I haven’t modelled with, or thought much about, LEGO for decades—the photo below is my collection in the mid-1970s, my first building models—but recently created a logon for the LEGO IDEAS site.
The motivation was to support an awesome Kākāpō bird project. The real Kākāpō is endangered, once considered extinct, and this LEGO tribute was promoted on Twitter by astronomer turned conservation biologist Dr Andrew Digby @takapodigs; Kākāpō and Takahē Scientist for the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
I’ve followed him since seeing his presentation at the NZ Skeptics Conference (2016) about a career/life change that went from creating/using telescope sensors to detect planets around other stars to chasing giant endangered parrots around the most remote parts of New Zealand in an effort to save them!
If you have heard of Kākāpō at all it was probably thanks to Sirocco. He rocketed to fame in 2009 after his encounter with zoologist Mark Carwardine became a YouTube sensation. Carwardine was filming the BBC documentary Last Chance to See with British actor Stephen Fry. Footage showed a rather frisky Sirocco attempting to mate with Carwardine’s head as Fry laughed from the sidelines.
The Kākāpō project has gone from 1500-2500 votes in the past few days (I was #1567) but needs your support!
