Amateur field observations of species can be priceless. A local Dunedin man (Peter Thomson, 1823-1879), using the pen-name ‘Pakeha’, wrote several accounts of his ‘rambles’ around the area between 1864 and 1879. They appeared in Dunedin’s newspapers the Otago Witness and the Otago Daily Times (see articles by the historian Paul Star, 1998, and by Pakeha’s great granddaughter Mary Skipworth, 2016, for further information about ‘Pakeha’). Thanks to PapersPast to making these early papers available on-line.
On the 6th of July 1871, the Otago Daily Times, published an account of Pakeha’s ramble ‘up a gully on Flagstaff’ (one of the prominent mountains on the edge of Dunedin).
“The creek he means to describe runs into the Leith about half a mile up the gorge from Douglas’s paddock, and has been named after a settler (Morrison) who owns some land on the upper part of the hill from which the creek descends.”
So this is what is marked on today’s topo maps as Morrison’s Creek. It sounds like the kind of walk you’d definitely want to tell someone else about before you headed off by yourself!
“But after worming his way horizontally for a short distance, he unexpectedly found he was again at the edge of the precipice, which went plumb down for about sixty feet. What between the wet and slippery ground, the interlaced branches of fallen trees, and the thick scrub, altogether made progress along this part of the gully side a very difficult and risky matter; but eventually, after two or three tries, the obstacle was conquered, and the bed of the creek regained some little distance above the fall.”
Within minutes, he saw two species of bird that New Zealand nearly lost entirely. First, he saw yellowheads/mopua….
“Here, he sat down on a stone to rest and look about a little, and had not sat long, when a flock of those pretty and inquisitive birds—the /native canaries (Mohoua oeroceplieta) came down to see what he was about. From the noisy way in which they called and chirped to each other, flying about from twig to twig, it seemed as if they deemed his presence in the gully an intrusion, and were heartily scolding him for being there”.
And then he saw saddlebacks/tieke…..
“While watching the canaries some, bits of bark were observed dropping near the roots of a big tree oh the other side; sometimes one, sometimes two pieces fell together. … the cause of the bits of bark was found out. A pair of those rare birds, the saddleback Creadion cinereus), were seen at work, busily seeking for grubs in the cracks and openings in the bark of the tree. It was wonderful the way they held on, even when the trunk was quite perpendicular, or even overhanging. Round and round, up and down, poking their long bills into every crevice, with their head sometimes looking up the tree and sometimes down, breaking off a bit of the bark and peering carefully into the place; every now and then picking out a grub, and giving utterance to a loud and musical note.”
“Sitting watching the birds was very pleasant, but the gully was yet to explore, so to the work he turned, and stepping’ out into the open, the birds at once made off”.
….. and into oblivion. That was, as far as I know, the first and last report of both saddlebacks/tieke and yellowheads/mohoua in Dunedin. So these are two stunning observations – if it were it not for these two sentences in the newspaper, we wouldn’t know that either saddlebacks or yellow heads existed in Dunedin. Neither are present as fossils or (again, as far as I know) present in archaeological middens.
Thomson’s prose makes it clear that his ‘ramble’ took him through a fairly rough, relatively remote spot. It certainly would not have seen many, if any humans before. The fact that saddlebacks and yellowheads were there, suggests mammalian predators (rats, cats, stoats, etc) may not have quite made it, but Thomson’s comment that these birds were already “rare” – in 1871, is telling. Mammalian predators quite likely soon did reach that spot, and were likely encountered by the very birds Thomson was observing. It probably didn’t go well for the saddlebacks and yellowheads.
Thirty years later, (by 1905), the last South Island saddlebacks existed only on a few islands off Stewart Island. The South Island saddleback was saved from “certain extinction” (Merton
1975; Hooson and Jamieson, 2003) after 36 birds were caught and transferred to a rat-free island. As a result, by the early 1990s, the numbers had grown to about 650 (Roberts 1994; Hooson and Jamieson, 2003). This was a terrific success. But the fate of the Saddleback requires continual work. As Hooson and Jamieson (2003) wrote:
“Of New Zealand’s endemic birds, New Zealand Saddleback is one of the most susceptible to predation by introduced mammalian predators and thus the risk these predators pose to this species is real …vigilance on islands for invading predators and their subsequent rapid eradication is still required.”
Mohua used to be common over the South Island and Stewart Island (Elliott, 1990). But despite central Westland retaining extensive forest, they had disappeared from there by about 1900 (Pascoe, 1957). Elliott (1990) cited Gaze (1985) that they were “certainly present on Stewart Island”, but had “disappeared so early that there has been confusion as to whether or not they were ever there (Williams, 1962)”. Today mohua number about 5000, and exist in less than 5% of their original range, with small populations in the Marlborough Sounds, around Arthur’s Pass, and the Catlins.
Both saddleback/tieke and yellowheads/mohua exist on Ulva Island, in the Stewart Island group (it’s where I was thrilled to take the pretty low-quality shot of three tieke that forms my featured image). Ulva Island, which had its rats eradicated, is a wonderful conservation win – but as the re-appearance of a rat after I took my photograph shows, the victory remains tenuous.
‘Pakeha’ would have had no idea that, a century and a half later, his somewhat whimsical accounts would become such treasures. Never underestimate what the value of your ‘lay/amateur/call it what you want’ observations of life may be in the future. Thanks to ‘Pakeha’, we know that two birds, that you quite likely have never seen, once lived around one of our largest cities. Thanks to our Conservation staff, these two species still exist. They almost certainly would be extinct now if it wasn’t for those heroic efforts. Saddleback/tieke are now back in the Dunedin area – they one of the rare birds that have been brought to the Orokonui Ecosanctuary. We now have the possibility, that one day, they will return to surrouding forests, perhaps even to Morrisons Creek. But this requires continual work – let ‘Pakeha’ be proud…
References
Elliott, G.P. 1990. The breeding biology and habitat relationships of the Yellowhead. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Zoology Department, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Gaze, P.D. 1985. Distribution of yellowheads (Mohoua ochrocephala) in New Zealand.
Notornis 32: 261-269.
Hooson, S. and Jamieson, I.G. 2003. The distribution and current status of New Zealand Saddleback Philesturnus carunculatus. Bird Conservation International, 13: 79–95. doi:10.1017/S0959270903003083.
Merton, D.V. 1975. The Saddleback: its status and conservation. Pp. 61–74, in Martin, R.D.
(ed.). Breeding endangered species in captivity. London: Academic Press.
Pascoe, J. 1957. Mr. Explorer Douglas. Reed, Wellington.
Roberts, A. 1994. South Island Saddleback recovery plan Philesturnus carunculatus carunculatus. Wellington: Department of Conservation. Threatened Species Recovery Plan Series, 11.
Skipworth, M. 2016. Articles by and about Peter Thomson 1823-1879 (widely known as PAKEHA) of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Star, P. 1998. New Zealand’s changing natural history. Evidence from Dunedin, 1868-1875. New Zealand Journal of History, 32: 59-69.
Williams, G.R. 1962. Extinction of the land and freshwater inhabiting birds of New Zealand. Notornis 10: 15-32.
