A colourful mural in Portobello incorporates a nod to the past as well as a reference to the future.
The former home of ceramic gift store Happy Hens is now the headquarters of the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group, whose goal is the eradication of possums from the peninsula.
A team of volunteers recently transformed a mural of Happy Hens into a series of native birds.
Community engagement team leader Marcia Dale said the change had the blessing of Happy Hens creator Yvonne Sutherland.
The familiar rounded profiles of the Happy Hens had been turned into a kereru (native pigeon), korimako (bellbird) and piwakawaka (fantail).
Ms Dale designed the new mural because she wanted to honour the history of the place and also recognise the new purpose of the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Group, which was bringing back native birdsong.
The group was about to hit a new high point of 22,000 possums removed from the peninsula.
The group was in the middle of its third monitoring of the bird count for the year to see what effect the removal of possums was having on bird species in the area.
Bird numbers had been monitored since 2010 and the volunteers who helped update the mural were the same ones who helped with the bird count, Ms Dale said.
Mrs Sutherland visited to see the updated mural and said she was happy with the result.
‘‘It was nice that they just sort of follow on that concept of what we had there with the hens.’’
After about 36 years at the site, she now operated Happy Hens from her home with an online store and a few select retailers. She had been thinking of semi-retiring and the first Covid-19 lockdown was the ‘‘nudge’’ to move to a simpler operation, she said.
