NATIVE BIRDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 138, 13 June 1929, Page 6

NATIVE BIRDS.

PLENTIFUL IN FIORDLAND.

SOME BARE ONES SEEN.

MOREPORK THE WORST PEST,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day,

A report upon the presence of native birds in the West Coast Sounds was received by the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society last night from Mr. Kenneth Sutherland.

Kiwis are plentiful on all the sea country between Doubtful Sound and George Sound, but there are not so many inland towards Te Anau.

Kakapos are to be found on all country between Doubtful Sound and the Norton arm of Lake Te Anau.

Bush wrens, pied fantails, bell birds, wood robins, tomtits, keas, kakas, native owls and ring-eyes are all plentiful. Pigeons, ground larks and black teal are all numerous, but there arc very few tuis, and only a few grey ducks.

Black swans, paradise ducks, black shags and sparrow hawks were seen. Blue ducks were not so numerous as they were seen to be in the Lake Thomson, Hawkeson and Sutherland districts in 1925; and while crested grebes were numerous in the same districts in 1920, only one was seen this year.

Black fantails arc very plentiful in Carswell Sound and Lake Marchant/also in George Sound, but very few were seen inland towards Te Anau.

Goldfinches and blackbirds were also seen.

Regarding rare birds, Mr. Sutherland said he had seen a solitary laughing owl near Lake Thomson in 1925 and also two rock wrens in high country, near the head of the north arm of Te Anau this year.

In reply to a question, he said wekas were very numerous over the whloe area he visited. He would 6ay that small bird life, in relation to the food supply, was well balanced" at the present time. He placed the morepork as the worst enemy of small birds in this stretch of country—Doubtful and George Sound to the head of the northern arm of Te Anau—and the sparrowhawk as the next. The morepork was everywhere, and through lack of rats and mice these birds' were living entirely on small birds, and must play havoc among them. The sparrowhawk was on the hunt all day long and killed great numbers of birds, especially about the lakes, where the remains of his "kills" might often be seen. There were no rats in the country, and in the five years he had visited Fiordland he had seen only two stoats or weasels. He was of the opinion that the weka was keeping this pest at bay by not only killing its young, but also the full-grown animal.