Sea Birds at Doubtless Bay

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 166, 9 April 1932, Page 18

Sea Birds at Doubtless Bay

(By

J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S.,

F.Z.S., for “The Dominion.”;

ATRIP in the launch off the shores of interesting, historical am! romantic Doubtless Bay disclosed thousands of shearwaters. Most plentiful were Forster’s shearwaters, sometimes called fluttering shearwaters. Pnffinus gavia officially, known as Pakehu to the Maoris, who, formerly, found it an acceptable item on their menu. They took the young birds and potted them in their own fat. Some islands on which these shearwaters nest were very lapu. They are often seen in flocks off the coast making themselves noticeable by their rapidly fluttering wings. They continually rose in front of Mr. Frost’s launch, shearing the water in the way suggested by their popular name. A large flock following this practice is described by Mr. Frost as exceptionally beautiful. Buller’s shearwater, Mr. Frost observed, has a different movement of the wings from Forster’s shearwater. The movement is slower and the wines are much larger. With these advantages, he understands the wide distribution of Buller’s shearwater. The range of the species is from New Zealand Io the Eastern Pacific, from Chile to California. Mr. W. R. B. Oliver. Director of the Dominion Museum, states that until recently Buller’s shearwater was regarded as one of the rarest sea-birds. The first recorded individual was found by Sir Waller Buller on Waikatme Beach, West Coast ol Wellington Province, forty-eight years ago. A short time ago. it was discovered off the coast of California. Off the east coast of the Auckland Penin sula and in the Bay of Plenty it. is plentiful. Mr. R. A. Falla found it nesting on the Poor Knights, In burrows on hilly slopes or under the roots of trees. A burrow sometimes is shared by a tuatara, bird and reptile living in tolerance. The shearwaters are members of the petrel group. Mr. Frost saw in Doubtless Bay another Petrel, the shy albatross. It nests on Bounty Island, south of the mainland, and on islands in Bass Strait, but roams parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans as far afield as Chile and Peru. In the New Zealand area it favours places south of Cook Strait, but has been seen in Hauraki Gulf aud Manukau Harbour, and at the Three Kings.

The famous wry-billed plover, the only bird known with its bill turned to one side, was seen by Mr. E. T. Frost at Doubtless Bay, North Auckland,

several weeks ago. He saw about twelve individuals in a flock. They were so friendly that he went within a few yards of them. As he states, this species known to Maoris as ngutuparore, is one of this Dominion’s ornithological curiosities. Efforts to explain the unique form of the bill—it always is bent to the right—on utilitarian principles are not satisfactory. This plover, in small flocks, visits mudflats and sand-flats on the coast and shingly river-beds inland, feeding ou creatures that live iu inter-tidal areas. As far as knowledge goes, it could search for food as easily with a straight bill as with a wry one. Mr. Frost saw the wry-bills associating with young banded dotterels, the two sashes worn across their breasts just beginning to show. Not: unusually, wry-bills associate with godwits, most famous of all the shore-birds. The godwits are spending the late summer months in New Zealand. They soon will leave for their Siberian homes. The wry-bills also are migrants, but they are not voyagers, staying in New Zealand all their lives aud migrating merely from the South Island to the North Island. They nest and rear their families in the South Island only, laying their pale green eggs, marked with small black lines and blotches, amongst the stones and shingles on river-beds. Mr. E. F. Stead reports that in Canterbury, as soon as the nesting season is over, a few of them leave the river beds and go to the shores of Lake Ellesmere and similar places. There they consort with dotterels and other plovers. At the beginning of April almost all have left for the north ol the North Island, where they spend the winter. Like banded dotterels, they return to Canterbury early in August, They begin Io nest al once, and the first young wry-bills appear in the last week of September. Although the thick growth of exotic plants, particularly lupins, is driving wry-bills from their homes on hare, shingly river-beds, Mr. Stead finds that their numbers in Canterbury are about the same as they were twenty-five years ago. The wry-bill was discovered by Qtioy and Gaimard, zoologists on the French exploring vessel Astrolabe, when it visited New Zealand .104 years ago. They found it in small flocks on mud-flats in Hauraki Gulf. Its breeding aud feeding habits were first observed by Mr. T. 11. Foils, who lived at Governor s Bay, Lyttelton Harbour, and gave much time to studying the plant and animal life of New Zealand.