MUTTON BIRDS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LVII, Issue 9901, 13 October 1928, Page 3

MUTTON BIRDS

Visitors to Wakapatu beach recently witnessed a very interesting happening, says a writer in Southland Times, when thousands of muttonbirds drove a school of sardines into the bay and fed on them. It was impossible to estimate the number of birds; the sea was black with them and the sky also. Maoris and fishermen in the district state that they never before saw so many birds so cTose, m shore. About noon some thousands of birds were setlted on the water about half-a-mile from the shore, while a stream of birds came flying from the direction of Tewaewae Bay, and continued to come until about 3.30 in the afternoon when the excitement reached its height. The birds had the sardines cornered at the west end of the bay near the Maori kaik. Half a dozen small islands stand off the shore at this spot, and these broke up the school of fish which the muttonbirds would otherwise have driven ashore. As it was. from rime to time the birds would follow the small shoals of fish up on to the sand, where the picknickers filled their baskets. Among the rocky islands, where the fish attempted to take refuge, the birds appeared to reap the richest harvest. Spectators were afforded a splendid view of the fun from the shore. As the birds caught sight of a shoal dozens would suddenly dive into the sea from a considerable height, making a great splash with a noise resembling a violent hailstorm. Bator in the afternoon the birds settled on the . water, making it black for miles out to sea. Seagulls and petrels' flew about on the outskirts of the muttonbirds, picking up what they could, and when they settled down, a dozen or more shags made fnonappearance, all anxious to share in the feast.