Bird Events

I have always had a passing interest in birds and generally what surrounds me, so I thought I would jot down some events about birds that may be of interest.

I was timber cruising at Tuatapere early 1963 - oh timber cruising? This was assessing merchantable indigenous timber in standing trees. Sawmills would bid for the timber on the basis of the volume we assessed. You had to careful though because if the mill out turn proved less than you had assessed, you would have to go back and find where your mistake was - that is over rough cutover bush. Then of course if the sawmiller cut more than you assess, he is very pleased, but you have done the government out of revenue!

Anyway, one day I was hunting there and stalked a noise that I was unfamiliar with. It was a rare native parrot the Kakapo. I never reported this but there you are - I have seen one in the wild!

Kakapo

At the same time as this (roughly) I saw an Australian Magpie in our camp compound. Now I have always been familiar with this pest. Yes it is a pesky introduced bird to New Zealand! It has been known to rob the nests of our indigenous birds.

Aussie Magpie

The Magpie is an aggressive bird and will attack people and the Harrier Hawk, but our indigenous Tui will chase Magpies out of their territory. We have been feeding Tui and Bellbird at our home for a number of years. But Tui disappeared for a number of years. One day, possibly 1967, I was walking by along the road, just at the start of Middle Ridge Road when I was attraced by the sound of wing movement, and when I looked up, I saw a lone Tui flying above me.

Then for some years, I saw no Tui around the forest. However after we purchased the Fraser Block (South Block) out by Trig J for a period of time time (weeks) we could regularly hear the calling of Tui. Then, I can't remember the exact year, maybe 1976, a lone Tui turned up at the feed bowl Albert tended at Forest HQ for the Bellbirds. We thought this so remarkable, that I phone the Acclimatisation Society who told me that this was probably an outcast male bird that would probably die. However the bird continued to feed, and one day another appeared, then another and gradually a population thrived in the area and many people are now feeding them. Certainly at our place I have seen as many as five juveniles at one time. Another name for these birds is 'parson bird' because the distinctive white feather at the throat looks like a Clerical Collar.

Albert used to feed the birds, he had a contact who supplied sugar sweepings from a factory and he mixed it with water and this attracted the nectar eating birds. There was this myth about Bellbirds locally, they were referred to as Mokkers because it was perceived they would mock calls (whistles) that people made. This is not exactly correct. They will answer your whistle if you or imitate theirs, but in fact the Tui are more likely to mock other birds. Now about Bellbirds - Banks and other early observers painted Bellbirds with purple 'cheeks' - the purple actually was pollen from the native flowering tree fuchsia.

It should be recorded also that Richard Matches carried out research for a thesis to prove that Bellbirds had a localised language, a dialect if you like. Those tapes of his must be somewhere? This guy also recorded (no too sure if it was local at Herbert) the call of the now extinct Laughing Owl! I remember that the was very upset to find that someone at the university or museum had inadvertently wiped the tape clean! Actually he was gutted!

It is said that the call of the Shining Cuckoo heralds spring and it is time to plant potatoes! Very often the Shining Cuckoo can be heard around home but they are very had to see close up. These birds lay their egg in another bird's nest and once hatched, the chick will push the other chicks out and the foster parents raise the young Cuckoo. Anyway one day a Shining Cuckoo flew into a widow and was killed. It was in good shape, so I looked at it closely and sent it off to Otago Museum and I have no idea what they did with it.

I hope it has been useful. These birds migrate and return in the spring.

The other event of note was 1973 when for the first time we saw a Spurwinged Plover on Linday Clearwater's flat below Fraser Block. These are squawking birds from Australia too and serve no useful purpose here.
They also attack you if you pass by their nest and they obviously fly at night because you often hear their calls.

The NZ Wood Pigeon is also common now in our locality. The Maori prized this bird for food, but these days they are protected and numbers have increased. They browse on Tree Lucerne, Broom, Willow and other soft vegetation at this time of the year. Later when the cherry plumbs are ripening, they feast on them, spitting the stone out as they eat. The Kereru mates for life and so are most often seen in pairs.

One time - maybe 1985/6 we often heard what sounded like turkeys gobbling in Hoods Creek. None were ever seen & this remains a mystery today - though few would ever remember!

Some time 1986 after a burn in the Trotters Gorge block, the very clean fire revealed a small gold mining claim with a water race and it was obvious that some sluicing had taken place. In a rock overhang we found a gold pan and small board that was used for extracting gold. Further up the ridge we found a shaft that we plugged up for safety reasons. But in a small area of swampy tussock we heard the loud wind beat, and later identified the elusive Fernbird. Not many people see these birds, and I recall taking a group of Forest & Bird Society people to view them.

Cassius the Stallion

I had been in negotiation with Bert Fraser so NZFS could buy has farm - which is another story entirely!
Bert's farm was gorse covered and did not have much vehicle access, so he rode the bag of bones that was Cassius the stallion. This day I was looking for Bert and found hime by his broken down sheep yards, sitting on a stool massaging grease on to Cassius' penis! Cassius' eyes were not rolled back in pleasure though!
"What on earth are you doing?" I asked.
I knew a bit about horses and had never seen anything like this before!

Kit, a draft mare was transfered to Herbert from Beaumont Forest and we had used her to extract larch rails. Kit became redundant and was sold to Ralph Oaks, one of our workers and a guy who was interested in horses. He had decided to use Kit as a brood mare and taken her to Cassius for service. Apparently, when a mare has had enough of a stallion, she may kick out at him (a good groom should be aware of this - I was told). Kit kicked out at Cassius sticking him on his still extened penis (out of its sheath).

According to Bert, the penis wouldn't/couldn't retract into its sheath! And no, the grease wasn't to lubricate it so it would go back in, obviously, the extended penis was prone to sunburn, so he was slapping the grease on as a sunscreen!

Life really is interesting, don't you think?

Two more characters

Something happened this morning to remind me about Charlie Crisp. He started the business in Oamaru called 'Concrete Products', which specialised in concrete water tanks and concrete fence posts.
Charlie won a contract to cut posts out of the forest as he had set up a timber treatment plant. Post cutting was hard workand those old chainsaws were unreliable, heavy and were 'unrefined' (for a better word).
I remember calling at the block they were cutting to find him with a young Doug Stanaway cross cutting the last of a trailer load of posts. Charie was operating the chainsaw, and Doug was pouring oil on the bar. The oiler had broken down (or the orifice had blocked).
Anyone these days who knows how to operate a chainsaw would smile at this as they nowadays have automatic oilers and filters, making them very reliable.

Land Preparation

Gorse

One of the most expensive costs associated with forestry can be land preparation! Certainly as far as we were concerned at Herbert Forest, gorse was the biggest weed problem; bracken fern was also a problem as was grass - cocksfoot & fog being the worst.

Gorse was introduced as a hedging plant which was a fence as well as shelter on most farms. It was trimmed as a nice tidy fence and the trimmings were often burnt. But gorse is dispersed by the pod 'firing' the hard seed out on to new ground and the seed can remain viable in the soil for something like 70 years! Burning stimulates the seed to grow (cracks the seed coat to allow moisture into the embryo) and gorse coppices, regrowing from stumps. It is an invasive plant and difficult to control.

Whole farms were invaded by gorse, forcing farmers off the land. Forestry is one way of controlling the weed.

Land clearing by mechanical or chemical means is much easier today, but we were involved in many trials of gorse (and other weed) control, so control was much more difficult.

The Diamond Hill Block offered a good opportunity to carry out trials as the whole area was solid gorse, at least two metres high! The first thing the technicians wanted to find out was how many seedlings per hectare germinated after a burn. I actually didn't need to know; I already did - lots! But they were not prepared to take my word for it. Lines were cut (using my workers) and plots laid down 1/10 of an acre they were. Marked by rods of steel rod so they would not burn!

A funny thing happened after the burn; Herbie thought the steel rods might be handy at home so he collected them all up. So the plots marks were lost and the conclusion was that lots of seedlings germinated.

245T and Tordon were the main chemicals used, and I was in charge of the application, so flew in many fixed wing and helicopter sorties with some pilots that I trusted and some I couldn't wait to see the back of - that may become a topic.

Anyway, a few rules for controlling gorse. And what I am referring to is to prepare land for tree planting.

1. It is a waste of money expecting to kill standing gorse. Chemical will only translocate about 40cm. So burn off the gorse first. If you dare - these days not much burning is done.

2. Spray the regrowth/seedling growth when it is about 30 cm tall.

3. Plant after this. Then spot spray using Velpar granules.

Provisos - the burn must be clean - that is leaving no sticks standing. When that happened and we had no other choice, we had to linecut - using slashers. Never done these days but often in the past.

These lines in the center were hand cut - Reefton

So these days mechanical methods are best to prepare land, but shasher work was common and I remember Herbie's hands becoming fixed in the shape of holding a slasher, and had operations to loosen the tendons - but they remained permanently crooked.

The 'powers that be decided that we all should wear safety hats - even if there was nothing to fall on our heads. There was general resentment about this and many of my workers refused, but loyally, Bert wore his as an example to the rest, old Gibb's white hair became stained with the color of the hat band! Eventually though the rule became forgotten and nobody wore them linecutting. Bert always kept his in the rear window of his old Consul car.

It was hot in those gulley in the summer time, and we had to keep up production - the guy's did an admirable job. One local farmer told me that the forest was like an old man's club as they were all lazy. I challenged him to keep up for a week. He didn't last half a day!

Bracken fern was a big problem too, it often erupted after planting, and in gulleys, growing to 4 metres high! The tree maybe 30 cm! So lines had to be cut to release them, a hot and dusty job (fern had its own dust - a pretty brown, that got up your nose and in your eyes/ears). In cutting the stuff it is not realised that you have to put the cut material somewhere and the wind shouldn't push it onto the trees! So it was not easy. Later Asulox was used; sprayed on with 20% diesel and an emulsifier. This proved good control and after the burn only about 10% regenerated.

With fog grass, we developed a chemical mix that could be applied by air, but today spot spraying with Velpar is the ideal.

So establishing a crop of trees was hard work and technical too. Most of them have now been harvested, and who would know of the contribution these men made!

Things Maori

There has been a lot of Maori activity through Herbert Forest, perhaps I should say, 'North Otago'. Some of this is what old Russell told me, some is my understanding and some is what I have actually seen.
In the center of this picture you can see the clear hill with a flat top and the 'spoil' to the right of it. It looks like it could have been a Pa site.

Then there is this other area overlooking the Mill House, many suspect that this was in fact the Pa site. I have an old black & white photo of the same area, from a distance which may give a better view.

The story goes that there was a Maori warrior chief, who traveled down the West Coast with his band of marauding followers.

When he attacked the Riverton Maori, (no doubt they would have had a tribal name of their own), one man 'swam to an island, then travelled inland to bypass the marauders. He warned the other tribal groups of a pending attack, but none of them acted upon the warning.'

The Waianakarua Maori did prepare (or was that the Moeraki? Though I was told the Waianakarua). They prepared a Pa to fight the marauders off; on either of the above sites. In fact there was a battle but not at either Pa site - it was in the Otepopo Bush and many artifacts have been found there.

The Waianakarua Maori 'fought the marauders into the sea', but a man, a woman and a child became separated and they fled into the area that is not Herbert Forest. They were said to have lived in a cave somewhere in Hoods Creek. Personally I have searched Hoods Creek and doubt that there was a cave there - it is schist rock. More likely, they lived in the cave at the head of Swallows Creek, just below Nat Stevenson's house. There is a distinct drawing there of a dog and eroded other drawings that can only be seen using a mister. After about a year, the three joined with the Waianakarua Maori - peacefully. It is said that the Waianakarua Maori hid a cache of greenstone in the boggy pond on Bluff Hill which is surrounded by Ngaio trees - the cache was never recovered.

There has been other activity by Maori in the North Block, and seemingly not so much in the Southern Blocks. But there are rock drawings in the outcrop not far inside the the southern boundary of the South Block; and the extensive caves in Nicholson's property must have housed some at some time. Also there was Native Bush just South of the boundary which was vested to the Moeraki Maori (as a fuel supply) during land 'settlements'.

Road 12, Pa Road is called that because of a Pa site there. When Bob Frame worked the paddocks there he recovered (I think) 3 sacks of artifacts which apparently have been lost. I have looked to locate this site unsuccessfully, but there is a line of basalt rock that must have come from Government Hill which is not far away. I found also some of the red sandstone which is from the Southern side of Hoods Creek, but the conclusion was it came as weights on Bob Frame's discs (probably horse drawn).

But there are umu, Maori ovens scattered through the North Block, seldom on the South Block and one massive one across Shepherd's Creek. Again I have looked at these and carried out research, never finding an artifact or bone. These were used in the harvest of cabbage trees Cordyline australis for the production of food starch and perhaps sugars.

These umu were all carefully recorded and mapped for the Otago Museum. Logging in the forest, and subsequent clearing has probably damaged a lot of them. The umu were lost to visibility with thick weed growth, but after a clean burn, or when the trees are mature and beneath them it is clear, then the umu are visible.

There is a line of basalt rocks on the top of Government Hill, similar to the one by the Pa site, and we assume it was a boundary mark of some kind.

Before gorse colonised the area, Herbert Forest - both North and South Blocks must have provided spectacular vantage points, and the forest would have been home to much birdlife as there is today. Moa and Weka are the most notable birds that no longer live there. But even in my time, when pig hunting, I could not hear the barking of the dogs because of the evening chorus of the Bellbirds!

Just an addition about Moa. Moa is an extinct bird - probably the largest bird that has walked this planet.

Newspaper reporters often rang the forest to pick up news snippets. Albert had overheard a conversation between myself and the then Officer in Charge, Jack Williamson. On the bottom flat, I had found some pieces of an old mower that is the machine to cut grass, to make hay. Just previously we had all been talking about Moa in the district.

So when the newspaper reporter rang, Albert was by himself in the office. When pressed 'Is there any news?' His reply was, 'No, there is nothing,' but after a pause he added, 'We have found Moa bones on the bottom flat.'

The report was in the paper the next day!