Chatham Islands, New Zealand

Bird transfers around the Chatham Islands last month!

• 47 CI Petrel chicks were transferred on Monday 21 April from South East Island to the safety of the predator fenced covenant ‘Sweetwater', in South Chatham. A token 8 chicks were given the communities blessing during a brief stop over at the NKMR. Local iwi, Mayor Pat Smith and Ollie Seymour gave karakia for the chicks safe passage.
• The Pitt community also celebrated the arrival of 20 snipe to their predator fenced haven in ‘Caravan Bush', Pitt Island at the end of April.
• In the Tuku NR, 13 taiko chicks have been transferred from there to Sweetwater, a total of 5 more chicks than last year! Six taiko chicks have already fledged successfully from the enclosure.

The first of the 47 Chatham petrel chicks translocated to the Sweetwater Conservation covenant on Chatham Island have fledged accouring to Taiko Trust contractor Helen Gummer.  Ms Gummer is employed by the Trust to feed the chicks until they are ready to depart for sea and has been assisted by volunteers Barry Dent and Sue Freitag.  All the chicks should have departed for sea by late May and will hopefully to return to breed in 3 or 4 years time.

One of New Zealand's least-known rare birds is making a comeback. Twenty Chatham Island snipe were released into a privately-owned reserve on Pitt Island on 28th April. Only 33 people live on Pitt Island, the second largest of the Chatham Islands. Members of the community assisted the Department of Conservation with catching the snipe on nearby Rangatira (South East Island).

Snipe are distantly related to godwits, and formerly occurred throughout New Zealand. Following the introduction of rats and cats they became confined to remote islands free of these predators. The Chatham Island snipe survived on 219 hectare Rangatira and came close to extinction before the island was made a reserve in 1961. There are now over 1000 birds on the island. Twenty-three were transferred to nearby Mangere Island in 1970, where they thrived.

Both Rangatira and Mangere Island Nature Reserves are closed to the public. The release of snipe on Pitt Island will make them accessible for viewing for the first time. The birds were released into Ellen Elizabeth Preece Conservation Covenant, which has been surrounded by a cat-proof fence since 2001.

Landowner John Preece was delighted to see the snipe returned to Pitt Island, where they died out in the 1890s following cat introduction. "This is why we set this land aside - to help the forest and the birds recover. It is a privilege to be able to care for these rare birds, and to be able to share them with the community and their guests."

The transfer team was led by Dr Colin Miskelly of the Department of Conservation, who first studied Chatham Island snipe on Rangatira in 1983.

Chatham Islanders this week celebrated the first return of an endangered bird species to the main Chatham Island.

Forty-three nationally endangered Chatham petrel chicks have been moved from their former home on Rangatira (South East Island), to artificial burrows within the predator free Sweetwater Conservation Covenant, in the south of the main Chatham Island.

"It's a privilege to be involved in this joint project along with the Taiko Trust and the Chatham Island community, says Department of Conservation spokesperson Dale Williams.