Strange Voices.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20456, 8 November 1934, Page 6

Strange Voices.

Nature Notes.

By

James Drummond.

F.L.S., F.Z.S. ATR J. M. AITKEN. of Hamilton, has X duties that call him out of doors in the early morning. For a few weeks every year at this time, from about T a m. onwards. he hears the notes of birds that fly overhead. Their line of flight, roughly, is between the Pirongia Range, near Hamilton, and the Mamaku Range, inland towards Rotorua. Both have large areas of forest.

The birds are never seen, as they fly high, even on clear moonlight mornings. The notes, repeated continually, seem to Mr Aitken to resemble the notes of the harrier hawk. Some people believe that the birds are swans. His opinion is that they are kakas.

JThey probably are petrels that have homes in deep burrows near the tops of mountains. They may be black petrels. These voyagers and dwellers in the mountains dig burrows in high places on the Little Barrier Island, and occupy Te Moehau and other small northern islands. Many favour coastal cliffs, prominences and headlands on the mainland. Some go inland to the Waitakerei Mountains, near Auckland, to the Rimutakas and other Wellington ranges, and to unfrequented peaks west of Nelson. Black petrels have been seen as far south as Jackson’s Bay. South Westland, but they like the. North Island more than the South Island. A few years ago three black petrels were caught on Galapagos Islands, which lie on the Equator, off the coast of Ecuador. It is now thought that members of the species may migrate north from New Zealand regularly. If this is so. they follow the example of another petrel, the New Zealand mutton bird. This species is not plentiful in Australian waters, but ranges as far north as Labrador. Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Kamchatka and Alaska.