I've been counting birds on my bike work commute between Christchurch and Lincoln, NZ, since 2003. On Friday, I counted my *first ever* Kōtuku Ngutupapa, Royal Spoonbill, on the route.

It was feeding in a paddock that had been recently scraped clear preparing it for a housing subdivision, but in the meantime had filled with water after a heavy rain. There are also restored wetlands nearby that I hope was what attracted it in. Perhaps there will be more.

#birds #nz #spoonbill #EcologicalMonitoring #wildcounts #UrbanEcology

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/340743507

Here are four of the many things I found taking my camera for a run this afternoon in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.

Curious European greenfinches on a wire (one twisted around to look at me): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927660

A late instar caterpillar of an Australian yellow admiral butterfly that I found feeding on a European dwarf nettle: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927656

A mallard duck swimming on the Heathcote River with the *best* reflections (I took a lot more photos of the swirling patterns on the silver water): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927802

A mushroom of what I think is the native *Pluteus readiarum*, growing on the dead stump of a planted ribbonwood tree: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927658

#nature #WildCounts #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ

We live in an age of unprecedented, rapid environmental change. One of my personal responses to this, as a trained ecologist, has been to consistently count as many of the changes in nature around my city as I can. I've got a series of regular routes around the city where I map and count all birds, butterflies, assorted other insects, plants and fungi, and vertebrates. Hence "JonCounts".

I just tallied up my biodiversity surveys and observations from 2025:

52 weekly and 12x2 monthly run routes: total distance 1,095 km
240 daily and 12x3 monthly bike routes: total distance 6,898 km
225,516 species observations, including transcriptions from 466 hours of field audio notes
~60,000 photos
1,225 audio recordings of species vocalising

that's plus my automated AudioMoth recordings and monthly timelapse phototransects

This creates an enormous amount of data curation work, which I typically chip away at over my summer holidays, like now (at the moment I'm correcting errors in the automated transcriptions).

#wildcounts #nz #EcologicalMonitoring

The last three days I've been along the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, doing my monthly biodiversity surveys. Saturday was my 117th run up through Victoria Park and Sugarloaf, and today was my 80th bike ride along the Summit Road from Cashmere.

Since September this year I've added 27 AudioMoths along the routes to record bird songs, so now I come back with an iPhone filled with audio notes, a camera filled with photos, and now a pocket filled with bird songs to analyse.

Here are some photos of the scenery from each of the three days, plus today's handful of bird song.

#EcologicalMonitoring #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #wildcounts

Here are some birds from my run survey today through southwestern Ōtautahi-Chirstchurch, NZ.

A kererū perched in a tree up Dyers Pass Road: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324289256

A juvenile riroriro (NZ grey warbler) in a patch of planted native trees at Wigram Retention Basin: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324289262

A greylard duck on Heathcote River with reflections (I liked the reflections): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324287847

California quail in Cracroft Caverns Reserve (behind Princess Margaret Hospital): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/324289258

#birds #nz #Christchurch #wildcounts #iNaturalistNZ

I was running down off the hills this afternoon as part of my monthly biodiversity survey of this Port Hills route. I was carrying cameras and a monocular and a wind-shielded microphone plugged into my phone.

A couple of young guys biked up the hill on their mountain bikes.

"Capturing the birds?" one of them asked, curiously.

"Yeah!" I replied.

"Premium," he nodded.

There wasn't time to explain that I was capturing more than bird observations. Still, here are two of my afternoon's "premium" bird observations.

😄

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/314079214
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/314079214

#nz #ChristchurchPortHills #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #birds #nature #BiodiversitySurvey #wildcounts #iNaturalistNZ

More #AWSTranscribe fun(?) fixing up errors in the transcriptions of my biodiversity survey notes. Here are some of the latest highlights:

"ammonia mascara" = Amanita muscaria
"Paradise showdown" = Paradise shelduck
"fire blood" = flower buds
"back to back goal" = black-backed gull
"craig walker song" = grey warbler song
"bloody of the video" = Buddleja davidii
"Nick Deira and Yada Lavi" = Nyctemera annulata larvae

I don't recommend the ammonia mascara, but then Amanita muscaria is a poisonous mushroom.

Nick Deira and Yada Lavi sound like a lovely couple. Anyone know them?

#TranscriptionError #wildcounts

Today I did my monthly biodiversity run up into the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. That takes my out of the Cashmere suburbs through the planted native forest and grasslands of Victoria Park and up into the old growth and naturally regenerated native forest of Sugarloaf peak.

I've been doing this route monthly since 2016, mapping and counting out birds and butterflies and assorted plants and fungi.

Here are some of today's highlights.

I had a close encounter with a kererū, perched about 1 metre from me (always a treat): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297848998

A kahukura (red admiral) was feeding from exotic Viburnum flowers: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297849009

Some scarlet pouch fungi were lighting up the forest floor on Sugarloaf: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297848989

The one taramea (Aciphylla subfabellata speargrass) that I know of is still up by the Summit Road and looking healthy: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/297848991

#nature #WildCounts #UrbanEcology #EcologicalMonitoring

Check out what I saw on my afternoon run through Cashmere, Christchurch, NZ.

This was on one of my fortnightly ecological survey runs through the city, 12 km, which I started in 2008. Today is the first time I have seen a tūī on this route!

Yeah!

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/289447711

#birds #tui #nz #EcologicalMonitoring #wildcounts