Ricky-Lee Erickson is lying flat on the forest floor, one arm completely disappeared down a seabird burrow, the other holding a phone that she’s looking at intently at.
Ricky-Lee Erickson and Matt Rayner from Auckland Museum. Photo: Claire Concannon / RNZ
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A little circle of light pops up on the dark phone screen – the eye shine of a grey-faced petrel chick. Using a waterproof torch and camera that connects to her phone, Ricky-Lee, a collection technician in natural sciences at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, is checking burrows to see how breeding has gone for the birds this season.
The colony is on Ōtata island, the largest of the predator-free Noises Islands in the inner Hauraki Gulf.
Dr Matt Rayner holds a white-faced storm petrel. Photo: Claire Concannon / RNZ
But the seabird monitoring work is just one small part of a much bigger effort. A collaboration between the Noises Islands Trust and Auckland Museum has established a long-term survey plan to track changes in the islands’ ecology across time.
Join Claire Concannon on the islands with the researchers as she learns how, and why, this surveying is being carried out.
To learn more:
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Listen to the full Our Changing World episode to learn more about other islands in the Noises group.
