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September 2007
With the bad weather
nearly over and the wild bird chick season starting, I think the
last two months of ‘quiet’ is quickly coming to an end.
Bird news…
A bittern from Kawakawa discovered that flying low and hitting a
Police car was not such a good idea. The Police Officer didn’t
charge the bird with reckless driving and kindly delivered the
injured bittern to the Recovery Centre here in Whangarei. The birds
from Kawakawa must be made of sturdy stuff because after a week of
recovery he was ready to return home for release.
The storm two weeks ago saw 15 grey faced storm petrels, one
shearwater and one prion take shelter on a ship anchored off the
entrance to Whangarei Harbour waiting for the strong winds and seas
to settle before entering the port. From the storm three petrels
died and all the others were released. These birds were brought in
by MAF. This just shows that when we all work as a team the results
are very rewarding. A big ‘thanks’ to Brian from MAF.
Last week we received a young giant petrel from Kaitaia. He was
found on Ninety Mile Beach by DOC. After spending a week with us
(eating us out of house and home), we delivered him to the people at
Dive Tutukaka who were happy to take him out to the Poor Knights for
release. At least he had his own flippers! It just goes to show that
the team from Dive Tutukaka can teach anyone to enjoy swimming at
the Knights.
Chick season…
With the chick season just starting it’s a good time to remind
children not to disturb nests. Each year we receive quite a few
nests full with chicks that are pulled from trees, which are then
taken home to be looked after by well intentioned children. However,
adult birds can do a far better job at looking after chicks than we
can. It can also be very disturbing for the birds to see their
chicks being taken away or to return to an empty tree. It takes many
hours of feeding and cleaning to hand rear just one bird. Often
children discover they can’t care for the birds, and then they end
up here. More birds at the Centre means more time and more space. It
creates more work for the Centre and ties up cages for 2-3 weeks. So
please, we urge parents to discourage their children from taking
nest from trees. However, if your child does bring a bird home, give
us a call and we can advise you of what should be done. Some birds
may even be able to be put back.
Sparky…
Sparky our kiwi is progressing very well. Last week we visited
Seaview Retirement Park. I placed Sparky on some newspaper beside a
small dish of food and as soon as I placed the dish in front of him
he started eating. In most cases, if a bird starts eating while
people are around it shows the bird is not stressed. We are taking
it slowly with Sparky. At this stage we will not be visiting any
schools but we will review this early next year.
Visiting the Centre…
From now until February next year we will receive many protected
birds. With the breeding season upon of us many of these birds will
be chicks. Rest is what most of them need, and this is part of the
reason we are closed on weekends. All of the birds need quality time
out. If you visit the Centre on a weekend and Robyn and I are here
we do open the gate so visitors can have a look around. The birds
must come first though and because too much stress can be hard on
them the only new birds we show are ones that can cope being near
humans.
A good deed…
The other day I was following a car into Tikipunga. The car stopped
suddenly, a lady got out and removed a dead duck that was on the
road. I stopped and thanked her for doing this; she then pointed out
that if she didn’t there would soon be a dead hawk beside it. This
is not the first time I have seen a member of the public removing
dead birds off the road, it great to see.
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
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006 |
