Wednesday 16th to Tuesday 22nd May – A Unique bird rescue

Wednesday 16^th May – Hunua volunteering

A friendly fantail

We were back at the same location as last week, so I knew I’d be heading out alone again.  It was all going well until right near the end when I came face to face with a wall of mud I needed to scale to get back to the main track. Having stared at the slope for a while to select a route, I made a grab for a sturdy-looking branch. And missed…. Which resulted in me face planting into the soil and sliding backwards down the hill on my front. I had mud caked down both of my forearms and all over my legs.  Thank goodness for a friendly fantail that had been leading the way along the trail:

A stream in the middle of nowhere.....

It was still there with me as I successfully managed to negotiate the climb on the second attempt. I think I was one of the last back to the hut and got some looks from my fellow trampers when they spotted the muddy condition of my clothes. But I convinced them that I was fine!

Thursday 17^th May – Bird Rescue centre

Identification guide for shearwaters...

First thing in the morning, the Managers received a call from the Department of Conservation (DOC) about some Petrels that had crash-landed onto a cruise ship bound for Auckland. In a rainstorm, the birds had got confused that the shimmering lights on the ship was water. They’d been collected and put into boxes by the crew, instead of being helped back off the ship which would have been the best option for them.  Some had died from over-heating in the boxes, but the rest needed feeding and strengthening before release.  They estimated that there were 30-40, but it turned out to be nearly 50… and they weren’t Petrels after all but much larger Buller’s Shearwater and a couple of flesh-footed Shearwaters.

Organised chaos - Lyn weighs a bird whilst Anne records the weight and more syringes of food are prepared

Lyn, tube-feeding one of the shearwaters

We had rearranged the entire garage to create a safe and clean pen to put the birds in after they had been tube fed some nutrients and weighed.

The birds resting up and having a paddle to recover

All three of us Thursday volunteers stayed on late to assist with the feeding and initial assessments.  I hung around the latest, wondering how on earth they were going to sort the logistics for releasing the birds because the experts had advised that it needed to be done at night and on the opposite coastline?! Sadly, we live too far way for me to offer to ‘pop back’ later to assist with the release.

I had planned to go for a walk after work today, but as it was later than usual I just popped into Hillsborough Cemetery which has some cracking views of the coastline:

View of the coastline from Hillsborough Cemetery

Friday 18^th May – I had been wondering how the great shearwater rescue had gone. I needn’t have worried. I read the charity’s Facebook update that confirmed that 37 birds were released last night, whilst others had to be kept in due to injuries they had sustained.

 

Sunday 20^th May – Port Waikato

We didn’t have much planned for the weekend, but I managed to drag Simon out to show him the beach at Port Waikato for a short while. Pretty scenic, eh?

Monday 21^st May – Miranda Shorebird centre

Having missed the best conditions to see the shorebirds last time, today I returned to Miranda at high tide, premium bird-watching time! There were thousands of birds there along with the odd rainbow or two thanks to some circling dark clouds:

This time there were thousands of shorebirds circling above and on the water

Tuesday 22^nd May – Bird rescue

Not even a week after their arrival and all of the shearwaters had been released. A successful story that made it not only onto social media, but also the local news.  Today was far more routine and we finished early which meant that I could go for that coastal walk I’d been planning.

The only native owl found in New Zealand - the morepork (or Ruru in Maori)

I also made a chocolate cake for the first time in many years. I felt that I should make the effort what with it being Willow’s 60^th Birthday celebrations at tramping club tomorrow!