NZ Bird Rescue were very lucky to be invited by the Curator of Land Vertebrates, Matt Raynor and Collection Manager, Jason Froggatt to an egg-tra special behind-the-scenes look at their department in the Auckland Museum. This was an awesome treat for our hard working and dedicated team of volunteers and though not all of them could make it (we have a roster of over 20 people and lots of people who volunteer their time in other ways) we had a pretty good turn out of Bird Rescue-ers
Volunteers from left to right : Anne, Heather, Sally, Luka, Beret, Virginia, Lyn Macdonald, Alister, Mel, Emma, Sam, Kelsie, Heather Hall, Renee Henderson, Riana (notice the Albatross photobomb!)
There was so much to look at and we really enjoyed the time that Matt and Jason took to show us some pretty incredible stuff
Jason shows us one of his feather charts which is a resource he has designed for the Museum – this is a Blackbird feather chart. These charts will be a tool for making any bird identification easier – from the humble Sparrow to the mighty Albatross!
Matt Raynor showing us wing specimens from his collection. This one belonged to a Kea
An extra special moment was when little Luka was asked to help Matt hold up a Moa bone (!) to show us an example of how big some of the Moa were
Luka was so lucky to help Matt with the Moa bones – what a treat!
We were also shown the extinct bird collection, albatross specimens and the most delicate drawer ever – a collection of Kiwi eggs
A bittersweet collection – lucky to have the specimens of extinct birds but can you just imagine how wonderful it would have been to have seen them out in the wild!
All the different types of eggs – a very delicate collection!
This event was such a cool outing for our team of bird nerds and it was an awesome behind the scenes look at the work that Matt and Jason do everyday. What a great job they have! A big Bird Rescue thank you to Matt and Jason for taking the time to show us around – it was very hard to say goodbye!! Thanks for our Bird Rescue trip to the museum. Woohoo!
A collection of Kiwi bone specimens. The foot was a specimen that was recently found up North in the Kaipara
The Albatross collection and a Stichbird nest from Tiritiri Matangi
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