KOKAKO REPORT Lake Matiri Murchison Name of Observer: Gordon Appleton Name of reporter (if different): Contact Address: 4/406 Trafalgar St, Nelson. (03) 546 8405 Date Received: first received, July 1 998. Phoned 3 September 1998. Date Observed/Heard: 1990-1991 Location of report (as detailed as possible): Head of Lake Matiri, Murchison district. In forest about 10 minutes walk from head of lake. Details of Observation: While resting at a site in beech forest above Lake Matiri, Gordon observed two birds that he had never seen previously. The birds hopped out from some trees to a fallen log about 5 m away. They were bluish-grey in colour, and about twice the size of a robin. Upright from the ground they were approximately 8-10', high, and about 5'' broad. One bird appeared a little larger, and a little darker than its mate. Their legs were in proportion with their bodying. relatively long like a ''scaled-up bush robin'' . He thought the bill was slightly curved rather than straight. Both birds had facial wattles - on one bird the color was yellow, and on the other a darker yellow, or orange. Although the birds were not seen flying, he noted that the wings appeared short, and rounded at the tips. Gordon watched quietly, and made the following observations. • The birds were not seen flying-their most common form of progression was hopping. They hopped out of a tree on to the log. Gordon estimated the length of hop as about 2-3". • The birds' main activity during the observation was picking moss off the log. Unlike robin and blackbird, these wattled birds had a peculiar way of dislodging the moss. They probed their bills into the moss, and flicked clumps aside with a sideways action. The clumps of moss dislodged were about the size of a 50 cent piece. They continued with this activity for 5-10 minutes. • In behaviour the birds were clearly curious, and not afraid of the observer. But Gordon remarked that he was sitting quietly when the birds came to the nearby log to probe moss. Comments: My meeting with Gordon was pure coincidence, in a photocopy shop getting my WWF kokako report printed. He spotted the name on the cover and asked me if I believed South Island kokako to exist. Then he told me about his observation at Lake Matiri described above. He said that he didn't know what the birds he saw were at the time, but realized that they were kokako after a trip to Mount Bruce where he saw North Island kokako in captivity. On further talking with Gordon, and a phone call later. I learned that he was an experienced bushman and very good wildlife observer. Gordon knew the Matiri Valley area very well as he had extensively hunted deer, and trapped possums in that area. He said that possums were particularly numerous in the area (he killed 1 ,500 possums in 5 square miles in 1991 ), as were stoats, and feared the chances of kokako survival because of the numbers of these predators. I have no doubts as to the accuracy and reliability of his report. Follow Up Action: Planned for November/December 1998. Gordon is keen to show me the location then. Rhys Buckingham, Mapua 3 September 1998 South Island Kokako – 1990 (Notes by Ron J Nilsson) (1) Lake Matiri (Buller) In 1997, Rhys Buckingham received a phone call from Gordon Appleton (Phone 03-5468405) about two birds he had seen in the bush at the head of Lake Matiri. No date was given for the observation other than the year. Gordon observed 2 birds that hopped from a tree to a nearby log where they began picking at moss. Described as at least twice the size of robins but similar colour and proportions. Estimated 8-10 inches from the top of the head to the ground and around 5 inches in width. They were blue/grey in plumage and the wattles were clearly seen. The colour of the wattles was yellow on one bird and more orange on the other. One seemed to have a larger wattle than the other. He also noted a slight size difference between the two birds. And observed that the wings looked relatively short (didn’t protrude backwards e.g. blackbird) the tip of the wing was rounded, not pointed. Gordon noted that the birds hopped rather than ran along the ground. Hops about 2-3 inches in length. They hopped on to rotten log about 3metres away and picked at moss for about 5-10 minutes. They flicked the moss using a sideways motion of the bill. The bill was inserted vertically into the moss, then the moss prised loose with a sideways flick, and this was very distinct. Each dislodged clump of moss was about 2-3 times the size of a 50-cent coin. Rhys Buckingham surveyed this site in 1999 but recorded no evidence of kokako still being present. Signs of South Island kokako Callaeas cinerea near Abut Head, South Westland Barry J Donovan Private Bag 4704 Christchurch Published by Department of Conservation Head Office, PO Box 10-420 Wellington, New Zealand This report was commissioned by the West Coast Conservancy ISSN 1171-9834 © 1999 Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 10-420, Wellington, New Zealand Reference to material in this report should be cited thus: Donovan, BJ., 1999. Signs of South Island kokako Callaeas cinerea near Abut Head, South Westland Conservation Advisory Science Notes No. 252, Department of Conservation, Wellington. Keywords: South Island kokako, Callaeas cinerea, Abut Head, Harikari Ecological District Abstract About 20 years ago a bird that almost certainly was a South Island kokako or orange wattled crow Callaeas cinerea was seen on a branch on the edge of bush near Abut Head, South Westland. On 2 June 1997 in the same place, I saw a dark bird twice and heard two loud wing beats which matched recorded purported South Island kokako wing beats. Since about the late 1980s sev- eral long mournful double notes and one musical organ or flute-like call at- tributed to South Island kokako have been heard on a bushed hillside about 1.06 km further west. On 24 October 1996 in this area and through binocu- lars I saw a blue wattle on the right side of a bird's head, and later a bird was seen and heard "clucking" in the same spot. Also, a blue wattle was glimpsed as a bird flew into the same spot. The size, shape and colour of birds was analogous to that of 18 specimens of South Island kokako in the Canterbury Museum. The observations reported here strongly suggest that the very rare South Island kokako is extant near Abut Head. 1. Introduction The South Island kokako or orange wattled crow, Callaeas cinerea, was com- mon in at least several areas of the South Island until late last century (Potts 1873, 1882, Reischek 1885, Buller 1888, Smith 1888, Douglas 1899) and Stew- art Island early this century (Cockayne 1909). Thereafter substantive reports of birds have been few (e.g. Chapman 1959, McBride 1981, Buckingham 1987), but have covered a wide geographical range from Stewart Island to North- west Nelson. Where abundant last century, birds were sometimes easily seen and were described as gentle, confident, and with caution, allowing a close approach (Potts 1882), hopping tamely about the tent door (Smith 1888), and extremely tame, hopping to within a few feet of the intruder (Cockayne 1909). However, in contrast Reischek (1885) said that kokako "when disturbed, are adept in the art of hiding, either under a limb in the fork of a tree, or between thick leaves". The Red Data Book (Williams & Given 1981) listed the subspe- cies as extinct, but Tisdall et al. (1994) list South Island kokako under cat- egory X (have not been sighted for a number of years but which may still exist). Here I describe and discuss various recent signs including observations sug- gestive of the presence of South Island kokako near Abut Head, South West- land. 1 2. Locality description Abut Head is the western extremity of a hilly peninsula about 10 km long and 1-2.5 km wide which lies east-west on the north bank of the Whataroa River in South Westland. The Saltwater Lagoon forms the northern boundary of the eastern half, and the Tasman Sea lies to the north and west of the western half (Fig 1). Geologically the peninsula is Otiran moraine (Warren 1967), with more or less one or two irregular ridges up to 100-200 m high running some- what east-west. The Whataroa River swings away from the morainic wall in three places, leaving extensive river flats. The western flat is mostly swamp which was drained and burnt early this century, but which has reverted to a near-original state. The middle and eastern flats were cleared of all but scat- tered large trees early this century, and have been extensively modified with introduced grasses and herbs, gorse Ulex europaeus, and trees, primarily pine Pinus radiata and eucalyptus Eucalyptus delegatensis. The hilly terrain is clothed in indigenous forest which has a discontinuous, generally open overstorey of rimu Dacrydium cupressinum and miro Prumnopitys furruginea above a main canopy generally dominated by kamahi Weinmannia racemosa with a dense undergrowth of kiekie Freycinetia baueriana, supplejack Ripogonum scandens and tree ferns Cyathea spp. and Dicksonia spp. (Wardle 1985). Swampy areas between river flats and the hilly terrain are fringed with dense forest dominated by white pine Dacrycarpus dacrydioides.The only major man-made modifications to the native forest are a disused pack track that dates from late last century and runs for about 5.5 km along cliff tops from Abut Head to the western end of the Saltwater La- goon, and three transect lines chainsawed across the western half of the pe- ninsula in January 1995.