Hello all, Tim the newbie kakapo ranger here.  Two fantastic weeks as a volunteer nest minder in March weren’t enough, so now I have the chance to work with these amazing birds for a year.

After two weeks on Codfish Islandgetting trained up in handling kakapo and running the island, it was time to do it all again on Anchor Island.  The flight over was very atmospheric: poor weather but enough visibility to see endless podocarp forest surrounding big lakes, with dark, brooding, impossibly steep faces plunging into them and gushing with waterfalls.  And at the end of Dusky Sound sits a knobbly island covered in thick bush and dotted with lakes: Anchor Island, my home for most of the next year.  I’ve been given the privileged position of “Anchor man”, which means it’s my job to get to know this place, and especially the kakapo who live here, like the back of my hand.  It’s an exciting time in Anchoria, with chicks and females transferred from Codfish in the hope of establishing a breeding population.  That might not happen on my watch, but it’ll be great watching the chicks grow and find territories of their own.

And what a special place this is!  The bush is as you'd expect in a place with such monumental rainfall: full of dripping gulches hung with moss and ferns, and plenty of mud.  But get a clear day and you’re rewarded with views across the island-strewn Dusky Sound and mountainous Resolution Island, home of Richard Henry’s original kakapo conservation efforts.  The bush is full of mohua and saddlebacks, and then of course there’s the kakapo!  I got plenty of contact with the new chicks when I was nest minding, but it’s something else again getting up close with the adults.  These beautiful birds each have a subtly different shade of green, from olive to emerald, accented by dark mottling and a hint of iridescence.  Each has its own personality too, from the dignified old males to the raucous, wriggly chicks.

Both the chicks and I have plenty to think about as we settle into our new home.  We radiotrack the adults to keep tabs on their movements, and there are plenty of chores to keep the cosy hut running smoothly.  Our most important job is to monitor the chicks and give them regular health checks to make sure they are free of injuries and infections, and eating enough of the food provided by the hardworking feedout volunteers.  It’s that time in a young kakapo’s life when it starts to wonder about the wide world away from its hopper, and three have already wandered across the island to explore new home ranges.

Yesterday we set out to do a harness change on Major (a provisional name), one of this year's chicks. He turned out to be in a hollow log as long as a man.  Fellow ranger Errol was too big, but I managed to squeeze into the muddy burrow and wriggle up to my knees, and just succeeded in getting a hold of Major's legs. Errol pulled me out by the ankles while I did the same to a hotly protesting Major. He calmed down though and didn’t seem to mind too much as we changed his transmitter – after we let him go he was content to hang around and see what we were up to, as is often the way with the curious kakapo.

Our other main job just now is to look after Rooster.  Rooster is a two year old kakapo who appears to have a parasitic infection.  He was released on Anchor this winter after vet treatment, but unfortunately his infection has returned.  We are currently treating him daily until he recovers. 

So that’s it from me just now.  There’s still plenty to learn for me, and plenty to come from the kakapo.