Society seeks riverbed bird

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32425, 12 October 1970, Page 14

Society seeks riverbed bird

Thirteen members of the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Ornithological Society spent most of yesterday searching the riverbed of the lower Rakaia River for signs of a bird which normally breeds in the area at this time of year. The bird, the Wrybilled Plover, breeds in the shingle beds of Canterbury rivers, then flies north to Auckland and the Firth of Thames for winter, before returning south’ about August. The members of the society, who used three jet boats to take them to the shingle islands, saw only one bird all day. The secretary of the society’s Christchurch branch, Mr J. Hilton, said last evening that the weather had been unsuitable for sighting the birds, and that they had probably not started breeding because of recent floods in the rivers.

Another observation trip would be made early in November, he said. The area searched was from the mouth of the Rakaia to about 10 miles upstream of the bridge over the Main South Road. The bird was seen just north of the bridge. A giant petrel with a wingspan five feet from tip to tip has been seen about 60 yards off Scarborough by a Christchurch bird-watcher, Mr G. Tunnicliffe. The bird might have been sheltering from a storm, as it was not usually seen so close in, except in Lyttelton Harbour, said Mr Tunnicliffe.