Our final newsletter of the year brings exciting updates from our recent wētāpunga monitoring and release, as well as many keen walkers and runners fundraising, a beautiful new video showcasing our mahi, our latest Annual Report, and more.

It's been another incredible year and we are grateful to everyone who chooses to be part of this awesome community conservation project, in so many different ways. It's amazing what we can achieve together!

We hope you have a restful and reconnecting holiday period and look forward to seeing what 2026 will bring for the Project.

Meri Kirihimete!
The Project Island Song team

On Wednesday 19th November we were delighted to release a further 1,022 juvenile wētāpunga onto the islands, to add numbers and genetic diversity to the populations establishing there.

This is the final release of a 5 year reintroduction programme in partnership with Auckland Zoo that saw its first release in 2020. We are grateful to the zoo team, gifting hapū Ngāti Manuhiri, those who have donated to this project, and the many more people who have helped to make this fantastic project possible.

Two nights prior to the release, our team undertook nighttime monitoring work, and were excited to discover numerous adult wētāpunga. This survey provides baseline density data and can be repeated in future years to help track population change (hopefully growth!) over time.

Yesterday saw the beginning of the 12ks of Christmas for 2025, raising funds to support the restoration of the islands.

We're absolutely delighted to have 15 awesome people signed up to step into Christmas with a walk or run every day from 1st to 12th December - good on you Abby, Alex, Cameron, Elsie, Glenda, Grace, Jacqui, Jenny, Jo, Laura, Maryanne, Moana, Roze, Sarah, and William!

Some will be walking or running 1km on Day 1, and building up to 12km on Day 12, with others tackling 12km every day for 12 days.

A special shout out has to go to Cam Lindley, who will be running 12km at midday AND 12km at midnight, every day for 12 days, for a colossal total of 288km!

In a happy coincidence, today (2nd December) is Give a Little Day, celebrating our national generosity. For today only, Give a Little waive the fees they normally charge to cover their costs, meaning that 100% of your donation will go straight to Project Island Song.

If you haven't yet donated to support our brave walkers and runners, today is a great day to do so! You can donate to the whole team on the event home page, or find and sponsor your favourite participant here!

Back in June we were honoured to be recognised at Northland Regional Council's Whakamānawa ā Taiao - Environmental Awards for our work to Protect Native Life.

Part of the prize was having this awesome short video made - thank you to Wendy Bown for beautifully capturing our kaupapa on camera. Click on the preview image above to give it a watch!

It was fantastic to have Melissa McLuskie from the NZPI visit us in Kororāreka Russell at the end of October, including delivering a workshop for 20 of our team, volunteers, and wider community members on the kororā / little blue penguin, as well as speaking at our AGM.

Very little work has been done previously on understanding any kororā populations north of Auckland, so we are excited to be part of activating monitoring work on the islands and the wider community.

For those who couldn't make it, this document contains a good summary of some of the key information, including how to identify kororā footprints, which is something we can all look out for when we're on the islands and mainland beaches.

The NZPI is currently developing a new national database app for communities around the motu to report their sightings and monitoring data. We will share more information about how to contribute to this once it's live, but for now, if you see kororā on the water, or footprints, please email info@projectislandsong.co.nz with the location (GPS if possible), time, type of sighting (i.e. on the water, footprints, possible nest), and any photos, and we will submit this data to the database. This will help to start mapping where kororā live and breed in our area.

2026 Birds of the Bay of Islands calendars are selling like hot cakes as always, and make a perfect Christmas gift for the nature-lovers in your life!

Last guaranteed postage dates are looming up or already here, so if you're ordering from (or sending to) overseas, be sure to get in there quick!

UK/Europe - 1st December
Australia - 10th December
Within NZ - 18th December

18th December is also the last day that we'll be processing online orders until January.

Order yours online, or find a local vendor.

If you haven't had the chance to check out a hardcopy yet, our Annual Report for 2024/25 is now available on our website.

Providing updates on the past year's activities, and looking ahead to the future, the report also provides an insight into the Ecological Restoration Plan for the islands of Ipipiri.

Click here or on the image to the left to open or download the Annual Report.

Toutouwai (North Island robin) by Lana Kingsbeer

This summer sees Toi Tū, a summer art exhibition opening 11 December 2025 until 1st February 2026 at Haratu Kororāreka Marae in Russell.

The collaborative showcase brings together Northland artists across painting, glass, and carving — each piece connected to Te Tai Tokerau and the stories of this place.

Artist Lana Kingsbeer will be donating a percentage from all sales of her native bird prints, as well as donating beautiful prints as raffle prizes to support Project Island Song.

Find out more here!

If you've volunteered with the Project in the past 12 months, we would really appreciate you taking 5 minutes to tell us about your experience of volunteering in our short volunteer survey.

The feedback that comes from this is incredibly helpful for communicating the impact of the Project. It's also an opportunity for us to better understand what you enjoy about volunteering with us, and where we could improve things.

Click here to complete the survey now. Thank you, your time is much appreciated!