A Curious Contender
Thu, 24 Sep 2009 2:05 pm – Posted by Mandy | No Comments
Guest Blogger: Alex Milne, Campaign Manager for the South Island Kokako
The South Island kokako deserves this title for its shear tenacity. Despite claims of extinction for the past 40+ years, it keeps popping up. Sightings are invariably chance encounters by hunters and trampers. Others hear resonating haunting calls that carry and linger.
Though organ song is seldom heard, it etches itself into the minds of those privileged enough to hear it. In the words of West Coast identity Charlie Douglas in 1892 “ The cry of the crow is indescribably mournful . The wail of the wind through a leafless forest is cheerful compared to it. Perhaps the whistling of the wind through the neck of an empty whisky bottle is the nearest approach to it, and is sadly suggestive of departed spirits. Few people are aware that the crow is a song bird as it is only in the depths of the forest they can be heard to perfection. Their notes are very few but are the sweetest and most mellow toned I have ever heard a bird produce.”