SOSSI and Tuesday volunteers have completed a major upgrade of the Sossi nursery, with financial support from Auckland Council and Pub Charity.
New hopperThis has created a more efficient production unit for pricking out and bagging on new young seedlings as they arrive from the Botanic Gardens who are doing the seed propagation work for us. A new hopper has been constructed to feed potting mix directly onto the work table, saving time and reducing the back stress on volunteers. This work area is also now covered by a retractable canopy to protect from rain and sun. Nursery shadehouse A shade cloth covering for the “old nursery” area has also been built. This will give the newly bagged seedlings an initial good growing environment to settle down prior to being moved to the new standing out area where they will grow on until planting days next autumn.
We have committed to producing around 10,000 plants every year for re-vegetation planting so there is lots of work to be done, and new volunteers would be most welcome to help.
The Trapping Team aims to intercept and remove any predators within the sanctuary to allow native species to flourish, and to encourage more species from other sanctuaries to become established at Shakespear. Trappers are assigned a line of traps that are checked regularly. You can help trapping We are looking for volunteers to join the…
We now have North Island Robins at Shakespear Open Sanctuary. Many happy volunteers and Sossi members watched 20 robins released on Friday 8th April. This represented the end of the first stage of the translocation of North Island Robins to Shakespear Open Sanctuary. These robins were translocated from Mangatutu in the central North Island. This …
While dotterel are known to breed at Shakespear, prior to this year none have managed to raise their chicks to fledglings. This year four pairs have had chicks, three of them surrounded by crowds of holiday-makers on Te Haruhi beach, with about two fledgings per pair. This is well ahead of the average of half…
STOP PRESS: one more day to go, 17th August Thanks to the hard work of the teams at the SOSSI nursery and Botanic Gardens, we have about 19,000 plants to go in this year. This is about twice as many as last year so we need lots more volunteers to help to plant them….
SOSSI is running a “Sunday at Shakespear” on August 17th to see if we can finish the planting before spring (lambs are here!). Many of you have helped with the 18,000 already planted, but there are still 10o0 to go. Bring the family and come and help, 10-12am with free BBQ to follow. Meet at…
There are some gregarious new residents at Shakespear Regional Park! While other birds have repopulated the area naturally since pests were removed, recent events saw the first release of native birds behind the predator-proof fence. In July 2015, after many months of behind-the scenes work, a group of bird translocation experts and experienced volunteers caught…