Kākā cackle music to the ears
The birdsong in Lower Moutere has become a little more diverse since a kākā discovered the abundance of fruit trees in the area.
Tasman gardens have an array of native bird visitors but one Lower Moutere resident is considering it an honour to have the native wild parrot devouring fruit from her plum trees.
Tam Cole-Holt said she first noticed the stranger to her property, between Central Rd and the Moutere Highway, in early January. ‘‘I just saw a biggish bird in our tree but it was not the right colours to be a wood pigeon.’’
She did not pay much attention to the frequent visitor until a closer look revealed it to be a South Island kākā, a bird she was familiar with from visits to the Abel Tasman area and Stewart Island.
It was visiting every evening, she said, sometimes staying overnight.
‘‘I could hear it cackling away and making weird noises up in the tree.
‘‘We see him about 5pm until about 7pm. He hangs around, flies off to some of the orchards around, goes away and comes back.’’
Cole-Holt has lived in Lower Moutere, near the Riverside Community, for about four years and it was her first time seeing a kākā in the neighbourhood, she said.
There have been several reports of kākā in Tasman residential areas recently. Kea Conservation Trust community engagement co-ordinator Andrea Goodman said she had been ‘‘inundated’’ with calls about kākā being spotted, ‘‘because people think they are kea’’. She said unbanded kākā had been seen in the Ngatimoti and Redwood Valley areas. ‘‘I have had messages from people all through Lower Moutere, one solitary kākā visiting, so I presume it is the same bird. It is very, very exciting.’’
Department of Conservation Project Janszoon biodiversity ranger Dan Arnold saw photos of Cole-Holt’s bird and said the lone kākā was a young male and not part of the programme in which 24 kākā were released in the Abel Tasman National Park last year.
He said it may have come from Abel Tasman’s wild kākā but more likely from Kahurangi National Park.
He said the mega mast mass seeding event last year saw successful breeding due to plentiful food, and while it also meant the same for pests, Arnold said the increase in kākā spottings showed there was good predator control in the national parks.