Tawharanui Regional park north of Auckland
by Carolyn
Through Becky’s many, many birding contacts around the world, she connected with Chris Thompson, who is a “friend of a friend”. Chris was more than happy to take her day off from work and drive us to the Tawharanui Regional Park about 90 minutes north of Auckland. The day was stunningly beautiful and after stopping for coffee and sandwiches for lunch in Matakana, we were soon winding our way up and over into the park.
 |
| The tree covered in red blooms is a Pohutukawa, or New Zealand Christmas Tree |
The various habitats yielded all the desired species - 35 total. I’ll try to link to the eBird report that Becky so diligently compiles for these excursions while I just have the fun part of looking around for more birds. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50650979.
 |
| Tidal marshland |
 |
Beautiful trails
|
 |
| Stunning beaches |
 |
| Dense forests |
This park has a special mammal proof fence and there are traps set throughout the park to catch any stray rats, possums, cats or dogs. New Zealand has no native mammals and it was the introduction of the Polynesian rat when New Zealand was first discovered by Polynesians in the 1300 that started the decline in native bird populations. Introduced non native birds began after European settlers arrived in the 1800’s.
At one point we entered a dense part of a forested area where we had to disinfect our shoes. There is a soil borne fungus that is gradually killing one of New Zealand’s major native trees, the Kauri. We saw these disinfectant stations all over New Zealand.
 |
| Disinfecting our shoes |
 |
| The view from our picnic spot |
After a quick picnic lunch, we headed back to Auckland just before rush hour.
