IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 78

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

B y

A SUMMER VISITOR.

J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

Sixty years ago the H 0.,. G. J, Garland, M.L.C., who often has stood and watched godwits in their wonderful flights, noted that a few stragglers, instead of taking part in the annual migration from New Zealand to Siberia, stay. 1 behind and frequented mud flats and the margins of tidal swamps in Manukau Harbour. Lsually only a solitary laggard was seen. Sometimes he saw two or three together, but never a flock. The failure of some godwits to join the out-ward-bound hosts has been recorded by otner observers: but Mr Garland now states that knots, which also are shore birds, and which also come from Siberia, and return there again, occasionally miss the bus in the autumn and stay in New Zealand during the winter, waiting for the following autumnal migration to the far north.

Mr Garland states that some knots come to New Zealand with the godwits. They seem to be sucked into the godwits’ U-shaped formation. Only a few knots stay behind in New Zealand: “ A few odd birds which appear to fret and .inc for the time when their mates will come back to New Zealand from over the seas.” A rough sketch by Mr Garland shows that the godwits in their flight make a perfect immense U, lying flat, the bottom of the U advanced, the sides trailing out behind. The godwits cluster thick and close at the bottom of the U, that is, at the front part of the formation, fewer and more open at the sides. The knots are inside the U, near the bottom, protected from the wind by the massed godwits, and occupying a position of comparative ease and comfort on the journey. Mr Garland has seen large flocks of godwits depart from New Zealand, but never was close enough to discover if knots occupy the same position amongst them on departure as on arrival.

The close association of knots and godwits in their flights is not mentioned in records of observations in these birds' northern homes. Tn South Carolina knots have been seen mingling freely with turnstones. sandpipers, and golden plovers, all shore birds that visit New Zealand annually. Another American account describel knots flying in compact flocks, somewhat swiftly. When knots were on the list of North American game birds a shooting party near Cobb Island saw them fly along a beach at the edge of th« surf, the migrants stopping to feed on mud fiats exposed by'the faling tide, the kind of site knots favour in New Zealand. 1 he sun bad not risen when decoys wore set close to the breaking waves. The blind was made of seaweed.

Before the members of the party were settled the first flock passed by high up. A pair dropped out and flew in front of the party. After a minute 10 more swung in. Flock after flock, from a few birds to hundreds, passed in the same line, coming into sight over the ocean, striking the beach and following its edge, now low just over the surf, now high up. the first light of sunrise giving them a black appearance. The flight was undulating. It could be noted when the dark line first appeared. It soon was out of sight in the waves, but suddenly rose over the decoys to circle in. Arriving to alight at decoys at Cape Cod. Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts, they hardly touched the sand with their feet before they discovered their mistake and were off in a second. They flew quickly and close together, usually passed the decoys down wind, most of the flock whistling, suddenly wheeled with heads to the wind and up to the decoys, many being killed by one discharge from a gun.

Very shy and difficult to take on the wing is Mr Garland's experience of the knots. They seem to be shyer at some seasons than at others. Unless greatly harassed, they are not as vigilant as their companions the plovers, but when they become shy they are very wary and always on the alert for danger. Driven from mud flats by advancing tides, they seek marshes or shoals sufficiently high to allow them to remain uncovered during high water. They frequent the crests of beaches. There they usually remain quiet until the falling tide allows them to return to the mud flats for food. They are somewhat deliberate on the ground, and usually group in compact bunches, all moving together. About six of them have been seen hopping on one leg in shallow water, taking part, apparently, in a sort of game in vogue with many shore birds. The male’s life is a challenge, not a truce, in the nesting season. It then goes forth against all other male knots, and all other birds that come within its domain. With a short, sharp note, up it flies to chase the intruder violently. It returns fluting triumphantly, circles around the nest several times, and drops to its sitting mate.

Mr Garland may recall and publish his recollections of the knot’s notes. American observers have described them interestingly. The flight note is compared to a low-pitched whistle, often it. two parts, with a peculiar lisp or buzz in it. 'T’he mating and nesting season is characterised by four distinct notes. The commonest are two piercingly shrill calls,

usually uttered on the wing, somewhat alike, but easily distinguished. The soft flute-note, coo-a-hec, is uttered not only in flight but also when nests are hidden back amongst the hills, far from the shore. Ihe fourt h note is a sharp, querulous whit, whit, whit, almost like a cluck, often uttered singly, bitt oftener repeated many times. This note expresses displeasure when nesting places are invaded.

.As Mr Garland states, neither the godwit nor the knot ha~ been known tn nesr. in New Zealand. The knot’s nesting habits were unknown for a long time. Its eggs were sought by collectors. Some 50 years ago a collector in the Arctic regions wrote: “ I passed night after night on the hilL trying to find the knot's nests. Not a day passed without my seeing them feeding in small flocks, but they were very wild, rising with shrill cries when one approached within a quarter of a mile of the mud flats on which they were feeding. It is very extraordinary, considering the hundreds of miles my companions and I—all of us on the lookout for this bird's eggs, and several of us experienced bird's-nesters —have travelled, that we found no trace of its breeding until the young in down were discovered.”

The first knot's eggs were found ny Peary in 1909 at Cape Sheridan, the base of his dash to North-western Greenland expedition to North-western Greenland in in 1910, knowing the ornithological importance of the knot's nests and eggs, searched fo- tl-.er diligently. Their task was made difficult by the fact that although the knot’s feeding grounds are level places along the shores and up the river valleys, and near pools, the nesting places are high plateaus for back amongst the hils. By this arrangement, the knot for a long time kept its nest and eggs secret. It was not until members of this expedition had persistently run down ■'very clue that they discovered two full clutches of nests on a high flat-topped ridge, at least three miles from the shore. The nests were in hollow depressions amongst rubble and gravel. They wove mere hollows, rudely shaped, apparently by the nesting birds, which, in colours, fitted their environment so well as to be almost invisible.

The knot’s popular name, apparently, is an old Anglo-Saxon word. One of its official names is Canutus, which dedicates this famous flyer to the Danish King who devastated" the cast coast of England, committed shocking atrocities, behaved arrogantly, later became pious, repentant, and humble, and, in legend, sat in a chair on the. strand and commanded the waves to retire, to show the vanity of human greatness. According to an old song the knot bears a king's name for reasons not connected with this praiseworthy demonstration of humility. It is unsentimentally called Canutus because Canute was very fond of its flesh, a taste shared by Mr Garland, who. far from the scene of Canute's illflavoured exploits, removed by 900 years from Canute’s turbulent times, describes the knot as fat and plump and excellent eating.

Knots should be arriving in New Zealand now, most of them in their winter costumes —grey cloaks, white fronts, brown streaks and freckles on the vests, wings white and brown. The summer costumes are much brighter. They are marked with chestnut on the front, head, and back, a colour that has led Americans to call this bird the redbreast. .An American observer has given a sketch of a scene on the coast of Washington in which the knots’ summer costumes showed up prettily: “The sun was low in the west, and its almost horizontal rays fell full on the breasts of the knots, as, in facing the wind, they turned towards the sun, whose light intensified the pale cinnamon of their breasts, making a beautiful sight."

A llawera resident supports an opinion expressed by a correspondent a few weeks ago that the skylark, in New Zealand, is losing qualities that have made it famous. “ For many years,” the letter from Hawera states, “ students of Nature in this Dominion have noted a change in the skylark's habits, particularly decreased quality in its song.”