Ruud Kleinpaste: Christmas is a time to look around

Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Yep – I realise this is a weird and busy time – running around with presents and Family and kids that hunt for the elf on the shelf.

Seeing Family members is the moment to re-connect.

But deep down inside I am looking forward to checking up on my last few babies of the “little Owl”.

A creature introduced from Europe. I remember it well: making a nest in hollow Willow Trees along the rivers of the Netherlands. Often visible during the day, sitting on posts along the farm fences.

They – literally – are little owls; about half the size of ruru.

We created nest boxes for them and they love living in those apartments.

These owls feed on introduced birds, large insects, flies and moths.

All we do is find them in their nesting boxes and tag them with some rings around their legs – each ring has its own number and we can keep track of them when we catch them again.

Gorgeous birds – especially when they make that wonderful “Wheeeew” noise outside my bedroom at night.

They tend to be late breeders, starting mid October or early November, with the young birds fledging just before Christmas.

Look out for them in the South Island – Cute little owls! A real treat.

Pohutukawa and other members of the iron-hearted trees (Metrosideros)

These are best trees in NZ – great for the north (where pohutukawa is naturally distributed from N-Cape to a line east –west from Hawkes Bay to Taranaki).

Yes, they do occur further south (as people took them everywhere) but here we should look for their close relatives the Rata Trees.

In flower – right now – they’ll be attracting the widest variety of pollinators … not just honey-bees.

Bumble bees, a huge number of Native bee species and Houseflies, blowflies, flesh flies and Bibionid flies (Blossom Flies) as well as pollinating beetles (carpet beetles!!).

Carpet beetle on pohutukawa flower stalk – pollinating our native tree.

We usually consider these beetles as domestic pest, but eating our carpets and woollen clothes is merely the job they’ve always done on our planet: recycling the hair and wool of dead animals.

I love going out at night with a torch in the garden. You’ll find stuff you never see!

One step further: get a UV Torch and light up the world around you. The UV light changes all the colours you think you know… Insects see their world through UV light; Now you can see what bugs see!

Flowers change colours with UV and lichens (On tree trunks) can be totally weird!

Here is a segment of a tree trunk with various lichens on the bark:

On the left the original colours you see in ordinary torch light – On the right through UV light

Note the yellow lichens turn Red!

Why? No Idea; but it fascinates me toobserve and find out about that colour reflection

And while we’re looking around, see if you can spot one of our 13 species of Pseudoscorpions, also known as the “false scorpions".

Kind-of related to the real and venomous scorpions that scare the living daylight out of Humans: they belong to the group of Arachnids: 8 legs etc etc and pincers that stick out and make them impossible to mis-identify.

They catch other invertebrates for food (caterpillars, small critters, larvae and all sorts of tasty critters.

Often seen near compost bins where their prey is numerous.

Tiny things (a few millimetres or so) and using flies as their private Uber taxis to get from one place to another.

They simply grab the legs of house flies and hitch a ride to the next compost bin – the same destination that flies are looking for

Christmas is a fabulous time look around – you might find creatures you never knew we had in our country. Enjoy!

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