Do Gannets Nest In Caswell Sound?

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14930, 18 March 1949, Page 6

Do Gannets Nest In Caswell Sound?

Birds Observed From A Distance May Be A Small Colony In That Region The question of whether gannets nest in the Caswell Sound area has been posed by the fact, that in recent months several gannets have been seen around the Sound, although no close observation of their movements has been possible.

The main nesting-ground for New Zealand gannets is at Cape Kidnappers, near Napier. About a year ago some were discovered by Dr R. A. Falla, director of the Dominion Museum on Little Solander Island. When the launch Alert was at Caswell Sound last week Dr Robert Cushman Murphy, head of the bird department of the American Museum of Natural History, and one of the world’s leading ornithologists, saw two gannets from a distance, but he was unable to say without closer observation whether the birds were New Zealand gannets or the Tasmanian type. Dr Murphy is to consult Dr Falla when he returns north this week, and it is possible that, arrangements will be made to study the birds at closer range. Whether the. birds are actually nesting in this area will not be known until these observations are made .It may be that they are merely a few birds tnat have been carried across the Tasman by winds. But the fact that they have been seen, on several occasions bv reliable observers tends to lend strength to the belief that there may he a small colony somewhere in the Sounds region.