. Their bird call accuracy was also through the roof! Most of the time, I felt they knew more about birds than me! It was really cool to see these kids so passionate about birdies and form a community of naturalists so young. Everyone was so eager to learn and ask questions. I am very proud of all of them. 

The first birds we caught in the nets were bellbirds! We got a recapture from the previous field camp and his assumed partner. These little guys were biters! We also caught a tomtit and my favorite catch of the day: a gray warbler! Photos are in order (last one is wild birders :))!

After our incredible mist-netting session, we all got together to have a late breakfast. MMM was it good. I stuffed myself full of eggs, toast and creamy mushrooms. I was in birder heaven! After breakfast, we all went up to Cameron Creek to find mohua. We didn't see or hear any, but we did score a bunch of raspberries at the ripe raspberry patch by the carpark. We had so many raspberries I think we almost harvested a grocery stores worth! Also the views were fantastic. 

We came back to enjoy an amazing lecture delivered by Anthony, the Aspiring Biodiversity Chair and Facilitator, about geophysiography around New Zealand but even more specifically the Makarora Braided river. He delivered an incredibly interesting talk about the different types of substrate found and how it impacts our native wildlife. After his talk, it was suddenly dinner time and we got spoiled with yet another delicious hearty meal. I hadn't eaten so well since Christmas! 

Day 3

Another early start at Makarora Field Camp! This time, I went to do point counts with the crew. We walked around to ten different sites and recorded the location, temperature, time, number of observers, some other relevant weather data and the birds we heard and saw. We had a blast bushwacking to each site on the newly proposed hiking track. Some highlights of point counts were: possum skull (no one else thought this was as cool as I did), bellbird alarm calls possibly triggered by an elusive ruru, and group bonding!

After we finished our sites, the rest of the group continued on for further counts and I worked on the end of camp jeopardy game! I had so much fun coming up with categories to embody the whole of Makarora field camp. By Day 3, the categories were set in stone with: Who Am I?, New Zealand Rocks, The Braided River, Where in the World?, Field Techniques, and Invasive Species. We ended up being treated to ANOTHER excellent brunch and we then moved on to our first day out on the Makarora Braided River! It was a chilly day, but the excitement of seeing the summer migrants silenced the cold. Within the first few minutes of being on gravel, we saw banded dotterels hiding out behind some cushion grass. These little guys scurry so adorably, they reminded me a lot of killdeer (but less squeaky). We had our first river crossing and saw some wrybills downstream. It was such a good birding day. By the end of our river trip, I had seen the black-fronted tern, wrybill, and banded dotterel. Three new species for me. Also, isn't the river just beautiful? 

By the time we got back, we had a delicious dinner of NZ pies waiting for us. We had a briefing for the next day and finished it all off with a game of UNO. 

Day 4

By Day 4, I was starting to become a bit sad that camp was ending so soon. It was such a beautiful thing to be in a space with such passionate birders; I was not looking forward to leaving. Despite my qualms, we got out for another beautiful day on the river. Since we were to get our feet all wet again, I opted out of the river crossing and helped out Rachel with a camera trapping lecture! It was quite an epic experience to be able to jump into something like that. Due to my WILD 370 class last fall, I actually had a lot of experience with camera trap set up and tear down. I was able to construct a lecture and do a demo with the kids on camera trapping later that day. Quite a proud moment for me and I felt like a real biologist (shout out to Dr. Hebblewhite! Thanks for teaching me about camera traps)! 

While we were camera trapping, we also set up real traps to catch potential predators like possums and feral cats. In addition, we set up some cute little tracking tunnels to see what kinds of small mammals were in the area. We put peanut butter in our tunnels and there were tons of little mice tracks on the paper the next day. It was super neat to see all these little tips and tricks used to help keep Aotearoa New Zealand predator free. 

NOW FOR MY FAVORITE PART OF BIRDING CAMP. 

Many of you all are going to be like what??? But when Carey Knox introduced us to the wonders of mothing, I was feral for it. Exhibit A. 

Carey Knox is a herpetologist (amphibians and reptiles) and mothing hobbyist. He discovered a new species of gecko in 2018. Take a look at this beautiful species, Hura Te Ao here: https://www.reptiles.org.nz/herpetofauna/native/mokopirirakau-galaxias. He showed us all of the moths that he has seen in the region and then took us outside for a mothing adventure. We got a white sheet, put a UV light by it and used little cups to collect the moths and identify them. It was ridiculously fun. I called it a night around 1030, but the rest of the crew stayed up late enough to see a morepork enjoying our little mothing party. A little sad I missed it, but I was tired running around with that net for two hours in the dark. Can you blame me? 

Day 5

Today was the last full day of camp! It was kind of crazy all of the ground we covered over the last few days. From birds, to rocks, to moths, to trapping, we had such a diverse fun-filled camp! The first thing we did in the morning was check out the trapping tunnels and tear down all our traps. We also found time to put up a bat box in between! We had a nice lunch and then moved all of our gear into another room to prep for leaving the next day. It was a little bittersweet taking down all the posters and braided river maps. I knew I was really going to miss this little home away from home in Makarora. After our tear down, we took another little hike down to the Fish River. We crossed one of the sketchiest bridges I've ever been on in my life, but the photo op was worth it. Say cheese!

The swim in the river was beyond cold, but you can't resist the New Zealand water! It was nice to have a little cool off and walk back up barefoot on the cushion grass. Then, we had a lovely ranger come talk to us about conservation dogs! These dogs help search for endangered species like the whio (pronounced fio) and are able to track down their location for surveys. It was quite an interesting talk! We then went straight to dinner and had a bit of downtime before the cutthroat game of jeopardy I had been working on throughout the week. The game came down to a three way tie, so we had to do a whole final jeopardy situation. It was loads of fun!!! Fun fact: nobody knew what jeopardy was so it was fun to bring a little American game into the mix. 

Day 6

Camp ended after breakfast on Saturday morning and we all had to say our goodbyes. I was so proud of everyone for bringing their all into this camp. It was quite a beautiful experience and I was so happy to be a part of it all. At the end, the kids all pretended it was my birthday and gave me the sweetest little birthday card. It made my whole week. 

I ended up leaving to Wanaka with Caiden (kid) and Simon (parent) and we got to do some birding along the way! We saw some grebes and the cutest little tomtit. He says no camping!

Overall, field camp was an astounding success and I am so happy I got to live out my birding camp counselor dreams! 10/10 would do it again. 

The days following birding camp, I got to meet up with my buddy Marianne, who I met in Wellington, and enjoy Queenstown some more! We went to the lookout point, got pizza and even got to use the spa at my hostel. As I prepared for my wool handling job, I wanted to do as many fun things as possible before I was consumed with a job. I went to the KiwiBirdlife Park and had a morepork fly right over my head. We went to Arrowtown. I had such a fun couple of days! 

And then I headed to Lawrence, Otago to work in the sheds. 

From the get go, communication was poor. I had emailed the guy and texted him, but he was not super clear or responsive in his messages. I asked if he still needed me and he said I should come down anyway. So I did. The crew was super cool but there was not space for me. Over 20 people were living in/using the house and none of them really had any idea of the paperwork system. I soon learned it was because they never signed paperwork. I arrived at the house and the guy wasn't there nor did he set a time to meet until 30 minutes before I had to check out of my hotel I had rented the day before just in case. I decided to give it another go, seems like he was a busy guy. When he arrived at the crew house, he said he was going on lunch but that he'd be back to "show me the sheds". I am so glad I put on clothes I didn't mind ruining because he left me in the shed for four hours. No safety paperwork, nothing! I came back with the crew (I sat on the floor of the van because there were not enough seats), and tried to get acquainted. The room I was in had no bedding and a broken dresser. The closest supermarket was a 40 minute car ride away. I walked to the tiny convenience store and watched $30 disappear for broccoli, pasta and tuna. I felt a little disappointed in my choices as I rolled out my sleeping bag and placed some extra sweatshirts under my head to imitate a pillow. I wasn't sure if I was to be working tomorrow? What was the paperwork process? What am I getting paid?  I yet again reached for my phone to be met with more bad communication. At least I knew I was to leave with the 5:30am crew out to Dunedin. I set my alarm and fell asleep. 

Now, I am not unfamiliar with hard work. But I will say that being a rouser is HARD WORK. It is not a job for the weak. It is repetitive and fast paced. You have to keep up with the shearer. The sheep sometimes bleed and you can tell they don't enjoy the process. It's not a chill job. We arrived in Dunedin at 6:30 for prep and started up at 7. We went for two hours, had a little break and then went for another two hours. Then we did it again until 3:30. I was rousing with a broom and cleaning up the wool. It was honestly quite fun for the first few hours but my body was just exhausted by the end of it. I still hadn't heard back about my paperwork questions and there was already talk from others about how they weren't getting paid what they thought they were going to be paid. I thought long and hard about how much I actually wanted to do this. Then, I decided I didn't want to spend the rest of my time here miserable in a shed. I am happy to leave it at just this strange experience. I let him know that I was leaving the next morning and enjoyed a nice bagel with raspberry jam on the way to Dunedin. My volunteer sheep rousing is done and dusted. Happy I did it for the plot! Would I do it again? Probably not! And no, I never was paid.

I would like to say though, that the town of Lawrence itself is quite adorable. The night before I met with sheep shearing guy, I stayed in the beautiful Prospector motel and they were awesome. There is a lot of history including the Otago Gold Rush and some nice bike trails. I got to check out the museum and they had peach iced tea at their cafe. It was worth the stop for those things :)

So, where in the world am I right now? I am in Dunedin! Far on the east coast of the South Island. To be entirely honest, I was a bit embarrassed of my job falling through, so I needed a bit of time before letting the world in on my massive failure via blog HAHA! It took me about a week of being in Dunedin to find a job (50+ seek applications later phew!), but I am now enjoying my little life as a housekeeper at a local hotel. It is centrally located, clean, and has good communication! This next month I will be here and working, but I will keep you all updated on my new Dunedin life! Coming up next: the haunted Larnach castle and the Albatross colony! 

Also quick feedback question, do you prefer these longer updates or are shorter ones better? I feel weird posting a short one cause it feels too short, but I feel it takes me forever to get a posting up with this length. Thoughts? Thank you!