Kea flock in park ‘uplifting’ sign
Ian Cox had stopped for lunch near Mt Owen in the Kahurangi National Park when he was surprised by a flock of 20 young kea.
He noticed three of the inquisitive birds at first, then more and more of them appeared, squawking, jumping around and doing backflips.
‘‘They were whizzing around in the sky that quickly, wheeling around, that I couldn’t actually get a good count on them.
‘‘It’s quite comical, they are quite clumsy when they do backflips.’’
While flocking was a natural behaviour for kea, sightings of them had become less common.
The Department of Conservation Motueka ranger was dropped off in the park by a helicopter, north of Mt Owen, to do animal control last week.
Cox said when he stopped to have lunch, several kea appeared. He then spotted a few more, and so it went on. Before long, there were at least 20 juvenile kea hanging around him.
‘‘About three of them seemed to check me out first, they seemed to be the ringleaders as such, then the rest were back at a distance.’’
He knew the birds were juveniles as they had yellow marking on their faces.
‘‘Their behaviour sort of gave it away. They are little rascals when they are that age.’’
Cox said the birds followed him while he walked for several kilometres.
He had worked for DOC for 28 years and spent most of that time ‘‘out in the hills’’ but had only seen that many kea together once before.
‘‘It’s really uplifting to experience something like that. All the integrated pest control we do is making a bit of a difference.’’
Kea Conservation Trust chair Tamsin Orr-Walker said the sighting was very exciting. ‘‘It is fantastic to hear that is still happening.’’
She said there had been a lot of predator control in the park which had a positive effect on nesting success.