"Free Tenants of Earth, Air and Ocean"-

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 17

" Free Tenants of Earth, Air and Ocean "-

Isles of the Blest —Bird Life in Hauraki Gulf — “Mother Carey’s Chickens ” —Flight of Blue Heron Protecting the Nocturnal Kiwi

Written for THE SUN by ERIC RAMSDEN.

Coastline Sanctuaries Auckland Enthusiast’s Important Discovery — “Charlie Chaplins of Antarctic ” Home of the Tuatara

_____ HE majority of us school days. The more serious for attention, and, regrettable as it m ay be, bird-nesting invariably goes by the board. Not so, however, with Mr. R. A. Falla, that enthusiastic young Auckland bird lover. Though he hunts on a much larger scale than most of us ever contemplated, the “finds" are even more absorbing than when he scaled the trees of his neighbourhood in search of the eggs of more humble fry than the sea birds in which he now specialises. No portion of the New Zealand coast offers a more suitable nursery for these tireless wanderers than the Gulf of the Hauraki, a natural playground for the Aucklander-born—man or bird. In fact, Mr Falla describes the whole north-eastern coastline, from the North Cape to the East Cape, as a veritable sea-bird paradise. Here birds of every kind make their home. Particularly do they delight, however, in the deep sheltered inlets and the countless pohutukawa fringed islets of our own magnificent gulf. R. A. Falla is a young man who is making a name for himself in a realm

which he has made peculiarly his own. The study of sea-birds has, to a

large extent, been a neglected field of research. In drawing attention to this section of our feathered kingdom, Mr. Falla is doing a valuable work. A crowded attendance one sight at the University College not so long ago, to hear this New Zealand bird-lover speak of the coastal inhabitants he has so carefully observed, was eloquent testimony to his efficient spade-work. Not only is Mr. Falla endeavouring to interest young New Zealand, but from time to time he attracts the attention of officialdom in Wellington—when the welfare of his sea-bird friends demands it. Educated at the Auckland Grammar School, Mr. Falla lived in many parts of the Dominion (which, of course. Sate him full opportunity to study birdlife in many phases) before he studied •t the Auckland University College. Subsequently he taught at the Devonport School for two years, and later joined the Teachers’ Training

College as teacher and lecturer. At times he has never failed to inter€Bt young New Zealanders with whom l* e has come in contact in the subject has so much at heart.

The Auckland coastline is dotted islands which the Government has proclaimed as sanctuaries. Many tre equal interest to the ethnologist

as -well as the nature student. Some are dotted with notable examples of Maori fortification; and the Maori was a skilled engineer when it came to the study of this phase or warfare. Save for the screech of the seabirds, however, they are, in the main, uninhabited. Occasionally a fisherman plug-plugs his way in his launch around them. Otherwise they remain, gems in a perfect setting, much as they have been for the last ceu-

tury. To bird life in general liiese islets of the blest have been a perfect God-send.

A meeting place for sea-birds of every kind, on the Auckland coast, may be seen such an unusual sight as a member of the Antarctic family of penguins sitting beside the blue reef-

horn of Polynesia. The harbour-lov-ing gull meets on friendly footing the tiny Mother Carey’s chickens, whose path is the stormy wastes of the ocean, beyond the flicker of coastal lights.

“Mother Carey’s Chickens,” says Mr. Falla, is an old sailor's name for members of the storm petrel family,

winch is represented in our waters by the species known as the white-faced storm petrel—a bird most likely to be overlooked by the visitor to the seabird home of the Hauraki. A small wooded islet marked on the

chart as a rock, its rugged base fringed with masses of giant kelp heaving in the swell, is the ancestral home of these wanderers. The frail white egg, with its faint pink pencillings at the larger end, is laid in the bottom of a small burrow in damp peaty earth. Here the female bird sits in darkness and seclusion for a month. There is nothing to tell the intruder, for instance, that beneath his feet, a few inches down, are hundreds of crouching birds with delicate eggs —nothing save the faint musky odour of oil with which countless generations of petrel have permeated the earth. But at night the scene is changed. As darkness falls, myriads of tiny bat-like forms flit silently in from the sea, tumble through the bushes to the ground, and then scramble awkwardly along, each without the slightest hesitation, making straight for one particular burrow. On the threshold of his home the newcomer breaks into an excited, wheezy song. For a moment he awaits the reply of the occupant. Then—into the burrow he dives. The breadwinner, away since dawn, has much to tell of his day’s journeyings. All petrels are true ocean birds. Several other interesting members of this group visit our shores either for breeding purposes, or during migration. Shearwaters, blue dove petrels, and several nocturnal species uttering weird cries overhead at night, are among the visitors. Winter callers include the majestic albatross, mollyhawks, "nellies,” and conspicuouslydappled “cape pigeons,” flocks of

which are frequently met off shore. Quaint and interesting are the penguins. Their natural element is the water; in it they are as much at home as fish. But they cannot rear a family on the bosom of the ocean.

Like the petrels, they must come ashore for the nesting season. The penguins have been called “solemn little men in dress suits”; that was

away back in IS4O, when Sir James Ross Clark visited the Antarctic. A more recent expedition referred to them as the “Charlie Chaplins of the Antarctic.” The order of birds to which pen-

guins belong, according to Mr. Falla, is not confined to the Antarctic continent. All the desolate sub-Antarctic islands are inhabited by hundreds of

penguins of different species—gentoos, rockhoppers, royals and several crested species. One or two kinds frequent the more temperate seas, one of them being the little blue-penguin of New Zealand and Australia. The

breeding season extends usually from August until January Nesting colonies of gannets on the Auckland coast are invariably inter-

esting. With the exception of that at Cape Kidnappers they are all on islands. The nests are spaced only a foot or two apart. When sitting, the gannets seldom leave the nests unless forcibly removed. So the visitor is able to come to close quarters with these birds in a manner quite impossible with other species. For six weeks the parents share the duty of incubation. The newlyhatched chick is helplessness and ugliness personified. The shag or cormorant is a decidedly less popular relative. An awkward appearance, unrefined habits, and a rather abnormal appetite for fish, are of no assistance to the good name of this bird. Although not as common as they once were, shags are still, however, a prominent feature of coastal bird life, and are represented by five species. A bird wil h all the grace that the shag lacks is the blue heron, or matuku of the Maori, a fisherman of the rock pools and estuaries. The matuku may be distinguished by the slaty blue of its plumage, humped back, curved neck, and long legs and bill. The nests are often found in caves.

Auckland harbours and coastline generally would indeed be dull if it were not for the gull family. What is daintier than the little mackerel gull in silver grey and white and legs and beak of coral? Yet his eye is hard, his voice harsh, and his nature suspicious and quarrelsome. The

black-backed gull or karoro is another familiar harbour-bird. Twice as large as the makora, it is more powerful and less noisy. Our commonest representative of the great tern family, known in many parts of the world as the “sea swallow,” because of its grace of wing and shapeliness, is the white-fronted tern. The deck of an old hulk in Auckland Harbour is one popular nesting place with this bird. Coal, iron, and rope are scraped together by the birds, in order to prevent the j eggs from rolling about. Shorebirds or waders are found principally on the extensive tidal flats of shallow harbours or estuaries. Some of them, the dotterels, stilts, and oyster-catchers, perform only short local migrations. But the majority —knots, sandpipers, godwits and golden plovers—are with ns only from October until April, when they leave for the Northern Hemisphere. Sometimes they even go as far afield as the Arctic Circle.

Mr. Falla's investigations were rewarded a year or so ago by the discovery of the breeding place of Buller's shearwater at Poor Knights Island—an event of such interest to New Zealand and Australian ornithologists that it was recorded in "The Emu,” their official publication published in Melbourne. Although these islands off the Auckland coast were visited and briefly described by Captain ~k in 1769, they have remained practically unvisited since. Their bare and uninviting aspect from the sea have deterred both scientists and pleasure-seekers. Buller's shearwater was first described from a male exampl - picked up by Sir Walter Buller in ISB4 on the Waikanae beach, near Well!' jton. Since that time only half a dozen specimens have been taken in New Zealand seas, including two from the Mokohinau Islands, 20 miles to the south-east of the Poor Knights, and one from Cuvier Island lighthouse, another 40 miles south-east. The birds taken in New Zealand are identical with specimens in the British Museum, the Rothschild Museum, and at Point Pinos, California.

Describing the discovery of the nest Mr. Falla says: “The first burrow examined, on an islet on the eastern side of the group, was about 12 feet above high-water mark, in hard soil, underneath a ledge of rock. It was only two feet in length, and the bird could be seen sitting head downwards. Unlike several handled later, she offered very little resistance when removed from the egg.”

The Tuatara lizard is another inhabitant of the islands off the Auckland coast, who has been observed by Mr. Falla. This ancient aristocrat, whose lineal descent can be traced back to the Permian Era, is now confined to a comparatively small radius.

The tuatara is frequently to be found in or near the burrow of nesting petrels. On the Poor Knights it favours —and troubles—Buller's rhearwater with its company. Tuataras were found by Mr. Falla and his par-y at the entrance to many of the burrows, or just inside, and although no resentment was shown by the shearwaters at the intrusion of these creatures, the reptile seemed unwilling to approach a sitting bird even when hard pressed to find a place

of refuge. He came to the conclusion, however, that when the nestlings were very young the tuatara included a few in his limited diet. Both North Island and South Island grey kiwis have been liberated on the Little Barrier Island. The caretaker reports that they have quite established themselves there. The prospects for their preservation seem fairly bright. The bird is still found in many parts of the North Island, and in some portions of the North ! Auckland peninsula it is even plentiful. Although on the mainland kiwis | will always be at the mercy of tlogr I to some extent, on the island sanc- ! tuaries they are comparatively safe. Unfortunately there are no huias I left in any of our sanctuaries, though it is quite likely, says Mr. Falla, that a few pairs still survive. Much rough I country in the Ruahine, Kaimanawa and Tararua Ranges has yet to be explored. The huia was last reported in the I forests of the upper reaches of the Wanganui as far back as 1907.