Sadly, we’ll no longer enjoy the call of the morepork (ruru) that we often
heard at night in the reserve behind our house. We had some
friends around for a barbecue last night and one of our guests, while
inspecting the garden, happened to look up into a big plum tree by our back
fence and saw a large dead bird suspended in the branches. Closer investigation
showed it to be a morepork – presumably the one that has been resident all
these years.
I took the body to the local DOC ranger today, thinking it
might be of interest. He explained that although moreporks are
incredibly skilful fliers, their navigation system can sometimes be affected by
storms and gale-force winds (which we’ve had lately). Apparently they
have very precise mind maps, and if the branch of a tree (for example) suddenly
pops up where they don’t expect it, they can come to grief. We can only assume
that’s happened to our bird, which was hooked up in a tangle of branches and
was dangling upside down.
Very sad, because it was a beautiful bird. I left it with
DOC because they thought someone might be able to use the feathers. I might put
up a “vacancy” sign by the entrance to the reserve and see if we can attract
another one.
2 comments:
We usually leave the lights on our deck switched on in the evenings and this attracts a morepork who we can watch as he swoops down to collect moths attracted by the light. The neatest sight is in early Spring when we have often seen the male catch a large moth and after ripping it's wings off present it to the female. They are incredibly silent flyers and their call at night is a very comforting sound.
I came across your blog researching why we don't hear our morepork. I believe they are effectied by rat poison Diphacinone: the council set these traps everywhere to kill mice and rats. But secondary poisoning kills our birds and pets. We need more public awakes of the dangers of these toxins.
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