Titi, or sooty shearwaters, have one of the longest migrations of any bird on the planet.
Department of Conservation sea bird scientist, Graeme Taylor, is on Rangatira Island, in the Chatham Islands, to find out where they go.
His team employ a novel approach to try to retrieve 16 geolocators in 10 days.
Have a watch…
Rangatira Island, is one of New Zealand’s premier sea bird islands. It is free of all introduced pests and it is riddled with sea bird burrows.
By Lisa Hamker, Visitor Centre Ranger at Paparoa National Park.
Last month I shared a photo of one of our newest, cutest, and fluffiest additions here on the West Coast — a one month old Westland black petrel chick in its burrow just south of Punakaiki.
One month later and look what the fluffy petrel chick has turned into!
The fluffy Westland black petrel has grown up
Like all children, this one grew up very fast, and has turned into an almost adult looking Westland black petrel. He has kept his handsome smile though, as well as some fluff on his belly.
His parents fed him well but, when he got too chubby to fit through the tunnel to get out of the burrow, they left him to get back into fighting fit shape for his next big adventure — flying practice!
Flying practice involves jumping off a cliff, launching into the air and, most of the time, a not so graceful crash landing. Good luck petrel, we’ve got our fingers crossed for you!
Thanks to Bruce Stuart-Menteath from Paparoa Nature Tours for the photograph.
By Lisa Hamker, Visitor Centre Ranger at Paparoa National Park.
This fluffy thing, with the big, black and beautiful puppy dog eyes, is a one month old Westland black petrel chick in its burrow just south of Punakaiki.
Petrel chick cuteness. Photo: Bruce Stuart-Menteath | Paparoa Nature Tours
The chick’s parents still come in for feeding time in the evenings by doing an “elegant” crash landing in the canopy. They then drop to the ground, looking slightly disorientated for a few minutes, before regaining composure and waddling off to their burrow to have a noisy and somewhat reproachful chat with their partner. A bit like: “Did you actually forget to bring the Hoki? Do I now have to fly ALL THE WAY back to Hokitika to get one!”
Adult black petrel out at sea. Photo: Arthur Chapman
In the morning mum and/or dad petrel will have to jump off the cliff to get airborne as their legs are too short to get them going on even ground. And off to another day at sea. Isn’t it amazing what these guys take on to raise their chick?
But let’s be honest – who wouldn’t, looking at a fluffy thing like that?
Today’s post was provided by the Southern Seabird Solutions Trust. The trust is a partnership between the commercial fishing industry, WWF and the government.
At this time of year there is plenty of night time activity at the top of Mt Hobson/Hirakimata on Great Barrier Island. Black petrel chicks, with new glossy adult feathers, are coming out of their nest burrows and furiously flapping their wings. When they feel strong they waddle to a prominent rock and launch themselves, flying off towards South America where they stay for a few years before returning to find a mate and nest.
Adam Clow and a black petrel
Black petrels used to breed on high points throughout the North Island and top of the South Island, often flying far inland to nest. They played an important role in the health of the forest, bringing rich nutrients into the ecosystem from the sea. Their droppings, eggshells, and dead chicks were deposited in the forest and they aerated the soil with their digging, acting like little composters.
This annual foray inland went on for millions of years. After the arrival of people the mainland colonies slowly disappeared as habitat destruction and predation by rats, cats, stoats, and pigs got the better of them. There are now about 15,000 black petrels left in the world, and of these only around 2,000 breeding pairs.
Burrow hunting on Mt Hobson/Hirakimata
Whitianga and Leigh longline fishermen Adam Clow, Wayne Dreadon, Gavin Perry, Clayton White, and Mark Dellow, along with Leigh Fisheries employee Angela Cole, and boat builder Mitch Pascoe, recently joined Biz Bell, Seabird Researcher, on top of Great Barrier Island to help band black petrels before they flew off.
“Five minutes after meeting Biz I was up to my armpit in a black petrel burrow, carefully pulling a bird out then holding it while she banded it,” Gavin says.
“They’re smart birds and have an extraordinary homing sense. On land the path they use is like a bird highway at night, as black petrels from nearby burrows waddle to the rock they take off from. After the chicks have left for South America the parent birds fly there too and, the following spring, they fly back to their burrows and meet the same old partner.”
Black petrel inside its burrow
It was also an amazing day for Adam: “The biggest thing for me was the realisation of how special and smart these birds are and how rare they are. I learned that they have a low survival rate and that fishermen here and in South America play a part in their decline.”
Wayne Dreadon, burrowing
Gavin says that no fishermen like catching birds and he and others in his fleet follow the Leigh Commercial Fishermen’s Code of Practice, developed by Leigh fishermen over 20 years ago.
Wayne, Adam and Gavin agree the dangerous time is when they’re setting gear before dawn and birds want to dive on the baited hooks. They use tori lines to keep the birds out of the danger zone and weights to sink the baited hooks fast so the birds won’t dive on them. They make sure the deck lights point in inwards to minimise the visual presence of the boat at sea. And they hold scraps onboard when there are hooks in the water – tipping a bucket of fish scraps overboard is like a dinner gong for seabirds.
Location, location, location – Great Barrier Island
“This experience hammered in the vulnerability of these birds and their importance as a species. It gave me a totally new respect for them. It would be great if all fishermen did this trip to the colony at least once,” Gavin says.
“Our fleet has been aware of the risk to seabirds for many years and we will continue to do our bit to protect them, and to help others. A few years back a Leigh fisherman went to Peru to talk to fishermen over there about ways to avoid catching seabirds.”
Wayne agrees that helping band black petrels was a primo experience. “Watching them waddle to their take-off rock and fly off, into the night, was a primeval experience. These birds have been doing this, from this place, for thousands of years. All fishermen are obligated to work as a team to look after black petrels so they will continue to have a place, here, for thousands of years to come.”
A black petrel up close
The recent hatching of a Chatham petrel chick in the Sweetwater Conservation Covenant on Chatham Island is another significant step in the long road to recovery for one of the world’s rarest seabirds.
Probably once abundant throughout the Chatham Islands, human exploitation, habitat destruction and introduced predators saw the species restricted to Rangatira Island by the time of its discovery in 1892.
A Chatham petrel chick tucked up in its down duvet
Until 1961 farming activity on Rangatira resulted in the petrels being confined to small forest patches, where they competed for burrows with the similarly sized broad-billed prion. Nesting at different times of the year, many petrel chicks were ousted from their burrows by returning prions. By 1990 the Chatham petrel population was estimated to be around 1,000 birds and heavily outnumbered by some 600,000 broad-billed prions.
Studies found that while adult Chatham petrel survival was high, less than 50% of pairs were managing to fledge a chick, placing the population in peril. So, finding a way to deter prions from entering Chatham petrel burrows was a priority.
The competition: a broad-billed prion outside its burrow
Natural burrows were converted into wooden ‘state houses’ with plastic pipe entrances, to aid inspection of the contents, and efforts were made to dissuade prions from using them by removing any found within and relocating some distance away. This required frequent nightly inspections of the petrel burrows and numerous DOC staff and volunteers will have memories of the nightly burrow rounds, clumping around the forest with ungainly petrel-boards attached to their footwear to avoid crushing the numerous seabird burrows. It was futile.
Lincoln University researchers finally came up with a simple solution – stretching a piece of neoprene wetsuit material over the entrance of the burrow pipe and cutting a slot just large enough for a petrel to squeeze through. It has proved remarkably effective, the petrel ‘homeowner’ tolerates the inconvenience of a tight squeeze, but prospecting prions are deterred by it. This, along with barricades erected while the petrels are away over the winter has increased nest success to around 90%.
A Chatham petrel squeezing through the anti-prion flap into its burrow
The relative abundance of Chatham petrel chicks has since allowed for the next phase of recovery, the creation of new colonies on Pitt and Chatham Islands.
200 chicks were translocated to new homes in the predator-proof Elizabeth Ellen Preece Conservation Covenant (aka Caravan Bush) on Pitt Island between 2002 and 2005. Hand-fed until ready to fledge, the chicks remembered Caravan Bush as their new home and some returned after two or three years at sea with the first pair breeding in 2005.
Rangatira Island (left) and Caravan Bush (right) on Pitt Island
Once the success of the Pitt Island translocation was evident work started on the return of Chatham petrel to “Sweetwater” on Chatham Island in 2008.
Ranger Antje Leseberg checking the band on an adult Chatham petrel
In partnership with the Chatham Island Taiko Trust another 200 Chatham petrel chicks were moved over 4 years to nest boxes within a 4ha predator-proof enclosure built by the Trust. As at Caravan Bush, petrel sounds played over loudspeakers encouraged returning petrels to land at the site.
The first indication of success at Sweetwater was seen last autumn when a pair of petrels were seen in a burrow. After wintering off the South American coast, the pair have returned to Sweetwater and laid an egg in February.
Taiko Trust members were delighted to find a chick present during burrow checks in early March. All going well this chick should fledge in May and spend 2-3 years at sea before returning to Sweetwater. By then it should have more company, as four more burrows show signs of activity, surely signalling the sweet smell of success.
