RINGED BIRDS RECOVERED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28897, 18 May 1959, Page 12

RINGED BIRDS RECOVERED

Society Records Long - Flights

Some very interesting recoveries of ringed birds had been made, the annual meeting of the New Zealand Ornithological Society was told.

A record total of 8448 birds were ringed during the year, bringing the total number of birds ringed by the society to 40,600. The 47 varieties ringed were also a record, and brought the total to 76 varieties. One of the outstanding recoveries was of a Cape pigeon ringed in January, 1938, by a German whaling ship in the Weddell Sea. It had been caught and released again at the Tory Channel whaling station in August, 1958, 20 years and 7000 miles later. Eight giant petrels ringed between February and April, 1958, as chicks in the Signey islands in the South Orkneys were recovered in New Zealand, 6000 miles away, in July and October, the meeting was told. One royal albatross ringed as an adult by a fishing vessel off Cape Campbell in October, 1957, was recovered dead in Huoicolla, a small fishing village in Chile, in September, 1958. A sooty albatross found breeding on Campbell island in December, 1942, was found breeding there 16 years later, in 1959.

Some Cape pigeons ringed in New Zealand also set up good records. One ringed as an adult off Cape Campbell in June, 1957, was found dead in the Mauritius islands 14 months later, while another ringed at the whaling station in Tory Channel in July, 1958, was found breeding on Paterson island, Wilkes Land, Antarctica, in December.

The following were elected to fill the three vacancies in the society’s officers:—Mrs L E. Walker was elected as South Island vice-president, and Messrs A. Blackburn . (Gisborne) and J. C. Draper (Auckland) to fill vacancies on the Dominion council.