Page 26 - The Villager July 2021

Birding

impossible to identify most of the
seabirds, a challenging exercise at the
best of times, although we did spot
Sooty Shearwater, White-capped (Shy)
Albatross and Common Diving Petrels.
Bruce, our pre-arranged guide, was
waiting for us at the ferry wharf in
Halfmoon Bay for our transfer to our
two-room Thorfinn cottage – with Weka (AR)
breathtaking views overlooking the bay
– for the next three nights in Oban. An
afternoon walk along the Fuchsia and
Raroa tracks produced two new parrots
for us, the large Kaka and a Red-fronted
(crowned) Parakeet, as well as the Tui
and NZ Pigeon, all common endemics
(found only in NZ).
The next day, weather-wise wonderful, Brown Kiwi (POST CARD WITH NO REFERENCE) Maclean’s Falls (RS)
was spent on the island of Ulva in the like plumage and no tail.
Paterson Inlet, accessed by water-taxi. At night it creeps along
The birding was outstanding, producing the forest floor making
in rapid succession a welcoming sniffing and snuffling
Weka (type Rail) on a deserted beach, sounds. Clearly, its world
followed by a South Island Robin, an is more olfactory and
adult South Island Saddleback together tactile than visual. It lives
with its rather different offspring in self-excavated burrows
(Jackbird) and finally a yellow-fronted up to 1.5m long and
(crowned) Parakeet. The highlight of the usually lays two enormous
day thus far however was the chance eggs, each equal to one-
discovery of a small family of the very fifth of its bodyweight.
rare yellowhead, a species that had Its long, slightly decurved
Golden Bay (RS)
continually eluded us. bill is used to probe the
The lush vegetation of Ulva was soil for worms, snails, centipedes and (in locating a Kiwi), re-assured us of
fantastic, providing a thought- other invertebrates. It is very unusual in the almost certain positive outcome of
provoking example of what Stewart that its nostrils are located at the tip of our expedition. Two and a half hours
Island, indeed what the NZ mainland the bill rather that at its base, thereby later, upon the stroke of midnight, our
must have been like prior to enabling the bird to smell for its food. quarry, a single rather nonchalant Kiwi,
colonisation by the Europeans. At 8.30 Having laid its eggs, the female then was thankfully spotted on the trail, to
that evening we embarked from the puts her feet up, relying on the male the relief and great excitement of our
Oban harbour on a quest to find the to incubate them. Their offspring take exhausted group. What an extraordinary
unique, very rare and certainly bizarre three months or more to hatch. Shortly and privileged experience! Back in Oban
icon, the Stewart Island Brown Kiwi, a after this momentous occasion, the on our walk home in the dark, a Kiwi was
member of the bird family recognised well-developed chicks move out of heard calling from the garden of one of
as the National Bird of NZ. Classified as their burrow and are able to fend for the houses nearby.
endangered, very shy, seldom seen and themselves almost immediately. Watching TV early the following
nocturnal, this bird is like no other and Our 45-minute sea-taxi journey across morning, we learnt of the explosion
accordingly is near the top of the list of the Paterson Inlet to the Glory Cove and burning of a bus in the Homer
100 Birds to See before You Die, a book peninsula was achieved without incident Tunnel, trapping 300 tourists in Milford
written by D Chandler and D Couzens. by 16 of us under the supervision of the Sound on South Island. Fortunately,
No other bird is quite as odd, in fact in highly-experienced Kiwi guide, Phillip. no one was injured in the tunnel,
many respects unbirdlike. It is flightless, His completion of 1 400 similar trips, which was evacuated on foot. This
has rudimentary wings covered in hair- of which a mere 26 were unsuccessful certainly introduced a high degree

24 • Issue 7 2021 • The Villager