Goofballs & Bobbleheads- Puriri Bay

Catch-up- 

There'll be a short break before the next blog. We're back in Kerikeri catching up with some friends we missed on our last visit and then we're due to have a couple of days out on the briny with my sister & her husband. See you soon.

There was a lot of chatter, squeaks, grunts, flapping and jostling coming from the end of Puriri Bay, high up in some large pohutukawa trees overhanging the rocks and water. Not to mention the continuous circuit being flown by harried parents, out into the harbour and back again. Along with the noise, a large white splash of guano alerted me to a colony of Pied Shag/Kawau nesting in the trees so I went to investigate...

...from the rocks underneath. Which turned out to not be one of my best moves ever. I ended up ducking and diving as big squirts of white poo came flying down from above. I even had to dodge a regurgitated long slimy dark thing that looked like a half digested fish.

With no hope of getting photos from below I thought I might be able to see into the nests from the bluff above. And sure enough, I was able to fight my way through the undergrowth off the Picnic Bay track until I was standing on the edge of a small cliff overlooking a very busy shag colony with approximately 15 or so nests, most with chicks of various sizes in them. 

While the chicks wouldn't win any beauty competitions, I fell in love with these three fluffy goofballs who look like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. 

And just in case you're wondering, although it may look like I am very close to the birds, I'm not. I have a good zoom lens and I'm also blending in with the scrub that's growing on the bluff so the shags are hardly aware I am there (that was until I slid down the a short bank trying to get further along the bluff!) I can only see into a few of the nests, some are higher up in the trees, some are hidden behind trunks or under the canopy.  

I was alarmed at first when I saw some chicks with their head hanging down the side of the nest. I've seen this before and always assumed it was a dead chick but it's not. I was pleased to see the eyes open and later, the head pop back up. This is how they keep cool on a hot day. Don't you love the chilled look on the face of the one at the back (remember to click on the photos to enlarge).

While Dad (or Mum) takes a break, junior does some house keeping in this nest.

I took to calling the chicks Bobbleheads because as soon as they saw a parent land nearby, they'd pop up out of the nest and wobble about squawking and clambering over each other trying to get the parents attention. 

These tiny Bobbleheads appeared from the depths of their nest when they felt the nest move...

...when the parent moved to the edge of the nest to aim a poo over the side (there are 3 chicks, one is hidden low behind its siblings). There also appears to be three chicks in all of the nests that I can see bar one that had 2 chicks. 

Ablutions complete, the parent settled back in over the tiny chicks. The parents took turns brooding and keeping an eye on the smallest chicks while at the older chicks nests, both parents were doing a near continuous circuit; feeding-flying-fishing...

Back at the Goofball nest, a parent has arrived home...

...it's arrival is announced by a cacophony of noise as the chicks squawk and jostle for the best position, stretching their necks as high as they can go, poking the parents crop with their bill and balancing precariously on the edge of the nest. It's a wonder they don't push each other out of the nest!

After, what seems like an eternity and obviously triggered by the chicks begging, the parent regurgitates dinner...

... and the chicks head disappears down the parents throat...

...a bloody long way down! 'What else ya got down there Ma?'

'Leave some for me!'

The adults must hold a lot of fish in their stomachs, I thought that the smallest chick would miss out after he tried his best pushing and shoving but he just wasn't tall enough and eventually backed off. Once the strongest chick had had his fill he moved to the back and the 2nd chick helped himself and then finally the littlest one moved to the front and had his dinner.

I can't imagine how sore the adult's throat must become with all the regurgitating and then having sharp beaks shoved down their throats, and they're not gentle about it either. There's a video at the end of the blog if you want to check it out. Eventually the parent turned away and then after some more pestering it jumped over to another branch and took a quick snooze. 

Over at the little Bobbleheads nest, the noise is more subdued as the parent gently gulps, dry retches and finally regurgitates a much thinner liquid into it's crop, you can see the expanding crop here as it fills up...

...and then the chick just about disappears down the throat retrieving it. It wasn't until I saw the photos that I realised the little chicks were doing this too. I imagined that they would gently reach in and slurp the liquid! 

I think the smallest goofball didn't get quite enough food during the last feed...

...because he's decided to steal some of his siblings dinner!

They really are quite crazy! Perhaps this is how the smaller chicks do end up surviving. 

And here's the movie. Once again, excuse my movie making skills, I'm not that good at the best of times but with no tripod and balancing on the edge of a bank it was even harder to hold the camera steady. Persevere past the first frames and it does get better! Even if you might then feel sea sick!

'Murder' At Monowai

Real-time

We’re now back in range and parked up at a POP (NZMCA Park over property) behind the Waiau Town & Country Club in Tuatapere…

…after an interesting time at Lake Monowai, which is south of Te Anau on the edge of the Fiordland National Park. We stayed at the DOC camp at the lake for a few days where we were parked in the carpark- there are two other areas but both were in the bush and not ideal because we couldn’t get TV reception. Mind you, if we had parked in them, not many others would have been able to join us, they were quite small.

The carpark was fine but we shared it with quite a number of vehicles and boat trailers as boaties, fishermen & hunters came and went.

The mist and cloud hung low over the lake most days which was a shame, especially when we could see a clear blue line away from the mountains and back towards the main road. We shifted just 10kms away to Borland Lodge after three days so we could explore Borland Road and do a few walks in the area. Borland Lodge is an outdoor education centre (it used to be the power project workers camp) where movanners can park in the grounds for a small charge and connect to power if they wish. The site is only available when there are no groups at the centre so it pays to call ahead if you're thinking of staying there.

Borland Road is a 30km narrow, winding, gravel service road for the power pylons that carry electricity from the power station at West Arm, Lake Manapouri to the Tiwai Aluminium Smelter near Bluff. Borland Road finishes at South Arm on the lake, a place where there are squadrons of sandflies the size of helicopters! The views and scenery are fabulous to the top of the Borland Saddle and down through the Grebe Valley (nice name there)…but I’ll do a blog on that in due course.

This blog is about a ‘murder’ committed right beside the carpark at Lake Monowai.

I was walking back across the dam wall to the van when I heard this horrendous commotion coming from the bush beside the carpark (in front of the blue car on the right in the photo, two above). I walked up to the edge and peered into the dark gloom (it was about 8:45pm); the bank ran down to an overgrown swampy area. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a rare NZ Falcon/Kārearea flapping about in the undergrowth.

At first I thought it had a nest and the noise was coming from it’s chicks, and the surrounding birds were complaining about it being too near. But then falcons usually nest close to the ground or in fact on the ground and this seemed too high plus the other birds were calling and flying about too much. While I was trying to decide what was happening the falcon flew out and up into a nearby tree. I hurried back to the van, grabbed my camera and called for David.

As I got back to the bank edge again, the falcon flew back down to the tangle of vines and branches where I’d seen it the first time. I could hardly see what was going on because it was so dark and getting darker by the second. My camera recorded it in much more detail that my brain! For those that know the workings of a camera, I shot these with the ISO set on auto so I could get as much detail as possible out of the dark ‘hole’. I usually shoot at ISO100-200, these are all at ISO25,600! The reason why there is so much noise (grain), but worth it for the shots.

The falcon was peering into the bush (above) and then looking over it’s shoulder at me, I presume, although I couldn’t quite see that as I was clicking away.

She(or he, I have yet to find out) looked back down into the vines, all the while the birds in the trees around me were alarm calling and flying about; tui, bellbird, brown creeper, grey warbler amongst others.

She disappeared through a gap in the vines…

…to reappear seconds later in a different area of the vines, checking to see if I was still watching…

…and to decide what to do…

…it looks like she has a vine tangled around a leg as she pulls at it with her bill…

…she then stretches forward and peers about before jumping…

… back near the hole she disappeared into the first time, checks on me again…

…before flying off…

…to the top of the trees once again, the other birds still protesting loudly and flying after her.

Just moments afterwards she’s back down on the vines; the hungry call of her chicks no doubt ringing in her ears;

…as she decides I’m no threat and jumps across to be the hole in the vines again…

…where she takes one last look around…

…and dives down through the gap...(the other birds are now really going berserk and the volume of noise increases tenfold)…

…to reappear just a second later with….…a squawking tui chick in her mouth!

Remember I can’t actually see all this, I’m just clicking 20 to the dozen but I can see the outline of the falcon and hear the screaming chick though and I can guess what is happening.

She flies off, up towards the tree tops and then across the road where we can see three adult tuis in hot and noisy pursuit. The falcon circles around and flies off across the lake heading for the top of a ridge a few kilometres away. The bush falls into a deathly silence.

There are no chicks left in the nest and we’re left wondering whether she maybe took a chick on the first visit when I heard all the commotion and ate that for herself before returning to steal the second one for her chicks. Or perhaps she’d already snatched a chick earlier in the day or the day before and knew there was one more there for the taking. Then again perhaps there was only one chick in the clutch. Whatever it was, she had flown a long way and found the nest in a obscure and nearly inaccessible patch of vines. I assume she was initially attracted by the hungry squawking of the tui chick(s)

It was a huge surprise when I uploaded the photos to see that I managed to capture the falcon leaving with the chick in it’s mouth, although I kind of wish I hadn’t. Everytime I woke that night, I had visions of that poor baby squawking for it’s mum! Nature in the raw, such is life.