Native bird sightings increase
‘‘It could be a combination of people looking more and a quieter environment.’’ Paul Sagar
Increased sightings of tui, kereru¯ (wood pigeon) and korimako (bellbird) have increased in the Timaru District since lockdown began and is being attributed to more observation and a lack of human activity, rather than an influx of birds, retired ornithologist Paul Sagar says.
He said it was ‘‘not extraordinary’’ to see tui in Timaru and attributed their presence to more native trees being planted and successful predator control by various community groups in bush reserves.
Sagar suggested during the pandemic people had more time to observe birds in their gardens and there was less human activity, so they were not so easily disturbed.
‘‘It could be a combination of people looking more and a quieter environment,’’ he said.
He said at this time of the year the native birds would be feeding on insects and people could put sugar water (half a cup of sugar to 1 litre of water) out to attract them.
He said the dish used for the sugar water needed to be kept retired ornithologist
clean and out of the reach of cats.
One Timaru family was enthralled by the recent visit of a tui to their garden, the first they’ve spotted in 20 years.
Jonte Woods said the tui landed on one of the native trees in his family’s Gleniti garden on Saturday morning and hung around for a few minutes.
‘‘It was very cool, We’ve never seen one here before,’’ he said.
A University of Canterbury student, Jonte, 21, is in his fourth year of studying forestry science and is living at home due to the Covid-19 lockdown, along with his brother.
Woods said the family had seen bellbirds regularly over the past six years, and kereru about four times, but never a tui in the two decades the family had lived on the property.
National Forest and Bird board member and South Canterbury committee member Ines Stager said in Geraldine where she lived people had been noticing tom tits which had not been seen for a while.
A New Zealand ka¯reara (falcon) had been seen hunting in the CBD in Wellington, she said.
She was unsure why but suspected it was because there was less noise.
Timaru grandmother Marie Bisset received an unexpected visit from a curious fantail last week.
She said occasionally fantails stopped in the garden but this time one came into the house, via the back door, and flapped around the lounge and kitchen taking a special interest in her cactus pot plant.
‘‘It was not stressed, just curious,’’ she said.
As quick as it had arrived it flew back outside.
The popularity of the New Zealand Birds online website had increased by 42 per cent during lockdown with 103,174 visits.
The top search was for fantail followed by tui then ruru (morepork).