A very enjoyable evening celebrating our 10th annual festival.
- The Mayor of Whakatane Tony Bonne addressed the gathering and wished the festival success
- Morley West gave a summary of a number of national and very pretigious awards that Bay of Plenty people have received in the areas of bird preservation and conservation and also in the area of bird art
- Jacqui Hughes told us about the initiation of BIRDSaPLENTY and the cut the cake.
The room was decorated with a collection of bird teatowels which attracted quite some interest
Opotiki Field Trip Sunday 25th
A small group walked over the hill from Ohiwa Domain to Bryans Beach. We heard and saw a fernbird as we crossed the wetland. Fantails, kereru, kingfishers, tuis, fantails, finches, grey warblers and waxeyes were among the birds we saw as we walked passed the big puriri tree and walked over the hill. The beach was very quiet but a couple of oyster catchers were flying along just out above the surf.
The Hukatai Domain Care Group gave us a very informative tour of their "patch". They began doing some pest control about 5 years ago when it was noted that the "collection" was not regenerating and there were not many birds. They now have a pleasing amount of natural regeneration and the birds are coming back. We were joined by a young couple from UK and Germany.
