David B. :SetouchiExplorer:
boosted
Each season I do four nights of moth lighting in my garden in suburban Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. My summer moth lighting this year started on Saturday. I photograph every moth that settles at my light and today I've been uploading my photos to #iNaturalist.
I've been doing this consistently each autumn since 2015 and every season each year since (at least) 2021. You might think I would have found all the moth species that visit my garden, but no.
So far I've finished uploading Saturday's moth photos and have found six new species to our garden. Here are four of them.
There's the endemic moth *Gymnobathra hamatella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337290749
There's the "nationally vulnerable" endemic species *Gadira leucophthalma*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337263605
There's the endemic Clematis triangle *Deana hybreasalis*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285888
Also, less ideal, there's the introduced Case-bearing Clothes Moth *Tinea pellionella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285916
#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #insects #EcologicalMonitoring
4 media
Each season I do four nights of moth lighting in my garden in suburban Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. My summer moth lighting this year started on Saturday. I photograph every moth that settles at my light and today I've been uploading my photos to #iNaturalist.
I've been doing this consistently each autumn since 2015 and every season each year since (at least) 2021. You might think I would have found all the moth species that visit my garden, but no.
So far I've finished uploading Saturday's moth photos and have found six new species to our garden. Here are four of them.
There's the endemic moth *Gymnobathra hamatella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337290749
There's the "nationally vulnerable" endemic species *Gadira leucophthalma*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337263605
There's the endemic Clematis triangle *Deana hybreasalis*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285888
Also, less ideal, there's the introduced Case-bearing Clothes Moth *Tinea pellionella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285916
#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #insects #EcologicalMonitoring
4 media
Angela Antunovic
boosted
The latest update on New Plymouth's Tim-Tam cycleway saga: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585934/new-plymouth-cycleway-mallowpuff-lane-dividers-to-replace-controversial-tim-tams
Having now had the opportunity to use the cycleway, it does feel much safer than being on the road. I hope the potential new barriers maintain that.
The latest update on New Plymouth's Tim-Tam cycleway saga: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/585934/new-plymouth-cycleway-mallowpuff-lane-dividers-to-replace-controversial-tim-tams
Having now had the opportunity to use the cycleway, it does feel much safer than being on the road. I hope the potential new barriers maintain that.
These must be seriously tiny radio transmitters: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/yellow-legged-hornets-radio-tracking-leads-biosecurity-nz-to-10-nests/THDPZ2J3XNHYVJANWJLR6YA6RY/
#science #nature #biosecurity #nz
Angela Antunovic
and 1 other
boosted
It’s good to see bird window strikes getting some attention in the NZ media, here with a story today in #RNZ about lots of kererū hitting modern windows in Dunedin. A lot of birds hit windows. In Akaroa it’s been glass balustrades on decks that tūī have been flying into.
What’s missing from this story is that this is a solved problem–there are ways to manufacture glass windows that birds can see–and some cities and states internationally require this in their building codes.
The second link below is a recent new story from Winnipeg in Canada which last year past a bylaw requiring bird friendly windows. After building industry lobbyists pushed back this year, claiming this was too expensive, bird advocates put together the costings for the Winnipeg council showing that, with proper planning at the design stage, the extra costs are negligible. The bylaw was upheld.
It’s good to see bird window strikes getting some attention in the NZ media, here with a story today in #RNZ about lots of kererū hitting modern windows in Dunedin. A lot of birds hit windows. In Akaroa it’s been glass balustrades on decks that tūī have been flying into.
What’s missing from this story is that this is a solved problem–there are ways to manufacture glass windows that birds can see–and some cities and states internationally require this in their building codes.
The second link below is a recent new story from Winnipeg in Canada which last year past a bylaw requiring bird friendly windows. After building industry lobbyists pushed back this year, claiming this was too expensive, bird advocates put together the costings for the Winnipeg council showing that, with proper planning at the design stage, the extra costs are negligible. The bylaw was upheld.
dch :flantifa: :flan_hacker:
and 1 other
boosted
Once again we see #National using a party with only 6% support ( #NZFirst) to justify screwing over 100% of us
#ShaneJones shut down #NZ involvement in 'road map' away from #fossilfuels https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/585632/shane-jones-shut-down-nz-involvement-in-road-map-away-from-fossil-fuels
#nzpol #climatechange #NACTional
Once again we see #National using a party with only 6% support ( #NZFirst) to justify screwing over 100% of us
#ShaneJones shut down #NZ involvement in 'road map' away from #fossilfuels https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/585632/shane-jones-shut-down-nz-involvement-in-road-map-away-from-fossil-fuels
#nzpol #climatechange #NACTional
David B. :SetouchiExplorer:
and 1 other
boosted
Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at home last night, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.
I first thought there was a bird flapping in the bushes, before it appeared. This one was pinker than most I've seen, and it happily clambered about on its big fluffy feet.
They're more like Pokémon than real moths.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336921630
#moths #mothodon #Christchurch #NZ #Ōtautahi #insects #entomology
4 media
Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at home last night, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.
I first thought there was a bird flapping in the bushes, before it appeared. This one was pinker than most I've seen, and it happily clambered about on its big fluffy feet.
They're more like Pokémon than real moths.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336921630
#moths #mothodon #Christchurch #NZ #Ōtautahi #insects #entomology
4 media
Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿
boosted
Yesterday I found this proposal for improving the transport network of Christchurch city, NZ, drawn on a footpath in chalk. It's brief, but good.
Yesterday I found this proposal for improving the transport network of Christchurch city, NZ, drawn on a footpath in chalk. It's brief, but good.
Alex, the Hearth Fire
boosted
As much as I loathe LLM "AI" built from hoards of stolen data, machine learning "AI" has become terrifically useful.
This past week I had 10 audio recorders set out in the forest and nearby grassland, all recording non-stop from Monday afternoon to Friday morning. That was on our recent university field ecology field trip.
Today I downloaded all the files to a hard drive (156 GB of data) and then I set my little M1 Macbook Air to work, using the offline desktop BirdNet app to identify all of the birds in the recordings.
It took most of the day, and now I have a 42,284 row spreadsheet of birds detected.
It really feels like magic.
Here's a quick sorted lists of all the bird detections with species IDs with a confidence score >0.9.
Together with the students in the course, we'll later compare how birds have changed since we started doing this in 2020, and how the birds in the grassland differ from the forest.
As much as I loathe LLM "AI" built from hoards of stolen data, machine learning "AI" has become terrifically useful.
This past week I had 10 audio recorders set out in the forest and nearby grassland, all recording non-stop from Monday afternoon to Friday morning. That was on our recent university field ecology field trip.
Today I downloaded all the files to a hard drive (156 GB of data) and then I set my little M1 Macbook Air to work, using the offline desktop BirdNet app to identify all of the birds in the recordings.
It took most of the day, and now I have a 42,284 row spreadsheet of birds detected.
It really feels like magic.
Here's a quick sorted lists of all the bird detections with species IDs with a confidence score >0.9.
Together with the students in the course, we'll later compare how birds have changed since we started doing this in 2020, and how the birds in the grassland differ from the forest.
Angela Antunovic
boosted
If you want the powers and penalties under the Privacy Act 2020 in #NZ #Aotearoa be strengthened, please consider signing this petition by Katja Feldtmann. It has already reached threshold # of signatures and thus has attracted an MP willing to present the petition to Parliament formally.
https://petitions.parliament.nz/88fd4852-1539-419c-af36-08de4ca872ae?lang=en
Here's a LinkedIn post by the author of the petition on that:
