Tucked away in a quiet corner of Karori is a house with a special attraction… Diana and Geoff have a regular visitor who taps insistently on their window – a saddleback (tīeke) they’ve named Saddie.

Swamps, marshes, fens and bogs.  These are our wetland areas, crucial buffer zones at the boundaries between land and water. Wetlands act as giant sponges in the landscape, soaking up rainfall which helps prevent flooding during storms. They also help protect rivers and lakes from runoff from the land during heavy rain by trapping sediment that can choke a stream and absorbing surplus nutrients like nitrogen that can lead to the explosion of algal blooms.  Wetlands are a toxin sink, storing environmental pollutants as well as nitrogen and carbon in its wet, airless soil and in the deep roots of the plants that grow there.

Katie Sheridan is studying Pateke (Brown Teal) at ZEALANDIA. While she was looking for the elusive ducks in the wetlands, our “eye in the sky” Alfie Kaka caught up with her in the wetlands to find out more about what she has been up to…

Alfie here! Today I’m chatting to Eleanor Burton about bird friendly native plants, and especially our native fuchsia. Eleanor is in charge of the collections database at Otari, and is also an arborist, botanist, and botanical illustrator.

Alfie here, and today I’m talking about another bird-friendly plant in Wellington, and interviewing long time Zealandia volunteer guide, and conservationist, Des Smith.  I flew up to meet him in his garden in Ngaio, in a bush-lined street, full of native trees.  Here’s the transcript, from my ‘Stoatskine’ reporter’s notebook.

Alfie here; I’ve just caught up again with Sirocco for a photo shoot and interview just before he began another evening’s round of parties at his plush Zealandia hotel (he’s only at Zealandia for another week before he heads down south to Orokunu).

Alfie here, and this week, I’m interviewing Matu Booth, Conservation Officer in the valley, and a recently elected member of the Karori Sanctuary Guardians. I want to find out which plant he recommends for attracting birds in to Wellington gardens.

Alfie: I’m inspired by Kerry Charles’ research on how planting for birds makes Wellingtonians happy, so I’m asking some of my favourite locals about which plants they’d recommend for Wellington gardens. First up, Joakim Liman, an award-winning Zealandia volunteer and the dedicated and enthusiastic manager of the volunteer Te Motu Kairangi – Miramar Ecological Restoration group, which is restoring the Miramar peninsula to its former glory.

I recently had the opportunity to talk to two of my favourite Zealandia conservation staff – Raewyn Empson and Matu Booth – about our impending visit from Sirocco the kākāpō.

Skraaaark.  Alfie Kākā here, interviewing Kerry Charles, who has just completed her thesis “Urban human-wildlife conflict: North Island kākā (Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis) in Wellington City”.