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| Takahe |
I absolutely loved doing Badgers five day bird photo challenge on Facebook, lots of thanks to my mate Nick for nominating me, so here is the complete set of posts together with some extra pics. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did putting the five posts together!
My first bird is the South Island Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) from New Zealand. The flightless Takahe is the largest living member of the rail family and was thought at one time to be extinct. It was first discovered by Europeans in 1847, but after the final bird was captured in 1898 no more were found and the bird was officially considered extinct.
Fast forward fifty years to 1948 to meet Dr Geoffrey Orbell a keen naturalist and hiker who suspected the Takahe might still survive. On an expedition on 20thNovember 1948 with three fellow naturalists to the remote Murchison mountains near Lake Te Anau he discovered unfamiliar footprints and heard a strange bird call. They followed the footprints and famously found three Takahe!
Further surveys indicated that a population of some 400 birds had survived in this remote location but by 1982 this had reduced to 118 mainly, it was thought, due to competition with introduced deer. A recovery plan was put in place which included culling the introduced deer, translocation to predator free islands and a captive breeding program. This has brought them back from the very edge of extinction and to a current population of some 400 birds.
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| Takahe |
In common with many other New Zealand birds there was also a North Island species but this is sadly definitely extinct and is only known from skeletal remains and, perhaps, one specimen.
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| Takahe |
Tiritiri Matangi Island, located in the Hauraki Gulf off the coast of Auckland is a predator free nature reserve and home to some of New Zealand’s rarest birds including a small population of translocated Takahe. Carolyn and I spent 5 wonderful weeks touring New Zealand in 2016 and visited Tiritiri island for a guided tour with a local ornithologist who was able to show us the Takahe. We saw two adult Takahe with one chick. They are very endearing in a strange kind of way. They are quite plump and ungainly with large bills that are used to pull up grass. Takahe have tiny residual wings which they flap in a very comical way to help them clamour around. Watching a mum looking after her chick was a truly wonderful birding experience that will stay with me forever!
Today’s bird, no. 2 in the photo challenge, is another species that has clawed its way back from near extinction, the Seychelles Magpie Robin (Copsychus sechellarum). Historically it is believed to have inhabited most of the Seychelle islands but the introduction of predators and habitat loss devastated its population such that by 1970 it was on the very brink of extinction with only 19 left on Frigate Island. Somehow it managed to hold on but by 1990 there were still only 21 individuals. Enter Birdlife International who stepped in to save the Robin from extinction. New Zealand naturalists with practical experience of such matters were enlisted to help create predator free islands after which a translocation programme was begun such that today the population has increased to some 200 birds.
We visited the Seychelles for our honeymoon some ten years ago and spent a wonderful week on the enchanting Dennis Island which was part of the translocation project and home to some 40 Seychelles Magpie Robins. Extreme measures are taken to ensure the island remains predator free. Upon arrival all luggage is checked for unwanted guests and supplies are delivered mainly by a boat which is not allowed to physically dock on the island but is unloaded onto a smaller island based craft.
The Seychelles Magpie Robin is a very inquisitive bird which, I suspect, was partially to blame for its demise. To show us the Robin the local ornithologist would scratch the ground with a stick. One or two Robins would then appear and check the disturbed ground to see what the fuss was all about. We were fortunate enough to be able to sit on the veranda of our seaside villa and watch Magpie Robins fliting around our garden, another very cherished birding memory.
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| Seychelles Magpie Robin |
The picture is of a particularly confiding male who spent a lot of time in our garden. You will probably notice that he is lacking tail feathers; the result of a punch up with another male over a female admirer.
As a little side story, I was very worried to find a rather forlorn looking white chick sitting low down on a branch in our villa garden. So I went to see the resident ornithologist to explain my concern. She said there was no need to worry. It was a Fairy Tern (Sternula nereis) chick. The female does not make a nest but simply lays her egg in the fork of a tree. The egg hatches with its feet sticking up. In then flips over and grabs the branch before it has fully emerged! It then stays put being feed by its parents until it is fully fledged. We spent many hours on our veranda watching the parents fly in to feed the rapidly growing chick and by the end of our weeks stay it had fledged.
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| Fairy Tern Chick |
Its back to New Zealand for my third bird, the strange North Island Kokako. (Callaeas wilsoni).In common with mainly endemic New Zealand species, the Kokako has suffered terribly from predation by introduced mammals such as stoats. The female Kokako incubates and broods her young for an extended period, typically 2 months, and is hence at particular risk. At the low point in 2000 there were some 700 birds left but intensive predator and habitat management has raised the current population to around 3000 birds. There are a few small population clusters on the mainland in predator managed areas but the main populations have again been translocated onto predator free islands.
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| Kokako |
We were again most fortunate to see the amazing Kokako during our visit to the predator free Tiritiri Matangi Island off the coast of Auckland. They first made us aware of their presence by their very striking song which has been likened to a church organ playing. They have long, strong legs and a long down-curved tail. Kokako characteristically bound and run among branches, interspersed with glides on short, rounded wings. I was stuck by how ungainly and difficult their short flights were, I suspect that they are well on the way to being flightless.
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| Kokako |
In common with the Takahe, the Kokako had a South Island counterpart (Callaeas cinereus)
and herein lies a strange and mysterious tale! The extinct (or is it) South Island Kokako was near identical to its northern cousin but had orange rather than blue wattles. Its conservation status is listed as data deficient which seems a rather strange way of saying we don’t know if it is extinct or not. It was declared extinct in 2007 as the last authenticated sighting was in 1967. However a sighting by two birders later in 2007 was accepted as genuine by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Since then it has become the stuff of legend with various sightings and reports of calls being listed as possible or probably. If it is still with us, the first person to get a photo will be certainly be famous! Click here for more on this fascinating story.
Today’s bird, the forth in my photo challenge, is the Amur Falcon(Falco amurensis). It is not globally rare, in fact it is comparatively common in northern China, but it is a very rare bird indeed in western Europe in general and the UK in particular. It is the far eastern cousin of the Red-footed Falcon, itself a rare visitor to these shores with a small handful of records each year.
Prior to 2017 the first and only UK record of this falcon was an anonymous bird that stayed for a month in a Yorkshire nature reserve in the autumn of 2008. Why anonymous? It was incorrectly identified as a first summer male Red-footed Falcon during its stay and was only identified from pictures taken towards the end of its stay after it had left. These revealed it was moulting into its diagnostic white axillaries and underwing coverts characteristic of an Amur Falcon.
Fast forward to 6thJuly 2017 and Polgigga near Land’s End in Cornwall for a report of a probable first summer female Amur Falcon. The curse of work, now thankfully no longer a problem, stopped me going on the first two days it was found and then it did a bunk!
On July 17thI was in a hide at Slimbridge when RBA informed me that the bird had been relocated at St Buryun near to Polgigga, where it went in the intervening ten days nobody knowns. Cue a quick call to Carolyn for forgiveness and then a mad dash to Cornwall. I stopped just onto the A30 for a comfort break and checked RBA, horror of horrors it had bogged off again! Fortunately I decided to continue my journey and it was soon relocated. On arrival I abandoned rather than parked my car and ran to its last reported spot only to be told it had been showning well on some electricity wires but had just flown off! After a thoroughly uncomfortable 15 minutes it reappeared and perched in a hedge – birding hell to heaven in no time flat! I had views of it flying and perching up for the next hour or so when, towards the end of the afternoon, it flew off over St Buryun and was never seen again. Sometimes, just sometimes, this hobby delivers the truly spectacular which makes all those dips just about bearable!
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| Amur Falcon |
So for my fifth and final bird I’m unashamedly off to my very favourite part of the world again, New Zealand, for the world’s only alpine parrot, the endearing and endangered Kea(Nestor notabilis). There are eight surviving parrot species in New Zealand all of which are endemic, i.e. they can be found nowhere else in the world. There are sadly a further three endemic parrots which have become extinct since the arrival of Europeans.
Unfortunately, the traits that kea developed for survival, their curiosity and omnivorous appetite, have created conflict with humans over the last 150 years. Persecution and predation have sorely depleted their numbers with only a few thousand birds now remaining.
We met the Kea when we were driving over Arthur’s pass in the mountains of the South Island. They are very very inquisitive and combined with their omnivorous appetite it is best to avoid eating outside in areas where they are present!
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| Kea |
My portrait picture is a Juvenile Kea characterised by its yellow eye ring and orange yellow lower beak. We saw this bird in a small car park on the mountain road and immediately pulled over. It’s curiosity made photography problematic in a very amusing way as every time I pointed the camera in its direction it started walking towards me forcing me to walk backwards away from it so I could focus on it. This strange dance was rudely interrupted when a gentleman, who I think was Chinese, arrived to also look at the bird. There were “DO NOT FEED THE KEA!” notices up everywhere but this unfortunate chap either didn’t see them or could not read them and, before I could stop him, he wound down his window and held out food on his hand. The Kea needed no further encouragement and flew straight into the car resulting in all hell breaking loose. The driver ran out of his car and the Kea flew off seemly none the worse for the experience!
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