Gannet with a heart of stone: He's got live company, but he prefers a concrete decoy

Thursday, 11 January 2018

Video from 2016 of Nigel the lonely gannet trying to woo a concrete decoy on Mana Island, off the Kāpiti Coast.

Nigel the lonely Mana Island gannet finally has some real company – but it seems he's become so used to concrete decoys that he's shunning the newcomers.

Nigel has spent the past two years alone on the island, off Porirua City, north of Wellington, with a colony of 80 fake birds.

But thanks to a technological tweak by Department of Conservation staff, he has recently been joined by three other gannets.

Nigel, right, with his concrete partner. He has even built a nest for 'her'.

A slight change in the sound system used to lure the birds was all that was needed, and DOC hopes the new arrivals could be the start of a new colony.

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Nigel, circled top, remains at one end of the colony while three new arrivals, circled below, are at the other end. All the other birds are concrete decoys.

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A mixture of white paint and water is sprayed around the fake colony to mimic guano.

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But Nigel – so called because he had no mates – appears to be suspicious of the newcomers, and is sticking with one particular concrete decoy who has taken his fancy.

The decoy gannets are repainted regularly by volunteer group Friends of Mana Island.

'They [the new arrivals] are on one side of the colony and on the other side is Nigel, who is still making love to his concrete bird,' DOC ranger Chris Bell said.

'He definitely has some sort of fetish. It's tragic.'

A concrete gannet waits for the real thing to colonise the rocky western shore of Mana Island.

The concrete colony was created 20 years ago, surrounded by fake bird poo, to lure gannets to nest on the island's rocky cliffs.

A solar-powered speaker played gannet cries out over the ocean to attract passing birds. But, although the occasional gannet swooped in for a look, none came to roost until Nigel arrived in 2015.

He paired up with a concrete bird, even building it a nest out of seaweed and sticks.

Volunteers continued to maintain the colony, repainting the decoys and spraying white paint to mimic guano, but Nigel remained the lone live inhabitant.

Then, in December, a visiting scientist suggested the speakers were badly positioned and, 10 days after they were moved to a new spot, the three other gannets appeared.

'I was flabbergasted to see them. I nearly fell off into the sea in shock,' Bell said.

'My feeling is that the speakers were the critical factor – the gannets needed to hear the call from the sea, and they couldn't before.'

The three newcomers had been seen interacting with each other, while Nigel had kept to himself. But Bell said he had played a role by attracting the new birds.

'He may be a weirdo, and they may not want to associate with him, but he's played his part. Maybe one day he will figure it out.'

DOC hopes the birds will stay, and start nesting this year. Any chicks born on the island would then be likely to return there to breed.

With a 1.8m wing-span, the Australasian gannet, or tākapu, is native to New Zealand. There are 15 gannet colonies, or gannetries, in New Zealand, and the birds also breed in Australia.