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.
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| 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.
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.
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| Male hihi - stitchbird |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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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