Last bird in colony restoration effort takes flight
Thursday, 7 March 2024
The last of this year’s pakahā/fluttering shearwater chicks has flown its nest in a project aimed at re-homing the seabird species on mainland New Zealand.
It was hoped the fledgling would be the last of those that needed to be translocated to the predator-free sanctuary at the northernmost point of the South Island, to create the first colony of the species on the mainland since predators wiped them out there.
The bird - named Eric - was one of 92 pakahā chicks moved to the Wharariki Eco-sanctuary at Cape Farewell, from Kokomohua/Long Island in the Marlborough Sounds in January.
106 chicks fledged from the clifftop sanctuary in two previous translocation rounds in 2022 and 2023.
Project leaders The HealthPost Nature Trust said the birds flew to coastal Australia, where they stayed for two years, before returning to New Zealand to breed.
More than 35 volunteers cared for the chicks at the sanctuary this year, naming them on arrival, and spending over 1500 hours feeding and weighing the birds, and getting them ready for their departure, trust project co-ordinator Marian Milne said.
Eric had developed an eye infection, which meant he couldn’t take flight until several days after the last of this year’s other 91 birds, Milne said.
It was a special moment each time the last bird from each round left the sanctuary - but especially so this year, she said.
“This bird had a name that meant such a lot to a lot of us.”
The bird was named after local man, Eric Joseph Lander, who died four months ago.
Lander, who was Māori, loved nature, especially birds, supporting rangatahi (young people), and teaching people young and old about tikanga Māori through his passions including waka ama.
He helped deliver youth programmes at Project Janszoon, a conservation trust set up to restore the ecology of the region’s Abel Tasman National Park, as well as working on outdoor learning with students at Golden Bay High School.
It was while on a local waka ama exercise that Lander passed away.
He would have been aware of the spiritual element of Cape Farewell, being the South Island’s version of Cape Reinga in the North Island - the point where the spirits of the dead descended into the underworld (reinga), Milne said.
It was a windy night that Eric the bird took flight from Cape Farewell, she said.
“We don’t often see the fluttering shearwaters offshore there.
“But that Friday evening, there was a big flock of flutterers just right off the edge of the cape feeding on a fish boil up out there.
“The following morning the sea was calm, and that flock of flutterers were just resting on the water.”
Eric Lander’s partner of 15 years, Mieke Van Lammeren, thought he would have been very humbled by the events.
He probably would also have had a chuckle about having a bird named after him, she said.
He would have “really appreciated the location” the birds left from, and “the mana that came with that”, she said.
“The fact that the last bird had an eye infection and was healed from that before he could fly out … a month before Eric passed, he had an eye infection.
“I think it’s giving the bird mana, but it’s also giving the man mana.”
Colonies of fluttering shearwater have previously been established on offshore islands from chicks translocated from Kokomohua - on Matiu Somes Island in Wellington Harbour, Mana Island off the west coast of Wellington and Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds.
Other projects had carried out a fourth translocation a couple of years down the track, if they were not happy with the return rate, Milne said.
Trust chair Peter Butler said the aim of the project was to rebuild an abundant colony at the three hectare sanctuary which was surrounded by a predator proof fence.
“None of this would be possible without our supporters, volunteers and partners Manuwhenua ki Mohua and the DOC Tākaka team.”