The kereru cafe
CHEEKY suggestions a new brew could be formulated to fundraise for kereru have been ignored by a craft beer company, but Kereru Brewing is still helping the native wood pigeons, getting on board with a Dunedin working bee at the weekend.
Company founder Chris Mills banded together with students from Cumberland College and other volunteers from the community at Project Kereru’s property yesterday to help spread mulch and plant out the area around the aviaries in Green Island.
Project Kereru director Nic Hurring said the idea was to have a ‘‘kereru cafe’’ around the aviaries, planted with appetising trees to attract the wood pigeons and other birds.
Project Kereru takes referrals from the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital.
At present, the project was rehabilitating eight wood pigeons, including one, ‘‘Archer’’, who had flown through the window of an archery club in Northeast Valley but was making good progress.
Mr Mills said it had been suggested on Facebook his company should make a special beer to help the wood pigeons, but he decided to help in a more practical way by arranging for materials to be supplied by Mitre 10 for the working bee, and flying down from Wellington for the day to do some work himself.
He had also created UV ‘‘Bird Alert’’ stickers, which Kereru Brewing Company was selling.
They had a special coating that shone brightly to birds, warning them not to fly into the window.
The stickers were available online and some of the money raised from each pack sold would go towards Project Kereru, he said.
One sticker would also be given out in every sixpack of Kereru beer.
This was not the first time the brewing company had tried to help the native bird it was named after. Every year it tried to boost the wood pigeons’ profile in Forest & Bird’s ‘‘Bird of the Year’’ competition.
‘‘[Project Kereru] fits very much with the ethos of what the company is about,’’ he said.
Ms Hurring said she was very pleased with how the working bee had gone.
‘‘It’s phenomenal to see the support from the community.’’
Cumberland College residents Alicia Clegg, Jacob Thompson and Connor Wong said they were interested in helping kereru, and some of them had also done voluntary work with the wood pigeons during Orientation Week.
Mr Wong said helping the wood pigeons was rewarding, but he also admitted it was a ‘great procrastination tool’’.
About 30 volunteers were at the site yesterday afternoon.