Stray young muttonbirds are still turning up in Queenstown after mass numbers fell out of the sky, principally around Northern Southland, during stormy weather last Wednesday night.
Al Browne, Kiwi Park’s wildlife ops manager, says he had one handed in yesterday morning from the grounds of Fernhill’s Mercure hotel.
‘‘When they got blown in, they kind of tuck themselves under bushes, and anything they can find, so it was a few days before someone finds them.’’
Alicia Hebbend was driving along Shotover Country’s Toni’s Terrace late on Monday night when she saw a black figure by a parked car.
‘‘I didn’t think much of it but then I saw a cat across the other side of the road, eyeing it up.’’
She then picked up ‘‘quite a big bird’’.
‘‘I thought it might have been a tītī [muttonbird], but it wasn’t till I got home I checked it was.’’
Hebbend put the bird in a cat cage, then drove it off to Remarkable Vets in the morning.
‘‘It was just so cool because tītī are such important birds to Ngāi Tahu, it was really cool to have the opportunity to see it and hold it up nice and close, it’s not obviously something we get to do very often in Queenstown.’’
She says the seabird wasn’t able to use its wings — ‘‘literally he could only waddle around’’ — and therefore escape predators, so advises people to be on the lookout for them.
Rebecca Teele, local Department of Conservation senior biodiversity ranger, says less than 50 of the birds have been found in Queenstown so far, and are being driven back to the south coast where they can take flight again.
Anyone finding strays can drop them off to Kiwi Park or Remarkable Vets.
