![St John's Bush - 51648883553](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/St_John%27s_Bush_-_51648883553.jpg)
St Johns Bush is a reserve in
East Auckland
East Auckland is an area of Auckland, New Zealand, characterised in the popular mind as a socio-economically mixed urban area with a relatively large multi-cultural population. The name "East Auckland" is not an official placename, but is in popul ...
in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. It is situated in a small valley near the larger
Kepa Bush Reserve
Kepa Bush Reserve is an ecological reserve on the Auckland isthmus in New Zealand, south of Mission Bay. It is situated near the smaller St John's Bush and is also known as the Pourewa Valley.
Geology and biodiversity
The Kepa Bush Reserve ...
. It is named after the nearby suburb
St Johns.
Flora and fauna
Flora and fauna inside the reserve include a large
kauri
''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...
tree which is almost in the middle of the reserve. Other trees include
kanuka,
karaka,
kowhai,
pohutukawa
''Metrosideros excelsa'', commonly known as pōhutukawa ( mi, pōhutukawa), New Zealand Christmas tree, New Zealand Christmas bush, and iron tree, is a coastal evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display o ...
and
rimu
''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps.
The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian ...
.
A small wetland system that runs through the reserve is home to
longfin eel.
Whitebait
Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along coasts, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught using fine-m ...
and
freshwater bivalve
Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves that live in fresh water as opposed to salt water, which is the main habitat type for bivalves.
The majority of species of bivalve molluscs l ...
s are also present.
The native birds of the reserve include
tui,
New Zealand pigeon
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
s,
grey warbler
The grey warbler (''Gerygone igata''), also known by its Māori name or outside New Zealand as the grey gerygone, is an insectivorous bird in the family Acanthizidae endemic to New Zealand. Its natural habitat is temperate forests. It is sometim ...
s,
silvereye
The silvereye or wax-eye (''Zosterops lateralis'') is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all membe ...
s and
New Zealand fantail
The New Zealand fantail (''Rhipidura fuliginosa'') is a small insectivorous bird, the only species of fantail in New Zealand. It has four subspecies: ''R. f. fuliginosa'' in the South Island, ''R. f. placabilis'' in the North Island, ''R. f. pe ...
s. Introduced species including
eastern rosella
The eastern rosella (''Platycercus eximius'') is a rosella native to southeastern Australia and Tasmania.
It has been introduced to New Zealand where feral populations are found in the North Island (notably in the northern half of the island, Ta ...
and
Australian magpie
The Australian magpie (''Gymnorhina tibicen'') is a black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subs ...
s are occasionally seen.
Kaka
Kaka may refer to:
People Nickname or given name Sports
* Carlos Augusto dos Santos da Silva (born 1987), Brazil-born Italy international futsal player
* Kaká (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite
* Kaká (football ...
sometimes stop off at St Johns Bush on their way to the
Whangaparaoa Peninsula
The Whangaparaoa Peninsula is a suburban area about 25 km north of Auckland, New Zealand. It had 30,672 residents in 2013, many of them in the eponymous town of Whangaparaoa on its southern side. It is part of the Hibiscus Coast. ...
on the
North Shore. Kaka feed off berries and fruit.
History
St Johns Bush was made into a reserve almost immediately after the surrounding bush was farmed. In 1994 Auckland Council initiated a plan to rezone a considerable part of St Johns Bush.
Forest & Bird
Forest & Bird ( mi, Te Reo o te Taiao), also known by its formal name as the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, is an environmental organisation specialising in the protection and conservation of New Zealand's indigenous f ...
became involved and this was ceased. In 2000 Auckland Council acquired St Johns Bush. In 2004 Auckland Council purchased another hectare of land.
References
Geography of Auckland
Parks in Auckland
Urban forests in New Zealand
{{Auckland-geo-stub