How Do Birds Think?

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 69

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

There is a wide range of opinion about the character of the minds of animals; a discourse that travels from complete denial to woolly romantic assumption (and further). All this sooner or later washes up against Thomas Nagel’s  famous 1974 philosophical paper -What is it like to be a Bat? which declares unambiguously that we’re never going to know. 

Expressway excavations poised above the dunelake

But there are degrees of knowing, so keep your eyes open in a real world and it is surprising the insight that can bring. We were down at the dunelake documenting its destruction, when a flock of Canadian Geese came winging over.  Like most of these wetland birds they spend quite a lot of time in the air this time of the year (reasonably early autumn) and here were two squadrons of around 15 birds each, the one in close pursuit of the other heading straight for the dunelake.

A Candian Goose surveys her flight path

On their approach however, something went wrong (It was a clear windless day) as the lead birds suddenly switched direction right over the dunelake, a change of ‘mind’ that took the following birds completely by surprise. These are big ungainly animals that carry a lot of forward momentum so they can’t change their flight paths easily. For a brief moment there was tumult in the rear as they all adjusted in their own way, to the new GPS instructions from the leadership, while trying to avoid colliding into each other. They were rolling and twisting in what came close to  pandemonium, though soon smoothed out on the new flight path and continued chugging along as of nothing had happened.

Canadian Geese in controlled flight

How could we read this?  Well, the dunelake begins to fill around mid-April,  but it isn’t really habitable for this size of bird until June so while the birds seemed to  know the lake, they were a little out in expecting to be able to land on it.  This in itself, is an interesting disclosure - that the birds don’t wander  around on the off chance, looking for food and refuge. They know this region and knowingly track from one wetland to another. This indicates of course, a condition of mind, though we'll never get inside one to  confirm it. (Canadian Geese  don’t breed or usually feed at the dunelake but use it as a night refuge in winter.)   

But were they actually intending to land?

UK - Starling flock

Another introduced bird starting to flock this time of year is the  starling. These birds are a nuisance on Kapiti Island because they tend to overnight there and drop weed seed (in their droppings) on this regenerating native reserve. Be that as it may, if you have ever seen starlings manoeuvring in a flock in autumn you will know what an extraordinary sight it is. Their co-ordinating balletic rhythms come close to the uncanny. Though Canadian geese also make a grand sight, boating along in formation,  usually at very  low altitude, they don’t exhibit anywhere near the same  inflight flair.

Yet they are usually more co-ordinated than this narrowly avoided midair pile up would suggest.  So what might be going on? The question it raises is about formation flying. Is this innate to a young goose or do the parents go out and teach the youngsters how to do it. And was this happening here? They look effortless enough when you see them overhead but this calamity  shows that it's every bit a highly complex technical skill as that of our own aerial acrobatic teams. And that it requires a high level of concentration  in a community of effort.

So was this an inflight training exercise for a new generation of young geese, led by senior members of the local community? And did they deliberately dip over the (now dry) lake to orientate the youngsters. Had they no intention of landing? If so then this has further implications regarding the communal lives of these birds because here were a group of adults working to blood in their youngsters. 

Current theory would usually regard this behaviour as instinctual - ie young animals following their parents - but here much more complex parenting behaviour appears to be going on. One scientific thinker working in this area of animal minds, while trying to dig her colleagues out of the behavioural hole they still seem quite happy to be wallowing around in is Barbara Smuts. We recommend you follow her up. Better still,  get out there and start  piecing it all together yourself.

Track we were listening to while posting this -Jimmy Reed -You Dont have To Go  

Whoa Baby

You dont have ta go

Whoa Baby

You dont have ta go

Gonna pack up baby

 Down the road I go 

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Critically endangered New Zealand duck sighted as bulldozers roll in

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 68

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds 

The Expressway juggernaut got its timing spot-on as it rolled over, and then through, our wetland observation lookout, taking around 48 hours to complete its demolition. 

Dune demolition dunelake in foreground 

Last time they were down here, they put on a big show of looking for endangered species, but that’s all history now with the General Election having come and gone. And this  is ironic because 100 metres away we photographed this critically endangered New Zealand duck feeding in the Wharemauku.

Parera female -Wharemauku creek

This is a young female parera and pure bred (Can you identify why? See below). We have been trying to extend our investigation in a wider net through the district in an effort to pinpoint where these pure bred birds are flying in from. Our closest encounters  have been up in the forest wetlands behind us (Tararua’s). That’s a good 40 km away; but these animals are very migratory and can fly in from as far away as Australia and the Pacific Islands, so it’s a bit of a guessing game.

And this time of the year all these ducks –mallard and parera- take to the air in what appears to be a social ritual as they begin to pair off. But there doesn’t seem to be anywhere near the number of birds around this year as usual. We’ve counted five ‘residents’ up one end of the Wharemauku where theres usually a dozen or more. You have to get up around dawn to find them when they are still on the creek – they generally clear out when locals begin walking their dogs along the path.

Botulism has been spreading through our local water birds with sick birds including shags, ducks and paradise ducks, being picked up in the middle of summer when they should be at their healthiest. They contact this from algal bloom in local ponds that stagnate because they aren’t properly drained. We found two young, fully grown ducks dead on the water over recent days. All this has been of great concern and may account for the drop in numbers; though as we have previously mentioned the bird numbers in this area seem to have dropped dramatically since the expressway excavations began in earnest.

Yet inanga in the Wharemauku haven't been affected so far. 

Strange ways - spot your inanga 

This year these little fingerlings are out in squadrons. They live at the bottom of the feeding chain with shags, heron, eels et al, all fattening themselves up on them, along with the kotare (kingfisher) that disappeared in spring but is now back again on its roost near Drain 7, at the back of the airport. We were hoping for a family from this guy this year but it wasn’t to be; though he’s busy now, scooping up the local marine inhabitants from the creek.    

These inanga seem to spend a lot of their time engaged in what looks like ‘play’. Once again the best time to see this is around dawn on a still clear early autumn morning. Here we filmed them in groups, standing on their tails with their mouths out of the water, apparently gasping for air. 

We are completely mystified and though you can’t see too much detail in our clip, we thought we’d post it anyway. These tiny fish are very skittish and as we leaned over the creek bank they scattered in alarm, but soon came back into position once they’d got used to us.

Then finally, here are the telltale signs of parera – green speculum  and brown feet. Just by way of a caution - there is a considerable degree of the usual eyewash on the internet about this bird - including from the 'experts' a result of talking too much to your laptop. Best get out there and start observing them for yourself...

Feet and speculum of parera

Track we were listening to  while posting this the peerless Leadbelly – Ain't gonna study war no more – which we think should be getting a lot more airtime now half the world looks determined to resort to arms once again.    

I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield,

Down by the riverside

Down by the riverside

Down by the riverside

I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield,

Down by the riverside

Study war no more

I ain't gonna study war no more

Ain't gonna study war no more

Ain't gonna study war no more

I ain't gonna study war no more

Ain't gonna study war no more

Ain't gonna study war no more

   
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Wild Wild Weka

 Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 67

  Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

One of the most debated issues in world conservation at the moment is how to re-introduce endangered wild animals into settled farm and urban environments. Much of the publicity has centred on inceasing populations of wolf, bear and puma et al, in North America, and then the reintroduction of the wolf in Europe and wild foxes in London. Here in New Zealand we don’t usually think of it as an issue in the same way, but as pest control becomes more common and with protected areas now seeding vulnerable rare birds into cities and towns, we are beginning to hear more of our own variant on it.

What a pleasure then to find weka starting to repopulate urban areas in Nelson town.  We live in the North Island where the wild weka population is down to around 2000, and you won’t see them outside of protected reserves. On the West Coast of the South Island however, and in Nelson you can occasionally stumble over them. These large rails are endemic to New Zealand with four subspecies and these photographs of a Western Weka were taken on the Marlborough coast, east of Nelson.

They can be troublesome because, like the pukeko, they will predate rarer birds when settled into protected areas. One was found for example, on Kapiti Island, predating an egg of the very rare Little Spotted Kiwi while the (male) parent was sitting on it. This is why the populations have sometimes to be managed, by transference to less vulnerable areas.

We’ve been lucky enough to spend time overnight on Kapiti Island and both kiwi and weka have a similar noisy call. If you are out before dawn, you will hear the kiwi screeching back to their burrows, (kiwi are very difficult to see in the bush in the dark even when you are only a few feet from them) but then the pitch will change as the weka’s awake and set up their own strident din. Perhaps these birds use this sound in ways we are only just beginning to suspect, to orientate each other.

Going

In Nelson we stayed in an area sometimes visited by weka, but in the way of these things, we were never home when they forayed out. Then we got an urgent call around six o’clock on our last evening as one came down from surrounding scrub to fossick for food. It was immediately clear we were dealing with a wild animal. Many urban pukeko are now used to human presence and hang around ponds waiting to be fed, but this one shied away from human contact. She hoovered through the garden shrubbery then shot off over the road, so that we despaired of getting a shot of her; but finally did.

Going

Locals say they’ve encountered two families this year, one with five youngsters tagging along. And despite local predators which include dogs, cats, rats, stoats etc not to mention karu (native hawk) – they all survived.

The Nelson Department of Conservation are well aware of this influx and get contacted by concerned locals all the time. They attribute the increase to community run pest control programmes which has boosted native bird populations in the town overall and encourage people to live with them. 

Gotcha

They can be troublesome however, scrounging pet and chook food and getting into the veggie garden; so recommend locals take evasive action to limit their access. They wont disturb these birds however regarding them as part of our natural ecosystem. And this is the kind of balance wildlife authority’s are trying to strike all over the world…

Thanks to Rosemary, Carol and Trevor for photo’s and keeping on the look out.

Track we were listening to while posting this…  Kinda Fonda Wanda  a classically affectionate Neil Young pisstake…

           Well, I went with Mary Lou
           Tried Peggy Sue
           Had a date with Donna
           And Barbara Ann too
           But I'm kinda fonda Wanda.
            Kinda fonda Wanda.

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Bellbird Heaven

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 66

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

We have been away on the lam again, back to the north of the South Island, where we managed to track down a colony of bellbirds- korimako. These are one of our most treasured birds – noted for their song – and very busy feeding this time of the year with the forest full berries. 

Bellbird-korimako  Brook Waimarama Sanctuary

We stumbled across six or seven of them in the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary. Like all NZ bush birds they never keep still, so are difficult to film, but this short clip will give some idea of how they manoeuvre through the bush.

On Kapiti Island (NZ’s foremost bird sanctuary) bellbirds form a triumvirate of nectar feeders with tui and hihi but there is a definite pecking order. Tui rule the roost followed by bellbirds, but both these birds are liable to take to the hihi -or stitchbird- which is smaller and more timid. (Its call is reminiscent of clacking knitting needles). It flits through the forest like a little ghost and is one of our most endearing yet endangered birds.

Male hihi - stitchbird

This Nelson sanctuary is a reserve only minutes from the centre of the town  and is set to become a Mainland Island. Mainland islands which protect reserves with predator fences are now well established in NZ and this is an idyllic setting, set around an old reservoir in regenerating bush. It will prove a wonderful asset to the region over time.
Mainland Islands have now been seen to act in a similar way to marine reserves in not only providing a refuge, but seeding these endangered birds into the local environment. Kaka for example, were the first to be found establishing nesting sites outside Zealandia in Wellington. They were soon followed by robin and now tieke-saddleback.

Tieke - saddleback

The saddleback were the first pair of this flamboyant but very endangered bird, to have ever bred outside a protected area. A protective net was immediately thrown around the nest when it was found in someone’s back garden. They will find a home in Nelson too, once their fence goes up.

There is an engaging story attached to tieke which shows why NZ birds have been so decimated by colonisation. A remnant colony was found on an island off Stewart Island (in the deep south). Rats were then discovered to have got to the island in 1963 through visiting boats, so the entire saddleback population was hurriedly trapped and moved to an aviary in Dunedin. Conservation workers were astonished then, to see these birds come down to investigate a cat that came strolling passed the aviary fence. They are incurably curious creatures and this was their first sighting of a cat. It would have been their last. There remains about 700 of this South Island species.

 

In Nelson another native bird is becoming a common visitor to urban areas and domestic gardens. This is the Weka, a feisty rail, though now virtually extinct in the North Island. It seems to be doing well over here and we’ll take  a look at one of these wayward postillions  in our next post.

South Island weka 

Track we were listening to while posting this - The Nelson Jazz Club's sultry version of Van Morrison's Moondance.  Two bucks to get in plus a beer tent -and a full moon too- irresistible...

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Seahorses-manaia sighted in Porirua Harbour

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 65

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

One of the most delightful and enigmatic creatures of the sea are these sea-horses, which are rarely spotted in the wild. 

But they were encountered at a community snorkelling event in Porirua last weekend. It was run by Healthy Harbours Porirua and held offshore at Whitirea Park last weekend. This is a large-bellied seahorse photographed in an aquarium but found around New Zealand and across on the Australian coast facing us. It can grow up to 35 centimetres (around 15 inches) and six were sighted in the shallows off Porirua. They feed around the seaweed and can hook onto it with their prehensile tails while feeding on small crustacean.  Part of their magic is in their movement with their fins allowing them to move sideways or up and down slowly, but at will. They are rather like dragonflies which have the same ability to zip sideways.  

Yelloweyed mullet were also seen during the programme.

Yelloweyed mullet - NZ sea herring

MC of the event was Zoe Studd and it put 50 people, including youngsters into the water, all togged out in wet suits and snorkelling gear. Also involved were the Greater Wellington Regional Council (How pleasant it is seeing these guys getting behind conservation education programmes).

If YOU want to go trolling around underwater, catching up with some of our rarer marine species then you haven’t missed out because there’s another escapade planned for the Island Bay marine reserve this weekend – Beginners welcome, though you better be quick.

Date - Sunday 8 March 10am-2.30pm 

Meet at the Marine Education Centre HQ. (Old surf Club, the Esplanade, Island Bay). All gear/guides provided. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Participants must be able to swim 50 metres.

Details on the  Seaweek website

An emergency contact number is  zoe.studd@gmail.com

Be There or Be Square!!!

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Dabchick-weweia sighted beside Expressway diggings

Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 64

Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

Our dune lake idyll has now put on her summer coat and with this

very dry summer now moving into autumn it remains one of the few areas the expressway consortium hasn't started digging out. They aren’t far away however as these images show. 

Expressway view north -March 1

Expressway view north -pan March 1

What they also show is just how radically our landscape is going to be transformed.

Expressway bridging -view South Feb 26

We are continuing to monitor the area however and this late in the season the Wharemauku creek is full of inanga, while two broods of ducklings are now thriving, with the goose fathered brood about ready to fledge.

Inanga - approx 2 inches

Fledging female putangitangi

We have also been keeping a close eye on the paradise duck-putangitangi family at the local public pond. They appeared to lose one youngster and then the Dad, about whom we feared the worst disappeared. He was very lame and looking  a lot older than his youthful spouse. This family began to wander about two weeks ago and then disappeared altogether sometime last week. The youngsters hadn't gone into moult yet, but we think we’ve located them anyway, down at the Ratanui wetland, around four kilometres away. Here a group of around twenty fledglings are congregating, some of them, still in mid moult – which is about what ours should be doing.

More exciting was the discovery of this solitary Dabchick down at Ratanui close to the expressway workings where we located a Kotoku in November. 

Dabchick near expressway diggings -February 28

These little glebes are a threatened NZ species and we are beginning to learn why. They live in pairs and they aren't very resilient. A pair raised one chick at the Waikanae River Lagoon,  early this season. But they kick them out of home early  and this may be that youngster looking a little lost and forlorn. They know this wetland because we saw a fledgling down her two years ago. However we haven't seen the pair for a while. This dabchick is on its own and trying to pal up with a couple of scaup who weren't fussed abotu it hanging around.

Like our spotting of the Kotuku defore Christmas  we are only 30 metres away from the expressway diggings, in what is still the breeding season.

Track we were listening to while posting this -Our own Howard Morrison Quartet -Live   but here are the original words to this Maori lament from the first world war...  Pö atarau  

Pö atarau 

E moea iho nei 

E haere ana 

Koe ki pämamao 

Haere rä 

Ka hoki mai anö 

Ki i te tau 

E tangi atu nei                  

On a moonlit night 

I see in a dream 

You going away

To a distant land 

Farewell, 

But return again 

To your loved one, 

Weeping here

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