STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 23292, 14 June 1939, Page 2

STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

EXPEDITION TO PORT PEGASUS The habits of many of the sea birds at Port Pegasus, Stewart Island, where he spent a mouth recently, were described by Mr L. E. Richdale in a lecture which he gave to members of the . Otago branch of the Royal Society and the Dunedin Naturalists ’ Field Club last night. His address was illustrated with .slides, the photographs being obtained after a great deal of' patience from specially constructed “hides,” and as a result he was able to photograph birds from close range as they fed, sat on their nests, or attended to their young., ’There were few of the sea birds which haunt Pegasus which did not come within the scope of Mr Richdale’s address, and by means of the camera and personal observation he had much to tell of shags, terns, penguins, nmttonbirds, oyster-catchers,_ skua gulls, dottrells, wekas, and kiwis. The skua, he said, was lord of the island, preying on smaller birds and refusing refuge or food to any other kind which tried to approach the rock or islet on which he had planted himself. Some of the smaller petrels, weighing perhaps an ounce and a-half, were swallowed whole, larger birds being half-plucked before being eaten by the predatory gull. One of the most interesting birds was the blue shag. It had at one time been practically extinct, hut had reappeared about 1930, and he had seen numbers at Pegasus. It was closely akin to the spotted shag seen in Dunedin. “ Nellies,” which Ejected black, smelly oil when disturbed, and black oystercatchers, with their red bills and legs, were described by Mr Richdale, who showed some remarkable photographs taken at close range of both birds, the latter kind being shown on the nest with its young. Mr Richdale was accorded a vote of thanks. „