GANNETS SEEN IN SOUTHERN SOUND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22887, 5 March 1949, Page 4

GANNETS SEEN IN SOUTHERN SOUND

(P.A.) DUNEDIN. Mar. 4. Do gannets nest in the Caswell Sound area? This question has been posed by the fact that on recent months several gannets have been seen around the sound, though no close observation of their movements has been possible. The main nesting ground for New Zealand gannets is Cane Kidnappers, but about a year ago some were discovered by Dr. R. A. Falla, director of the Dominion Museum, on Little Solander Island. When the launch Alert was at Caswell Sound this week Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy. United States, one of the world’s leading ornithologists, saw two gannets from a distance but was unable to say without closer observation whether the birds were New Zealand gannets or of the Tasmanian type. Dr. Murphy is to consult Dr. Falla when he returns north early next week and it is possible that arrangements will be made to study the birds at closer range. Whether the birds are actually nesting in this area will not be known till these observations are made. It may be that they are merely a few birds that have been blown off their course by high winds of the south-south-west coast, but the fact that they have been seen on several occasions by reliable observers tends to lend strength to the belief that there may be a small colony somewhere in the Founds region.