The town where endangered birds fall from the sky

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Geoff Harrow with a Hutton's shearwater chick. He discovered the species in 1965, and has been a Forest & Bird member since 1938.

There's a strange ritual in the sea-side town of Kaikoura: for one month each year, endangered seabirds fall from the sky.

It happens every March, when the Autumn fog rolls in, and has resulted in potentially thousands of birds crashing around the village.

The birds fly from their burrows in the mountains towards the sea, but become hypnotised by the glittering lights of Kaikoura.

Last year, several hundred fell in the space of two nights.

It has led to a new town-wide initiative urging locals to pick up the dazed birds, store them in a box, and return them to a newly-built hub in the village.

The fledglings can't take off from level ground, leaving them stranded in the township.

**READ MORE:

* A helping hand for Huttons shearwater

* Shearwaters closer to sustainability

* In photos: Huttons shearwaters

* Seabirds with a mountain home**

Hutton's shearwater are an endangered, alpine seabird which breeds only in Kaikoura.

They are shaggy, roughly the size of an albatross, and the world's only seabird that nests in snow-capped mountains.

The population has been declining since they were discovered by Geoff Harrow in 1965, due in part to one fatal flaw: they are disoriented by light.

When fledglings make their maiden flight to the sea on foggy nights, they find themselves hypnotised by the glittering lights of Kaikoura, which cause them to plummet into town.

'We're losing hundreds of these birds on foggy nights,' said Harrow, who is now 89.

'A hell of a lot of them crash around the streetlights in Kaikoura village and get smashed up on the roads.'

While most survive the crash, their inability to take off again leaves them stranded and vulnerable to cars and predators.

The birds were thought to be a Maori legend until Harrow, a keen outdoorsman, tripped over a dead bird while mountaineering in 1965.

He has committed himself to the species' survival ever since.

He would like to see Kaikoura reduce its light pollution to reduce the number of crash-landings, starting with resident turning off outside lights during March.

Several years ago, an area near Tekapo was declared a starlight reserve, prohibiting light pollution in the township.

'We're desperately campaigning to have the same thing done in Kaikoura,' he said.

'We could save a huge number of these birds. If we lose these birds, we've lost something special about why people come to Kaikoura to visit.'

On Friday, the new Hutton's Hub facility in the village would allow residents to drop off dazed birds, so Department of Conservation staff or a member of the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust could return them to the mountains.

Residents had been asked to fill in forms recording where they found the birds, which would be analysed by University of Canterbury researchers.

Lindsay Rowe, from the trust, said the Hutton's Hub would give locals a place to go when they found a bird around town.

'We [trustees] used to get phone calls - we had a deluge last year, where about 200 birds came down over two nights. It just got totally out of hand, and we weren't able to cope.

'This hub basically means we've got one place where the people can bring them in.'

Donation can be made to the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust online at www.huttonsshearwater.org.nz/