Our Second Act-Takahe and more!

You are in for a treat if you would like to look at a very rare and pre-historic bird! Let me introduce you to the incredible Takahe! This bird was thought to be extinct by the late 1800’s…. but was miraculously found by an intrepid explorer/birder sometime in the mid-1950’s. He had searched and searched and found a very small group of them on the South Island in one of its many undiscovered valleys. One very small group of these birds was re-located to the Hawke’s Bay Area on the North Island. This particular area is surrounded by a predator-free zone fence. Because these remarkable birds are yet another flightless endemic bird to New Zealand, the only chance they have to grow their numbers is to be in areas without predators - particularly stoats. In the Hawk’s Bay we were in a 6,000 acre parcel of land where there are currently 13 of these birds. The entire population, as of 2019, was approx. 400 - the first time that there were that many in over a century. Thankfully, in 2023 the population had grown to about 500.

In yet another example of the good luck that accompanies me when Lorraine joins in the exploring, the wonderful guide Martin said to us - with very good luck we will see one or two as I will be taking you to 4 separate feeding areas. They have 6,000 acres to roam so would they be hungry at any of the sites we would be visiting or somewhere else entirely? His previous guests saw two when they went out with him so he was hopeful for our excursion together…

Before we get to our outing with Martin, I will first share a few shots from my early morning outing from that same day. Once again it was a truly stunning morning… have I mentioned that there is no ozone layer over New Zealand? Needless to say that makes for very vivid lighting and colors in the sky, water, and everything else! It also means you can burn to a crisp in less that 20 minutes - so covering up is critical when out anytime that the sun is out.

I decided to head out on a dirt road that I had gone a short ways on before but wanted to explore further - once again I scored!

This first shot is looking directly into the rising blaring sunrise! I kept hearing this very loud and distinct call and couldn’t find it as I was blinded by the sun… and then I finally spotted it quite aways from me. I decided to take a chance and shoot right into this otherworldly light to see if I could get a silhouette shot - here it is! This is a Kaka - medium sized forest parrot!

After this shot I turned and started off down along the dirt road…

And then I crested a slight rise and as I was going down the other side I looked back just in time to see this spectacular quail in a silhouette crossing the dirt road!

As I continued on my way the light was just magnificent and dawn’s chorus was so loud and beautiful - what a way to start the day! Just try to imagine no sounds other than birdsong coming from absolutely everywhere…

This is a Yellowhammer - the only one that I saw during our entire trip!

Looking to my right I saw these gorgeous thistle…. And then I heard a familiar song - guess who?

Now it is time to share our afternoon searching for Takahe with you!

Once again we piled into an ATV and headed out in an entirely different direction than the other times. The drive out was quite aways and took us through beautiful rolling hills and farming land. We finally arrived at the first stop. The 3 of us walked slowly and quietly in very high grass to try and catch a glimpse of a Takahe… when all of a sudden we saw some movement behind the tall grasses in front of us! A young Takahe!

Takahes are the largest flightless rails in the world! It takes 3 years for them to be fully mature and acquire all of their spectacular colorful feathers and for their beaks to turn red. This one is estimated to be a little over one year old. Fully grown they are a little over 2 feet tall! Their lifespan can range from 18-20ish years. Their bill is truly massive - well, everything about them is - including their bodies and their feet.