Antarctic Skua in residence at the Kiwi House.

Antarctic Skua:  (Catharacta maccormicki) Rare Visitor to Kiwi House - On the 23 April a Department of Conservation field officer from the Te Kuiti office turned up at the park with a juvenile skua, this bird had been found by a farmer checking on his stock in a back paddock when he came across a large brown bird. Approaching the bird, he observed that it was in a weak condition, as it could barely fly. After catching it, he delivered the bird to the Department of Conservation who in turn brought it into the Kiwi House. On arrival the bird was weighed (860 grams) and given a physical check over. The bird had been banded, with a Paris band number, giving some in the local news industry the idea that the bird had been banded in Paris - France. Once the bird had settled in at the Kiwi House, I emailed the band number to the "banding and recording office" of the Natural History Unit, Museum in Paris who supplied the following details on the bird.

The bird was a juvenile Antarctic Skua or Brown Skua (Catharacta maccormicki) , having only been banded on 16 January, 2008 as a chick at "Terre Adelie, Terres Australes et Antarctiques Francaises" weighing in at 1390 grams. The bird was on its first migration north when it ran into a storm off New Zealand's west coast, which brought it ashore near Te Kuiti. The bird had not eaten for some days hence its condition. When presented with food it soon showed it had a good appetite, finishing off bowls of sprats, mussels and ox heart pieces. Over the next two weeks the bird increased in weight, eventually reaching some 1,500 grams on the day of release, after arriving at the Kiwi House.

Antarctic Skua at release point.

I also contacted the Rare Birds Committee of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand to inform them that this species had landed on our door step. The Antarctic Skua is a rare visitor to New Zealand. Thankfully the bands and the photos supplied to the Rare Birds committee will mean there will be no disputing this sighting.

On 7 April, the bird was taken out to the coast at Raglan and on the cliffs overlooking Raglan beach was set free to continue its migration north for the winter.

Kiwi:  The Little Spotted Kiwi "Tautahi" was found dead on the 22^nd of April. "Tautahi" was the last of the Otorohanga bred Little Spotted Kiwi and was just 19½ years old. This just leaves us with the old male caught on Kapiti Island in 1980.

Western Brown Kiwi:  "Junior", who had been incubating an egg in Pen 9 was found to have deserted the nesting burrow. On checking, Dominique found some broken egg shell in the burrow, as this egg was only 30 days into incubation it would appear he may have been disturbed or accidentally broken the egg himself.

Brown Teal with ducklings

Pateke (Brown Teal):  The pair in Rotary Park have produced their third clutch for the season, two ducklings sighted. Total for the season from this pairing is 12 ducklings. The recently acquired female Pateke from Peacock Springs was found dead recently so the male has been returned to Peacock Springs for re-pairing.

Campbell Island Teal:  female duck from our newest pairing has disappeared, search of the aviary has failed to find her.

Red-crowned Parakeet

Kakariki (Red-crowned Parakeet):  fifteen birds have arrived from Russell in the Bay of Islands. These birds were to have been part of a release programme onto the Russell Peninsula, however this programme was cancelled by the Department of Conservation as they could not establish the provenance of the founder birds. Some of these birds will be released into the Barry Rowe Aviary while several other pairs will be held off display.

North Island Weka:  pair in rear holding pens have hatched their first clutch for the season, with two chicks sighted to date. The annual round-up of all our weka has also taken place, with six unbanded birds being caught and banded, however, two weka in the Rotary park pens remain at large.

Banded Rail:  three juvenile birds removed from the Whio aviary to the Lockwood Unit, total for the season to date is eight chicks. Four birds will eventually be transferred to Rainbow Springs in Rotorua.

Around the Park:  plans for the new falcon aviary have finally arrived on my desk, all that we are now waiting for is the permit to start work. Our gardener, Steve has been very busy since returning from his holidays with the maintenance of the grounds and landscaping the area around the new falcon aviary site.

Western North Island Brown Kiwi:  (Apteryx australis mantelli)  The past month has seen the transfer of juvenile female kiwi to both Wellington Zoo and Orana Wildlife Trust.  Both these kiwi are part of a captive managed programme for the species, which will eventually see any off-spring produced by them being released into protected reserves in the lower North Island.

Kiwi Release at Purangi - Taranaki - 17 February, 2008
Organizing the release	Kiwi transfer to the local iwi
Transferring kiwi to boxes
Kiwi House staff preparing to place kiwi in burrow	Kiwi entering its new burrow
Photographs by Judy Fentress

Pateke / Brown Teal:   (Anas chlorotis)  New pair of ducks has arrived from Peacock Springs - Christchurch, meanwhile five ducklings are currently going through their health checks before being shipped out and eventual released.

Whio / Blue Duck:   (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos)  New pairing now in residence within the Whio aviary, the old pairing were due to be transferred south to the Esplanade Aviaries in Palmerston North, when on attempting to catch them we found that the male had deceased. This resulted in only the female being transferred out.

Paradise Shelduck:   (Tadorna variegata)  Wild male returns to Wetland Exhibit to be with his mate.

Red-legged Partridge:   (Alectoris chukar)  Two female birds have also been transferred out to the Esplanade Aviaries in Palmerston North.

Red-eared Terrapins (turtles):  Dominique has been busy lately with the hatching of a large number of baby turtles, to date some thirty odd have hatched.

Kiwi:  to date, four chicks (chicks Nos. 123,124,125,126) have hatched from our older pairings of Western Brown Kiwi. Regretfully two of these chicks (Nos. 124 and 126) have since died, both chicks being from the same clutch. Our third pairing, ex nocturnal house, also produced their first egg. 'Junior', the male of this pairing was observed to be sitting tight, but on the night of the 4 November, 'Junior' deserted the nest, a broken egg shell was found in the nesting chamber the next day. 'Junior' may have been disturbed during the night by fireworks, which I am told was in full swing in the town on the night of the 4^th.

Chick No. 124 - this chick died at 16 days of age. It was being treated for a splayed leg condition which unfortunately did not come right. The autopsy report also showed up a number of other problems.

Chick No. 126 - this chick died at 6 days of age. The autopsy report was unable to determine the cause of death.

Pateke/Brown Teal:  pair in Rotary Park have hatched their second clutch of the season. Seven ducklings have been sighted to date. The pairing in Aviary 2 are incubating their first clutch for the season.

Grey Teal:  several pairs on the main pond have clutches of ducklings in tow.

Grey Duck:  seven juveniles removed from the Spring Aviary, while a new unrelated pair of Grey Duck have arrived from 'Waterhaven' in Whangarei.

New Zealand Falcon:  second clutch of four eggs laid, from which only one chick hatched. This chick is doing very well and will remain at the park as a future display bird.

Banded Rail:  a trio of young rails have been removed from the Whio Aviary and Banded Rail Aviary.

Variable Oystercatcher:  a successful first clutch with two youngsters hatching. These have since been removed from the Spring Aviary to the Lockwood. They are to be transferred to Hamilton Zoo.

Antipodes Islands Parakeet:  have been transferred from the Lockwood Unit to their new aviary within the park. The pair have settled in well, just hope that the vegetation can stand up to the pruning.

Barry Rowe Aviary - Red-crowned Parakeets within the aviary have been observed feeding chicks. Two pair of Pigeons have also renested. Tui - a newly established pairing have gone to nest. If successful will be the first time in over twenty years that Tui chicks have hatched in the Barry Rowe Aviary. Swamp Quail have been sighted with chicks, although I feel the tuataras will get a number of these.

Rotary Park - Red-legged Partridge have also hatched several clutches with a number of chicks being observed.

Tuatara:  two babies have hatched from a clutch of six eggs retrieved last year from Rotary Park.

Feed-back on our web page is most welcome! Our Email address being:- otokiwi@xtra.co.nz (Eric Fox - Curator)