"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something" 

Henry David Thoreau

Day 139: Kokako monitoring in the Hunuas!

The Kokako

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dkako

Had the most amazing trip with Tony and Issy! Headed off to the Hunua’s and found ourselves some Kokako!

Drove up to the Hunua’s on Thursday afternoon (Issy being the amazing driver J), through Clevedon and up Moumoukai Hill. Met a fantastic ranger – Dave, and hiked to the hut in the management zone on the edge of Hunua.

There’s something special about going to the bush. As a ‘city girl’, I’m so used to seeing roads, cars, etc. and heading to the bush is almost like a catharsis from civilisation. In there, there is nought but birdsound and a this all encompassing tranquility. The floor is littered with plant matter at varying stages of decomposition, and there is a gentle, almost ‘untouched’ sense to the place. It's a far cry from what I generally experience as the 'norm'. 

We spent the evening cooking up a gourmet dinner, then played cards, and had a long yarn. It’s amazing to see how many places people have been to – all over the North Island, Sumatra, Tanzania, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India… if there’s one thing that I want to do more of, it’s travel!

Dave is incredibly knowledgeable about the bush and nature. I’d say that learning about biology, ecology – anything, is best done when you’re ‘in the zone’.

Here’s a sample of what I picked up:

-     -   There are 247 different types of sparrow in America. (2 types in NZ)

-     -   Trap numbers are used to measure track distances – e.g. 19 traps set along the trail to the hut.

-     -   There are around 2000 Kokakos in New Zealand, and around 22 nests in the management area.

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-   -     Rats are quite shy. Un-poisoned bait (peanut butter) is laid out to acclimatise the rats to the traps, and are only baited during the nesting season.

-     -   Rats can travel up to 700m a night!

-      -  The ‘walking dead’ are rats that have been poisoned, but continue to wreak havoc in the hours before their death.

-     -   Cyanide is the best poison – and apparently, you can even eat the animal afterwards if you were so inclined. (well, logically, it only knocks out cytochrome c3 in the mitochondria..)

-       - A ‘ring of steel’ is normally laid around kokako nesting sites to reduce the risk of predators reaching the nesting site. (Ring of steel = traps)

-      -  Lebanese Halva (dessert) is primarily made out of grounded sesame seeds.

On Birds: (n.b. It’s incredibly to describe bird calls by writing…)

- Grey Warbler – extremely noisy – goes like this: La la la l aaaa-la-la –la – kind of didactic, but melodic at the same time. I’ve never seen them in Auckland before – but I hear them all the time! They were by far the noisiest birds in the bush (and city!)

- Kingfisher: Go – kree—kree—kree

- Magpie (yes – there are magpies!)… are surprisingly melodic – are highly musical, acting almost as if they sing duet.

- Tomtits – small things. Have an interesting name. 

- Bellbirds - give a bell-like peal (I initially mistook them for the kokako)

- Tui – (very common in Hunua) - make very large ‘whooshing’ sounds [incredibly noisy fliers] and sing their songs with variation – from harsh ‘crh crh crh’ to ‘do-do-dooo-do-do-do-do’

- Wood pigeon - huge, clumsy fliers - sound like the rock pigeon, but heavier. 

- Kokako (Pronounced as ‘kor-ka-ko’) makes a longer call - almost bell like. It’s sounds somewhat mournful in a beautiful way.  Flaps sporadically.

Other animals present were:  Morepork (heard at night), sparrows (two types in New Zealand, the common house sparrow, and those with a red head), goats, wild pigs (saw the holes that they dug), flies (yep), pheasants, rabbits.

There was also a lot of interesting plant life around. For example, the kawakawa can be picked, dried and used as pepper for tea, or seasoning. It’s used by the Maori as a traditional painkiller. There was also one type of fern that can be used like chick peas and added  to bread, and some other plant that is halfway between morphine and cannabis. On the hike outwards, Dave also showed us the native ‘green hooded orchid’.

Dave points out the Green Hooded Orchid

This morning, the group got up at 5:30am (It’s amazing how sunrise and bird sound at the top of a mountain can wake you up J) trekked out to the track, and listened for kokako.

As I said, there is a sense of stillness, a quiet tranquillity that lies within the bush. When one sits and simply listens, it’s almost as if whole new world suddenly opens up. The search itself felt almost like a martial art – eyes peering into the bush, ears perked up for the slightest wing flap – a flutter in the trees there, a crack of a branch…The silence was palpable – I could even hear a leaf fall from 10 metres away.

I wouldn’t have expected it, but there are in fact so many birds present in the bush that we never see. There’s also something so beautiful about the way that Dave listens for birds. He spends up to weeks at a time in the bush – twelve weeks or more, with occasional returns to the house. He’s been around for three years. It’s amazing to think that his days largely constitute of ranging in the bush, setting traps, searching for kokako nests, monitoring the activity of the kokako… He has so much patience - so much dedication. A life of nature, the bush, birds, rescue and animals…music, cooking and nature…I learnt so much about connecting with the bush just by being with him. I felt so deer-like– poised and turning my head at every sound. Dave is amazing – he can tell the direction that the noise is coming from, and how far it is.

During the next three hours,  we banded out along the ridge, moved around various locations in accordance with the kokako calls and wing flaps. We eventually found the birds around 9:30am. It happened while Dave and Tony were still walking to the next location. I had suddenly seen movement  and then - a bird flap –oh! Was it a tui? Oh my! A grey bird! Hold on - is it dark enough to be a tui? Yes! It’s definitely grey! I fumbled for the button on my radio and called the group ‘I think that I see a kokako! It’s at the tree to the right of the one that we were watching! I’m pretty sure it’s it –oh! I see two of them! They’re right in front of me!

Dave (cool and calm): ‘We’re heading on over’.

After settling around the new tree, we monitored for another twenty minutes, and saw the birds come and go. It was my first time seeing one of these birds live – they’re a tad bigger than a tui, but smaller than a wood pigeon. They look beautiful – a dusky grey/blue colour, and despite their erratic flight patterns, they look beautiful.

The Nest.

Some facts that I picked up from Dave about the kokako:

-      - Kokako are territorial, and they need  a large area to nest build. They’re not very good fliers, and the sound of their glide is more sporadic than a tuis (more powerful, and ‘motored’), and lighter than a wood pigeon (heavy and clunky, sounds clumsy).

-      -  The birds are blue/grey with bright blue wattles. In the past, there used to be a different species of kokako in the South Island with orange wattles – however, they’re now extinct. The North Island now has only a few orange wattled Kokako.

-      -  Kokako generally have only one mate (although they can ‘switch’ in the event of a death of a mate, causing a domino-like effect).

-       They have different calls, depending on the region so a translocated kokako (e.g. from Malborough) may not readily mate with a Hunua kokako, although the F1 (filial 1) generation will.

-       - Kokako nests range from 30 – 40 cm in diameter, and are generally situated 8 – 20 metres above the ground.

-       - The birds are poor fliers and will generally hop from tree to tree – or climb up to a ridge to glide down. Poor flight also means that they often enter or exit a nest from the same direction.

-       - The mating season of the Kokako is from August to October – this is generally when they sing to each other the most.  ‘tuk tuk’ noises are used for general conversation (similar to a chicken’s ‘bwk bwk’), while the ‘meow/bell/organ like’ peal is generally used as a territorial call.

-      -  The females normally nest from November onwards.

-       - During the nesting time, the females leave the nest only once every 1.5 hours.

-       - The male returns to the female every 3 -4 times that she leaves the nest. Similarly, the greater the number of chicks (1-3), or the older the chicks, the more frequently the female and male return to/leave the nest.

-       - The best time to band the chicks is when they’re 0 -  2 weeks old (or 10 days?).

-       - Approaching the chicks at an older age can result in them enacting kamikaze like dive bomb from the tree (not good.)

 Success! 

It was a fantastic experience. The bush is a beautiful place and one worth visiting and connecting with. I definitely recommend that you peps visit it sometime! Bird monitoring is something that's certainly worth trying :)

Day 137

Off to Hunua to help with kokako nest finding!

Thank you Savita, Neesh, and Helen for your donations!

Day 121!

Am feeling an amazing sense of freedom! Today was the final exam of the year for Biomed and looking back, it has been one incredible, fantastic, and completely mindblowing year (no pun intended). I have had the opportunity to meet so many fantastic people, learn from the most amazing of lecturers, tutors and friends, learn to much about the subjects I love and learn so much more as a person.

When I first started uni, I felt as if it were like a race - a running oval with a track and lines that one had to  follow and continuously 'keep up' with. Now I've come to realise that it's not like that. University creates the environment for us to grow. It's an open plain - a broad expanse dotted with mountains. It's the savannah. Open for us to run, jump, climb and leap as far as we want to, as hard as we would like. It's a catalyst for growth, and it's one of the most epic experiences of my life.

However, with the love of uni in mind, I am still however feelingso excited for the upcoming break - for the opportunity to take a slower run at the events up ahead, to get back into playing badminton, aikido, to go for those long runs without having to worry about the time, to draw, paint, take photos, write, read, play on the piano, the guitar, learn a new language, meet up with friends... all the things which I've have to put aside for so, so long throughout these past two semesters. I'm bubbling with excitement just thinking about this :)

Will post more soon!

Arohanui tout le monde :)