Bird Stalkers
Blogger: Web Manager for Forest & Bird, Mandy Herrick
The extinction status that was slapped down on our South Island kokako in 2007 no doubt set off a wave of furrowed brows, disgruntled sighs and shouty letters.
The orange-wattled South Island kokako. Photo: Neville Peat
Prior to 2007, it hovered on the cusp of extinction for nigh on 40 years – and despite sightings from trampers and hunters all of the search missions executed by DOC returned empty handed.
Unsatisfied with the search-efforts and cognisant that cash-strapped DOC doesn’t need any unnecessary distractions, believers have recently taken the matter into their own hands.
In the past few months they have set up a charitable trust and launched a website that they hope will help them to garner intelligence on the South Island kokako’s whereabouts and bankroll new expeditions
The website, grey ghost , aims to become a repository of sightings and a communications hub between these fervent believers and the rest of the world. Scraps of information and recordings can be shared amongst believers, whilst a map of recent encounters helps those that are hot on the trail.
One of the chief sound recordists and searchers amongst the group is Rhys Buckingham – a single-minded man who became entranced by the South Island kokako in 1977 when he heard its mournful song near lake Monowai in Fiordland.
Since then, he has been avidly searching for the bird, and this May he recorded a sample of what he believes to be the South Island kokako in South Westland.
The ornithologist and ecologist hopes that by these recordings will help to swell the ranks of believers and generate funds for a couple of search missions (cost – $5,000 – 6,000) each year.
He has clapped eyes on the kokako a couple of times and he has come tantalisingly close to confirming the South Island kokako’s existence – however, events have transpired to thwart his efforts to save this bird.
The whole story reads like an eye rolling Shakespearean tragedy; house fires and forgetful Dutch-men have prevented the grey ghost from assuming its rightful place amongst the living.
Fresh hope for finding the bird came last year, when Environmental Management graduate, Glenn Brown, was given a $6000 grant by the Southland Institute of Technology earlier this year.
This project has so far failed to unearth any strong leads, but this has done very little to dampen the spirits of this four-man contingent from tracking down this taciturn, shy bird.
Not even a whiff of despondency can be noted in Buckingham’s tone. He’s a bundle of unbridled enthusiasm and untarnished hope.
He’s already looking forward to their next mission. If traditional methods of searching for the grey ghost fail the team plan all sorts of tricks, from using hides, automatic state-of-the-art video cameras and nest inspections.
Why? Because birds such as grey warblers, bellbirds, fantails line their nests with other bird’s feathers – in effect providing a good cross-section of the birds in the forest.
And who knows, he may well stumble upon something– the Chatham Island taiko, the takahe and the New Zealand Storm Petrel – are three such birds that were once thought to have been snuffed out, only to be found alive and kicking…..
