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July 2007
Farwell Snoopy
The loss of Snoopy our kiwi came as a shock. Snoopy was a local
treasure known by thousands and loved by many. After over 15 years
of caring for Snoopy, it is very hard for us to start our day
without cleaning his cage in the morning and to it without feeding
him at night.
Snoopy gave so much joy to so many people and he contributed greatly
to educating school and community groups. For the many thousand
people that met and saw Snoopy it was a first time experience! The
pile of letters from the community make it is easy to see the amount
of people who were touched by Snoopy. We would like to say special
thanks to the Maunu Primary School for the lovely posters and
letters about Snoopy.
I know that showing a live kiwi publicly and allowing people to
touch it, is not always met with approval by some. However, I feel
very strongly about saving our national icon and I believe that
education has an important part to play in achieving this. Education
makes people more aware of the problems these birds face. Like
Snoopy, Sparky our five year old North Island Brown kiwi lost half
of one leg to a gin trap. Sparky will follow in the ‘foot step’ of
Snoopy the one legged kiwi and will help us to educate the
community.
Storms and birds
Some of the calls about birds in trouble during the last storm
proved very interesting. A light mantled sooty albatross was found
along Hatea Drive. After a flurry of calls about this great big
bird, we responded. Upon arrival we were amused to see a group of
cars surrounding this bird not quite knowing what to do with him
next. We brought him back to the Centre and after four days rest he
was released by two of our committee members at the Waipu river
mouth.
We have also received five hawks, a number of kingfishers, and a
range of sea birds. I often wonder how many birds are affected
during storms, there must be so many that get in to trouble and are
never found.
Sloan, our New Zealand falcon is settling down in his new
surroundings. Every year we receive reports of falcons in Northland,
who knows, perhaps they are returning. Sloan can still be hard to
see at times but if you visit the Centre we can get him to stand on
the perch at the front of his pen. With so few people knowing what a
falcon looks like this is a good opportunity to see one up close. We
do get some reports of falcons, if you see one or think you have,
let us know.
The foul weather conditions can create a food shortage for small
birds. Many birds will feed off the ground when they are hungry and
can often be caught by cats and other animals. When a bird gets
really wet it can loose most of its waterproofing ability, making it
hard to escape from predators. After bad weather, feeding stations
are often the best way to provide a safe feeding haven for birds. If
you would like to know how to make feeding stations, give us a call.
Want to contact us?
We are still getting calls from people wanting to know the correct
address for the Centre. To save any more troubles we will now put
the address, phone number and website at the bottom of every column.
Hope this helps.
Robert & Robyn Webb |
Other Issues:
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
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April 2007
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December 2006
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