Want to cook smarter, not harder? Want to be a part of protecting rare coastal old-growth forest? Enter in the Friends of Okura Bush raffle to secure your chance to win a Thermomix! These cooking appliances give you freedom in the kitchen using step-by-step instructions to chop, blend, whip, weigh, mill, knead, mince, sear your way to becoming a kitchen…

Baby Bird Boom
What a summer! Despite the weather, this season has been a very successful one for both tuturiwhatu/NZ dotterel and tōrea pango/variable oystercatcher. Here’s a summary of successes and failures at each of the sites. Weiti chénier tōrea pango: One pair fledged two chicks tuturiwhatu: One pair fledged one chick Two other tuturiwhatu pairs nested on the chénier but the weather…

Trapping Cats article by Pat Baskett
FIRST PUBLISHED at Newsroom on FEB 2, 2023 COMMENT by Pat Baskett, an Auckland writer and climate activist. We must protect what the cats drag in ‘Where once the Karepiro chenier hosted dotterel and oystercatcher nests there could soon be sandcastles, and how many cats?’ Pat Baskett looks at our ongoing contribution to the Sixth Extinction.

Okura Forest Festival 18th Feb 23
We’re really excited for this years line up of bands, speakers, workshops, delicious food & stalls. We’re on the countdown. It’s going to be a blast. Hope you can make it. Buy your tickets here. Click here to volunteer.

Auckland Council tells conservation group to stop live-trapping cats
Jo and Bernard were interviewed by TV3 recently about the problem with cats predating endangered birds at Karepiro Bay. Newshub: Auckland Council tells conservation group to stop live-trapping cats

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Wishing all our FOOB supporters a Merry Christmas & a New Year filled with Happiness, Peace and Love. Thank you for your generous support, because of you, we are able to do our restoration work in this beautiful area. Okura Bush & Estuary

Good News, Bad News
The good news is that there’s been a baby boom at Karepiro and the Okura chénier. I’ve been struck down with covid and it’s been over three weeks since I was able to check on progress, so I was delighted to see the new additions at both these sites. Two NZ dotterel/tuturiwhatu pairs have each raised a single chick on…

Bird Update
It was with some trepidation that I visited the coast yesterday (15/11) to see what damage the spring high tide and howling northeaster had done. The water had swept over the chénier at Stillwater, so any dotterel/tūturiwhatu or oystercatcher/tōrea pango nests would have been swept away. There are still two dotterel pairs and an oystercatcher pair in residence, so hopefully…

Pet Cats Caught in Okura/Stillwater Biodiversity Hot Spots.
This past 10 months have seen 13 cats caught in live-catch traps on or beside Biodiversity Focus Areas (BFAs) in our local area. Five of these have been Domestic/Pet cats.

The Dotterels are Nesting
The great news is that the tūturiwhata have started to nest. The resident pair on the Okura chenier, which I feared had abandoned the site, have a nest with three eggs in it, and one of the two pairs at Karepiro beach also have a nest with three eggs. The second pair are also probably nesting but I haven’t been…
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