EARLY BIRDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 248, 16 September 1933, Page 11

EARLY BIRDS

SIBERIAN GODWITS. MONTH AHEAD OF “SCHEDULE.” DARGAVILLE, Sept. 15. What is thought by local residents to have been the main body of godwits arriving from Siberia was witnessed on Monaay afternoon between four and five o’clock. They came from a southerly direction in perfect formation, with a few scouts flying ahead. They passed over Dargaville, and, when some distance to the north, executed a turning movement, wheeling in formation and passing south along the coast, where they came lower, apparently to settle upon the extensive mud-

flats of Kaipara Harbour. Mr P. J. Sumlberg, who watched the flight for about an hour, until the birds passed southwards out of sight, says in all his experience, and he has seen flights of birds on the continent of Europe—he has never witnessed such a huge flock. What surprised him, too, was the apparent indecision of the birds in returning to pass south again. The turning movement took some time. Mr Sundberg’s chief regret is that apparently no one has taken a photgraph of the flight. Others who saw the birds state that they appeared to bo flying slowly as though tired. The godwits are about a month earlier, than Usual. Captain Savident, who was until recently harbourmaster at Te Kopuru, records that the main body usually returns to New Zealand between October 11 and 16, and that the birds have generally been very regular in their arrival.