Booming Beauties

Real-time

Can you guess what is hiding under the branches? They (there are two of them) are very well camouflaged...

No? Then try this one, where you can some tail feathers. 

These are two gorgeous and very rare, critically endangered Kakapo chicks; a female and a male (males are bigger). Pearl was her name and  I can't remember what the male's name was. That's Pearl with her head up below.

We are now in very elite company. With just 123 adult birds left in the world, there are very few people who will ever see a living Kakapo, let alone three living Kakapo!

The Kakapo is a large, flightless, nocturnal, ground dwelling parrot that is endemic to New Zealand. A combination of traits make the Kakapo unique among its kind; it is the world's only flightless parrot, it's the world's heaviest parrot, it's nocturnal and herbivorous, has no male parental care and is also possibly one of the world's longest-living birds.

'Hey, who's that taking my photo?' 

You'll remember that we were lucky enough to visit Sorocco when he was in residence at Zealandia in Wellington, doing his bit as ambassador for his species. Well, when a blog post arrived from DOC telling me about the chance to see Kakapo chicks in Invercargill every weekend during the month of May, I jumped at the chance to visit them. The ten oldest chicks will be re-located back to their predator-free island homes during June and this was a chance for the public to view some of them and support the Kakapo recovery programme.

And because last Sunday was the first day of May and the first day of the tours, we were amongst the very first people to do the tour. The timing was perfect as we'll be gone by this weekend. 

DOC has a Kakapo rearing unit located in a large non-descript, unmarked, office building near the old rail station in the city. The rearing unit takes over incubating and hatching the fertile eggs, which have been collected from the nesting females, on their island hideaways. Then the youngsters are hand-reared until they are old enough to survive by themselves, back on their island sanctuaries.

During this breeding season, 46 chicks have hatched with 36 surviving, making it the best breeding season since the recovery programme started 25 years ago. The chick numbers won't be added to the overall tally until the young birds reach 6 months old and are out of danger.

The only problem with the visit was that no cameras were allowed. With only 10 people at a time in the display room and only for a very short time, if everyone had a camera trying to take photos (I know what it was like with Sirocco), it would detract from the experience. 

David was very good though and explained to one of the rangers, that I take photos for DOC and asked if they might allow an exception for me. Rachel ran back and got my camera out of the car and they allowed me to take a quick few shots before the next group came through. I knew the light was very dull  (Kakapo are nocturnal after all) with definitely no flash allowed. And by now the chicks had moved under cover so these aren't the greatest shots, they're very noisy (grainy) due to the extremely high ISO, but at least I have a record.

I reckon the male looks like an alien of some sort in this shot with his 'roman nose'. Aren't they just the cutest babies with their wayward downy fluff.  I wish we had longer with them but before we knew it, time was up and we had to move on to let the next group through. Just under 200 people visited the chicks on the first day and I'm sure there will many more taking up the offer over the next few weekends. What can I say, it was a privilege and an honour to once again be in the presence of these fascinating birds. At $2 a ticket it was more than well worth it too; they could have charged $20 and I would have been first in line.

Rarest Wader in the World

Catch-up

After visiting dozens of lakes and waterways around the MacKenzie Basin and seeing many different birds which included a Black Stilt family with a chick & one hybrid parent, another adult bird defending it’s nest/chick from a hawk and two juvenile Black Stilts up close, we had yet to see an adult Black Stilt up close.

So it was a great thrill when we finally managed to locate not one, but two very confiding adult Black Stilts/Kakī feeding in a shallow pond overflow on farmland not too far from Twizel.

Not only were they happy to carry on feeding but I managed to get very close without disturbing them.

Going by the flattened grass track leading to a fence that separated the birds from the road, I got the feeling that these two are very much used to weird humans crouching and crawling through the grass with a camera lens stuck to their face.

Intensive conservation management of the endemic (found nowhere else in the world) Black Stilt began in 1981 when the population had declined to just 23 adult birds. Despite this management the Black Stilt still remains the rarest wading bird in the world, with fewer than 100 breeding birds.

Over 150 captive bred juvenile black stilts (a season record) have been released into the MacKenzie Basin area this past breeding season which should increase the breeding adults over the next 2-3 years, providing they survive predation and the harsh winter environment they live in.

Unlike other birds that make the braided rivers of  the South Island home, the majority of black stilts don’t migrate to warmer climates for winter.

We visited the birds twice while we were staying at Lake Ruataniwha and I’ll certainly be checking in on them again the next time we pass through. We also located another two adults further down the road but they were a lot further away than these two.

That’s another bird we can tick on our virtual list. And it was well worth the wait and effort in finding them, they are a stunning bird.

Pukaha Mount Bruce

Pukaha Mt Bruce is a wildlife centre that runs an active breeding programme for New Zealand's rare & endangered native birds & reptiles. As avid birders we wanted to visit the centre on our way south, it was the main reason we choose to take SH2 to Wellington. The 942 hectares Mt Bruce reserve is the largest remnant of ancient forest that once stretched stretched  from Masterton to Norsewood. An extensive & continuous pest control programme had dramatically increased the population of birds in the forest including many of our endangered species; this involves over 130km of trap lines through the forest, 1000 bait stations for possums & rats and 500 traps for stoats & ferrets.

A pair of kakariki (red crowned parakeet) cosy up in one of the flight aviaries; they have already fledged five chicks this season & from this display I would say there will be more before the summer ends.

We arrived at 10am and even this late in the day the forest was alive with bird song. There are numerous large flight avaries near the entrance to the park along with a kiwi house. Many of  Mt Bruce's captive bred birds are released at other pest free sanctuaries around New Zealand, including Boundry Stream in Hawkes Bay & Tiritiri Matangi Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

One bird I was very keen to see was Manakura the rare white North Island Brown Kiwi. Manakura is two years old & is not albino, she is white because her parents have a rare recessive gene. In fact there have been two white kiwi hatched at Mt Bruce & there are likely to be more. Manakura was feeding in the kiwi house but spent quite a bit of time aggressively chasing a normal brown kiwi around the enclosure. No flash was allowed in the darkness of the make believe night time forest floor so this is what I got. A little more than what I heard a Canadian wife telling her husband he captured- “It’s totally black, you’ll have to go back & try again!”

We stopped by the tuatara display to watch a keeper feed the male & female a locust each, their only meal for the next 3 days. Tuatara spend most of their day staring into space hence the reason why they live to such a ripe old age & don't need much to eat. This pair are around 65 years old & all going well will live to be at least 150 years of age. Tuatara are rare, medium-sized reptiles found only in New Zealand. Most New Zealanders know that the tuatara is as ancient as the dinosaurs and a species that hasn’t changed in over 200 million years.

Next we watched one of the latest batch of kiwi chicks being force fed his dinner. This little guy has held out for 64 days, he is yet to get the hang of how you do it by yourself. Any day now the keepers are hoping that he’ll work it out so he can join his fellow new season chicks in the pre-release aviary in preparation for being moved to one of the numerous kiwi sanctuaries around New Zealand when he reaches one kilo in weight. At this weight he will be able defend himself against most predators & stands a good chance of reaching adulthood.

Isn't that the most cutest fluff ball you ever did see?

David decided to do the hour & half walk to a lookout at the top of the reserve but because of my feet I decided it might be a bit too much for me to cope with so I stayed behind to watch over 30 kaka fly in from all over the reserve to a feeding station. The kaka is a large parrot similar to the kea and just as destructive & comical. They are a beautiful dark glossy olive brown colour with a hint of iridescence and bronze with a splash of beautiful deep red coloured feathers under their wings.

The kaka have a wide vocal range, the bush & sky filled with their squawks, clucking & shrieks. Their keen acrobatics kept me entertained for nearly an hour as they swooped in low and long through the paths scaring a few people who were unaware of how close they were to their heads. They also chased each other through the bush & from branch to branch, some even ended up tussling on the ground.

We both enjoyed the visit although I think we’ve been spoilt a little by visiting so many other sanctuaries that aren’t quite so commercialized & involve avaried birds albeit for a good purpose. The kaka were the highlight for me & I was thrilled to see Manakura & the kiwi chick being fed. Hopefully somewhere down south, either Stewart Island or on the West Coast we will see a kiwi in the wild.