A kakapo is a New Zealand flightless parrot. It’s an endangered species because of its vulnerability to predators and of course, the inroads made by man into the parrots’ natural habitat. Until this week there were only 86 living kakapo but after a bumper breeding season five chicks have hatched on Codfish Island (a sanctuary for the birds). Kakapo need special conditions to breed and plentiful food, which means that not every year is great for breeding. The last good year was 2005. Here’s the story here plus a photo of a kakapo.
In a small promo, I included the kakapo in my very first book, Aislyn. The baddies were conducting a scavenger hunt and one of the items they needed to collect was a rare kakapo egg.
In writing news I wrote the last words on my first draft of another Middlemarch story. It’s tentatively called Cat Burglar. I’m going to let it sit for a couple of weeks and start yet another Middlemarch tale - this time it’s Leticia’s story, a character from Stray Cat Strut. I’m really thrilled with my progress, because after stopping the Sven challenge and taking almost a week off writing, I’ve still managed to write 50,000 words.
Tomorrow Christina Phillips is my guest blogger and we’re giving away a prize. I hope you’ll pop back to say hello.
Congrats on your 50,000 words Shelley - I’ve been really struggling with my wip and have only just passed the 11k mark - after a month!
by Christina Phillips April 1st, 2008 at 3:13 amOh, it’s so cute! It’s sad to see how we put in jeopardy the life of so many animals. I hope those chicks are the hope of the species.
by Tempest Knight April 1st, 2008 at 5:15 am50,000 words? *turns green*
Those parrots are cute.
by Gabriele April 1st, 2008 at 8:14 amThe kakapo is so cute. I love it when you show us animals that are native to NZ. We might not know or see about them otherwise.
by Jane April 1st, 2008 at 11:01 amChristina - any progress is great. 11K is excellent. I’m pushing harder than normal because I’m going to have almost two months off writing in Aug/Sep.
Tempest - yes, it is sad. We’ve lost a lot of our unique birds here in NZ because they were flightless.
Gabriele - LOL I’m all about green today. Green website, green parrot and now a green visitor.
Jane - they are cute, aren’t they. They make this strange booming sound and are an interesting bird.
by Shelley Munro April 1st, 2008 at 12:07 pmI enjoy seeing wildlife native to NZ.
by Estella April 1st, 2008 at 12:17 pmLOL - I’ve just realized my blog title is wingless parrot. I meant to write flightless parrot there! Jeesh. I’m pretty sure kakapo have wings. They just don’t help them to fly.
by Shelley Munro April 1st, 2008 at 2:30 pmAwesome progress. I’m sitting at 70,000 with Sven, I’ve been taking it easy this week. I just needed to recharge.
Very cool about kakapos!!
by Amy Ruttan April 1st, 2008 at 3:36 pmOk, first those little fellows are adorable birds. And next did you say Middle March? You know that’s one of my key words to tune in. You’re such a tease too. guess it just means I’ll have to keep a close eye on here so I’ll be able to plan my reading of the stories in between classes. Thanks for popping by the blog. I’ve been so busy since class started that I’ve been a blog slacker. All the best!
by Amy W. April 2nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm-Amy
Recall tadalafil….
Recall tadalafil….
by Recall tadalafil. July 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pm