THE JUNIOR SECTION*

Forest and Bird, Issue 173, 1 August 1969, Page 18

THE JUNIOR SECTION*

Willie Wagtail, the New Zealand Pipit

THE New Zealand pipit is one of our more friendly birds and has endeared itself to many people with its habit of wagging its tail up and down. The following notes on the pipit have been supplied by Mrs A. Lau, who acknowledges references from Mrs P. Moncrieff’s book “New Zealand Birds and How To Identify Them”.

The New Zealand pipit is a native bird and is distributed widely through all types of open country, fernland, low scrub, sandhills, beaches, and tussock country, both in the lowland and in the mountains. Its upper body is brownish grey tinged with yellow, and the tail feathers are dark brown with whitish edgings. The under parts are white tinged with brown. It has spots on the breast and a band of brown across the eye. In the nesting season it is found in pairs, but in autumn and winter it gathers in flocks.

The main food of the pipit is insects, and it feeds on the ground, including the seashore, carefully searching all places where insects arc likely to be.

The distinguishing features of this bird are the bobbing of its tail and its call, the usual notes being “O, pipit, pipit” running together. As the bird descends to ground from flight the call is more of a trill. The flight is wavy and rapid, the bird often flying up in a scries of jerks.

The pipit, which runs well and sometimes hops, never frequents woods, and it seldom perches on trees or scrub. Its nest is made on the ground, and it often selects a steep hillside or cliff for it.

More friendly and slender than the skylark, the pipit has a charming habit of alighting on the ground in front of a car and then running ahead until overtaken, when it will take flight and repeat the performance further on. Many people tell of the friendliness of the pipit; so if you ever find one of their nests guard your secret most carefully. It is important not to touch the eggs, as the birds may leave them. You can easily hide yourself and observe them from some distance awav.

ALONG THE TRACK

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Richmond, Nelson— When we were driving along near the mud flats'of the Waimea Estuary, about 10 miles from Nelson, recently we noticed a large white bird standing on a gnarled tree stump projecting from the mud. It was unmistakably a white heron. We stopped for a moment and admired its beautiful form. Nearby white-faced herons were stalking across the mud, but they were much smaller and less attractive than the, white heron. We then drove on and turned inland where there were dairy farms on either side of thei road. About i mile along the road we noticed two white birds feeding in a paddock. Immediately we thought that they were two more white herons, but on a closer look we saw'that they were smaller. Feeding with them was a white-faced heron, which

was slightly larger than the other two birds, which had yellowish bills. I decided that they were cattle egrets; they were similar to pictures I had seen of these birds in Australia and parts of Africa. My father told me later that cattle egrets had been reported recently on the Waimea Plains. Simon Walls,' 13 years Taupo— One day Daddy and I went to the airport in Taupo. We went into the hanger and a little bird fell down from the roof. I picked it up and took it home. We put the bird in a box in the airing cupboard and gave it bread soaked in warm milk. Next morning it was chirping away merrily and I took it to school, where I was told it was. a baby sparrow. We cared for it until it was strong enough to fly away. John Robinson, 7 years

Stoke — In May I went with Dad to do some bird watching in Riwaka Valley. I had not gone far into the bush when I came across a bellbird. I managed to get within a few feet of it, but when I tried to photograph it, it flew away. I walked on and saw some white-eyes and two or three pied fantails, which I managed to photograph. When we returned home I went over to the paddock next door and photographed two black fantails. I also saw three grey warblers, two pipits, white-eyes, and goldfinches. In the Christmas holidays we went to Central Otago, where I saw a bird I could not identify. It was a bit smaller than a sparrow and jet black except for its forehead and crown, which were red. Its beak was that of a seed-eating group. The legs were long and brown-black as the beak was. Its flight was fast. —Mark Duston, 12 years Whangarei— Have you ever had the pleasure of seeing monarch butterflies, and if you have, have you ever seen thousands of them fluttering around in colourful clouds ? I witnessed this breath-taking scene recently, a most unforgettable occasion. In May I went on a bus trip with the Whangarei Branch of the Society to Tauranga Bay, a peaceful sheltered bay just east of the Whangaroa Harbour entrance, about 25 miles north-west of the Bay of Islands. On reaching the Tauranga Bay motor camp we walked round the rocks until we came to Butterfly Bay, a small sandy beach into which runs a steep pohutukawa-clad valley surrounded by towering hills of scrubby kanuka and waving grass. As we walked up this valley and into the shady glade of spreading pohutukawa trees the air became alive with the colourful gaiety of countless orange and black wings fluttering about. There werd butterflies flying about everywhere, and thousands more were resting in colourful clusters on the leaves of the lower branches of the pohutukawas. The trees looked as though they were in full bloom covered in bright orange inflorescence. If you gently shook a branch, the air became a scene of colour as hundreds of butterflies moved about amid the green trees and deep blue sky. It was certainly the sight of a lifetime to see these myriads of monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies, with their distinctive orange, black-veined wings, long black bodies, and a total wing span of almost 4 in., need little describing. They are a colourful addition to our native fauna as they gracefully flutter about our gardens. Their life cycle is well known: from the tiny egg on the leaf of a milkweed plant or “swan-plant” to the long, plump, striped caterpillar which pupates into the green chrysalis from which finally emerges the adult butterfly. All the monarch butterflies that I saw at Butterfly Bay were no doubt overwintering there, and therefore the old theory that monarch butterflies live only for a few days appears false. In an effort to find out how long they live and from where they migrate to these overwintering colonies the Auckland Museum entomologist and his helpers have been attaching small white paper tags to a forewing on hundreds of monarch butterflies. If you catch one of these tagged butterflies, record

the date and place where it was caught and its tag number accurately. Then release the butterfly again and send the information to the Auckland Museum. —Murray Munro, 14 years Hope-One morning I heard a sound and saw a bird hitting against the window. It fell to the ground. I went outside with my book “A Field Guide to New Zealand Birds” to have another look at it. The. book said it was a shining cuckoo. I put the bird inside! in a cage, and soon it began to eat. One of our neighbours brought over some woolly caterpillars for it to eat. I looked after the bird for a few days until it was well again, then I let it out of the cage, and it flew away. —Steven thorn, 8 years

* Sponsored by the J. R. McKenzie Trust