ENHS Nature Trails December 2001 Article 4

Rare Bird Stories
by Reida Kimmel

Eric Schabatach and Nora Terwilliger say that when they think of New Zealand they think of birds, most especially royal albatrosses, penguins, and kiwis. Visiting the South Island of New Zealand in the season corresponding to our March, they saw royal albatrosses in their breeding grounds on the Otago Penninsula near Dunedin. Not only are these birds spectacular because of their vivid markings and their enormous [over 10 feet] wingspan, but they have a remarkable breeding cycle. Mating for life, the birds nest in early November. The female lays a single egg weighing over a pound. Both parents incubate the egg, which takes eleven weeks to hatch. The parents then guard and feed the chick for approximately three hundred days before leaving to spend a year at sea. In their last weeks of tending the chick, the parents put it on a "diet." Being a little hungry encourages the plump chick to wander about, stretching its wings, practicing flapping. It was at this stage of development that Nora and Eric were lucky enough to view these birds. Soon the chicks would take flight into the strong wind. It will be three to six years before the royal albatross young return from the sea to breed.

Of the numerous species of penguins which Eric and Nora saw, two species, the yellow crested and the yellow eyed are especially endangered. Looking at their pictures, I was impressed by the colorful markings of the different penguins as well as those of the spotted shags [cormorants]. Apparently, our "black and white" stereotyping of these seabirds needs some revision. The kiwis Nora and Eric saw also diverge from the typical, this time in behavior. On Stewart Island off the southern tip of South Island, New Zealand, Apteryx australis lawryi, a subspecies of the common kiwi, has a longer beak and legs and very different foraging habits. Instead of probing for food in the forest leaf litter, it feeds on amphipods [sandhoppers]which it finds under the kelp washed up on the beaches. Because, like other kiwis, it is nocturnal and shy, Nora and Eric had to book onto a small government authorized tour to quietly watch the kiwis feeding on the beach, illuminated only by a single flashlight. They said the kiwis looked just like brown basketballs, and their motions' probing through the seaweed reminded them of shore birds, despite the differences in the shape of the beaks. Nora suspects that this subspecies of kiwi may also forage on the forest floor, as the birds visit, but do not live, on the beach.

At practically the opposite side of the globe, on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, we Kimmels had some amazing birding luck. We had been enjoying a sunny morning and the white sand beaches and soon would be taking a two hour trip on a small open ferry to the island of Harris. We decided to make a quick stop at the Baile Raghill Bird Reserve. . . . My mind was entirely on the small flock of rare Hebridean sheep, a very ancient, dark brown horned breed which we had just driven past. Washing up in the ladies room, I heard a very loud "crex crex" repeated, annoyingly, often. "Oh good, I thought, they have an informative video on the corncrake in the visitors centre." I caught up with Chuck who was staring into a rough pasture. "There's a corncrake in there, but nobody can see him." We looked and looked, very patiently. The male kept calling. Finally we saw it. Even though it was standing still in the sunlight, this member of the rail family was almost impossible to see. One of Britain's rarest birds, it has been a victim of modern agriculture. Its former habitat all over the British isles has been ploughed and planted to grain, or mowed early and often, or merely overgrazedby sheep. Only in the "worthless" pasture lands called machair by the locals, windy and wet year around, which lie in the Hebrides and western Ireland can the corncrake find the rough, mixed species pasture and undisturbed nesting sites that it needs to survive. In the past year Britain has experienced floods, followed by erosion and landslides . The foot and mouth epidemic devastated the flocks in the more intensively grazed regions. Now there is some serious discussion of changing agricultural policies to avoid overstocking pastures. Perhaps gentler farming practices could aid the corncrake to expand its present range. Meanwhile, we bumbling birders were ever so happy to have had the opportunity to see a corncrake.

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