Meet more of the team - November 8th

Keven Drew:

Over the last 30 years, Keven has worked with birds all over New Zealand - from White Island and Whale Island up in the Bay of Plenty to the ice fields of Cape Bird in Antarctica. He has worked with kiwis, grey-faced petrels, gannets, Adélie penguins, and now the native songbirds on Rangatira. He is a mine of information about seabirds, their habits and calls. “Seabirds are amazing in the way that they seem so frail and clumsy on land but you should see them out in a gale. In those huge, buffeting winds from Antarctica, in storms that we struggle with, they have no trouble at all.” Kev has a habit of spotting things the rest of us miss, like storm petrel nests built in tangles of grass and skink burrows in the moss… oh, and that really big Rangatira spider that lives in the fuel shed. Being an avid photographer seems to be a big part of being a bird lover, and if you can’t find Kev, he is most likely to be out snapping shots of the terns and the big swells on West Landing. He has two children – Michael and Jasmine – and is based in Christchurch when he isn’t doing fieldwork.

Renny:

And I can’t finish the team intros without mention of Renny, ace nest hunter, who left in the rain the day that I arrived. And also Abi and Briggs of Department of Conservation in the Chatham Islands who came over to Rangatira with me and stayed here just one week to open all the petrel burrows – and extra thanks to Abi for letting me tag along!

Abi and Briggs: