Home on the Island

30 October 2009

About a hundred metres into the bush is the hut we will live in. It is small and green and hung all around the outside with equipment – life jackets, generators, daypacks, binoculars, gumboots, tripods and petrel boards. The majority of Melanie’s team, who work on the Black Robin Project, have been here for two weeks already and they have made the hut into a very cosy little place. There is no heating but once you get four or five people in the main room, you only need to wear a few layers of thermals and fleece and ugh boots to be really quite warm!

Our arrival brings Rangatira’s human population to six: Melanie Massaro runs the songbird research; Kevin Drew and Alison Botha, who I will introduce in the next few days, are her field assistants; Abi, the DOC ranger from the main Chatham island; Briggs, an apprentice ranger from the mainland who has come to assist with the Rangatira work; and me, Alex.

And you don’t need to go far to meet the avian population. The first bird comes to meet me on the hut verandah. Eddie the tomtit spends most of the day swinging on the washing line in between the socks and towels or hanging from the rafters, chirping away to anyone and everyone who is around.