Ruud Kleinpaste: Christmas is a time to look around

Yep – I realise this is a weird and busy time – running around with presents and Family and kids that hunt for the elf on the shelf.

Seeing Family members is the moment to re-connect. 

But deep down inside I am looking forward to checking up on my last few babies of the “little Owl”.

A creature introduced from Europe. I remember it well: making a nest in hollow Willow Trees along the rivers of the Netherlands. Often visible during the day, sitting on posts along the farm fences.

They – literally – are little owls; about half the size of ruru.

We created nest boxes for them and they love living in those apartments.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at be Good morning, Roud Climb Past.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Francesco. How are you very good?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
And before we start, I must say a very big
thank you to you and King Seeds for my wildflowers.
Bend because blind because when I think when I spent
you a couple of weeks ago, you were at King Seeds, Yeah,
said do you know anything? I checkly said Ashley, yeh,
I do, and please you send them to me. So
thank you both.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
These people. Yeah, they're wonderful people. They help and hopefully
yeah you know, yeah, good, good, good going to do.
This is what we do. So I work with these
things with your seeds at schools to get bumble bees attracted.
There's something I talked about to check a couple of
weeks ago last week. I can't even remember. And these
people are always helping out schools and education and stuff

(01:00):
like that, projects like that, and I think it's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I did get a little carried away because it was
a really large bag. So we're going to I've got
to warn the gardener of the family. My partner. Bentually
got to say to him, Hey, dude, see ahole of
the things popping up here and there and there. Don't
just think mountaining their weeds. Just give them some time,
because I've just scattered this stuff everywhere. But Christmas is
a really good time to be looking around our gardens.
And I am quite delighted by the photos of the

(01:26):
little owls that you sent me.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
It's funny that a lot of people with pet wolf
camp on Sunday. We quite often talk about it and
about the nest boxes, and people are really wanting to
do these things. So what we've done is see in
christ is we've got a little owl, which is a
species that comes from Europe. I know it well, from
the Netherlands, where it's called the stain owl, the stone owl,
if you like, a tiny thing. And here and there
in the South Island you see them even during the

(01:50):
day because they sit on fences sometimes watching the traffic
go by. But anyway, that's beside them. Actually, by the way,
we bended fourteen yesterday. Oh wow, that's at a little
hospital at willow Bank. Anyway. But so these guys are
all over the place. We've got them breeding at them
and some of the young ready to fledge. Others still
need a band around it. So I'm looking forward to

(02:12):
that and I usually take my grandson with me, who
was really keen to be part of that gig. He
loves that stuff. Can you imagine those a twelve year
old holding an owl? You know that sort of stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I'm gonna Yeah, it's just in the South Island.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, that one is. But we of course you've got
Ruru and you've got Bann House as well up in
the North. So but anyway, that's one of the things
I'm going to do this this this week actually at
Christmas time. Good there you go, one example that you.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Ah, you do it. There was some quite heavy snoring
going on in our house early on was a Friday morning,
at about and I was wide awake and I sort
of got thought, I'm going to get up and walk
around the house. Cut ups, there's not and sort of
the night sky caught my attention and I went outside.
It was about three am or something and gosh, really,
it's a different world, isn't it, Because normally we were

(03:03):
tacked up in bed and sell asleep and I just
start happy for ages, looking at stars and listening to
the sounds. And you've also got a suggestion about going
out at night with a torch in the garden, and
if you can use UV light and you just see
the world in a whole different way.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
That's it. So insects see everything through U spectrums. And
if you look at your favorite flowers and plants, you'll
see that they are not the color you think they are.
They are either blue or orange or yellow, whereas normally
they're white, you know, during the day. This is what
I mean. So I think this is something to do
with attracting the right pollinators in the night, so that

(03:42):
pollination still occurs in the night. So you don't know
that until you start mucking around with the UV torch.
I always say, best Christmas present ever.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, it's a good idea. What else can you say
with this torch?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh likeens yellow lines suddenly turning orange under that light?
You see white, As I said, white flowers do purple.
Purple blue is the color they see the best pollinators
at night. So you get moths there, you get all
sorts of things, and there's stuff I never see sometimes,

(04:17):
you know, it's totally unexpected. But the best thing that
I see at night is the pseudo scorpion. We have
scorpions in New Zealand that are tiny, and you find
them sitting on burdle and things like that. But you
see them also hanging onto the legs of flies, because
that's how they transport themselves. The fly is the.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Uber Merry Christmas Road.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
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