TUIS SEEN IN TIMARU

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 16

TUIS SEEN IN TIMARU

(From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, July 16. Two tuis were seen in Timaru last week. They were noticed in Wai-iti Road, and Mrs C. W. Webber has several times seen one in the garden of her home in Kitchener Square. "We have a wych-hazel outside the sunroom, which is frequented by bellbirds and wax-eyes. I heard a whoosh of wings and, to my astonishment, a tui settled on the bush beside the window for several minutes,” said Mrs Webber. "The bird was within touching distance, brilliant in the bright sunshine, its lovely white tuft contrasting with the beautiful colours.” The tui returned to the garden quite often, and was content to settle in the big trees near the chapel at the Craighead Diocesan School. Mrs Webber hopes the bird has found a permanent home, and she has been enticing it with jam, apples, and honey and water. Mrs Webber has lived in Timaru for 50 years, and it was the first time she has seen a tui. “Twenty-five years ago, there were tuis in the Hunter’s Hills, and at Hook Bush, but they disappeared,” she said. The plumage of a tui is described by M. F. Soper in “New Zealand Bird Portraits,” as a “wonderful play of metallic greens, blues, violet and bronze." He refers to the bird’s song as bell-like, interspersed with various clicks, grunts, rattles,

and wheezes. “The bird also has a whispering song of very high frequency.” No tuis have been seen recently at Mount Cook National Park, but the acting chief ranger (Mr B. W Thomas) said yesterday that many years ago they had been seen in Governor’s Bush, behind the Hermitage.