Tiritiri Matangi, an island sanctuary

When the early settlers came to New Zealand they brought a bit of home with them like English birds, Stoats, cats, Gorse and Bracken. New Zealand had only a bat as a native mammal so over the years these introduced mammals have reaped havoc and destruction on the native birds. Because of a lack of predators a number of them had become either flightless or poor flyers and were easy prey for the stoats and cats. Consequently a number were now either extinct or endangered. Some like the Moa had been hunted to extinction by the Maoris. Because of the proliferation of rats and stoats and the Australian Possums the only way that endangered species could be protected was to take them to islands, which were free of these pests. Tiritiri Matangi is one of these islands.

Cath had done a lot of sailing and remembered the island as a farm with pockets of native bush. There had been a light house ther; constructed in 1884 and lit on January 1 1885,, but little else. A huge planting programme was undertaken for ten years from 1984 to restore a lot of native bush and habitat suitable for the endangered birds. It was done by an army of volunteers and had been the brainchild of zoologist John Craig and botanist Neil Mitchell, but others also contributed enormously including a former lighthouse keeper. These days it is a very well established sanctuary and it is possible to see a number of endangered birds.

We took the ferry from Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparaoa Peninsular. We hadn’t booked, which apparently is normally essential and were lucky to find room and a 20 minute ride later we were there.

Anxious to set off so we weren’t caught up with other people on the boat, Cath and I were detained by a volunteer who insisted we must listen to the ranger, whom we couldn’t hear anyway. We had a map, which we’d received on the ferry and set off to walk around the whole island in the opposite direction from the majority of the others on the ferry. There is only one trip a day so catching the ferry back was rather vital. We were rewarded instantly with a rather good view of a Variable Oyster Catcher sitting on the rocks.

We were soon in denser bush and a black bird flashing by caught my attention. On closer examination I saw that it was a Saddleback, one of New Zealand’s most endangered birds. It was burrowing in the ground and flinging it over its shoulder, clearly looking for food. It was hard to get a good photo because the Saddleback was never still, but I made a video. The Saddleback has a brown section in the middle of its back that looks like a saddle.

I was extremely excited at seeing this bird, but unfortunately Cath had walked on and didn’t see it, but I couldn’t call her for fear of it flying away. As we walked on we saw a few little brown birds waddling about on the ground and in the undergrowth and thought they were some type of Quail. Upon reading our information leaflet we discovered that they were, in fact, the Fernbird, another I had never seen before. We were very fortunate to come upon three of them and they obligingly walked out into the sunlight. With their mottled brown colouring they blend into the grass extremely well.

I had been aware that there was a New Zealand South Island Robin, but I’d never known there was also a North Island version. Like its South Island counterpart it is also grey, but with a lighter grey breast, and less white. They are both inquisitive birds and it is plain to see how they would be an easy target for predators. We saw a number during our first couple of hours on the island.

The paths wound up and down steeply in places and we had to keep referring to our map to make sure where we were., the idea being to make for the most northerly point of the island where we were hoping to sit down and eat our lunch. There were so many amazing distractions on the way that we were taking our time tin reaching there. One bird I saw flying a lot was the Red-crowned Parakeet, Kakariki. It was one of the earlier birds to be reintroduced to the island and seems to be thriving. The problem with trying to photograph it is that it blends so well into the green of the leaves it is almost indistinguishable. I was fortunate to find one on the top of New Zealand flax, a favourite food of a number of birds.

Another bird that blends beautifully into the greenery of the trees is the New Zealand Wood Pigeon. Unlike the European bird, which is largely regarded as a pest the New Zealand bird, Kereru, is very beautiful. We chanced upon it gorging away in some tree. I was making a video of it when it came so close that it filled the entire screen. Trying to find it in the numerous photos I had taken was a challenge, but I did find a couple where it was more obvious. The white of its underneath makes the contrast, but even that could be mistaken for flowers or leaves from a distance.

Amongst the most elusive of the birds on the island is the Stitch Bird. Some movement in the trees attracted my attention and I was absolutely thrilled to see some flittering about by a partially hidden bird feeder. I saw them both in the tree and inside the feeder and believe they were Stitch birds rather than the North Island Bellbirds.

On of its characteristics is the upturned tail like a Wren. Again they are harder to distinguish in the bush.

Cath and I reached the point, which was in brilliant sunshine with view of the Whangaparaoa and out to Little Barrier Island.

We found a shady spot to eat our lunch and observe a few birds flying about, mostly Parakeet. Prior to lunch I observed Cath photographing something and rushed up, arriving just in time to see a Takahe. We learnt that there were two pairs on the island; one by the lighthouse and the other pair where we were. My photo is largely obscured by grass, but Cath took a good one. This bird was smaller than the ones I nad seen in Dunedin.

The east side of the island has more flax and less dense bush. It was lovely to see a type of gull resting in a tree.

We generally saw fewer birds here or ones we had already photographed and eventually we both ran out of batteries. There were some steep climbs and descents as we wound round pretty coves and eventually reached the lighthouse at the Southern tip of the island.

At the lighthouse we had a complementary cup of tea and made our way back to the ferry down the Whattle path. This had steps and had clearly been built for the majority of visitors to the island who go that way to the lighthouse.

It was a very exciting and memorable day and Aucklanders are very fortunate to have such a wonderful gem for bird life so close to the city.