Daylight saving has given me a second chance to listen to the dawn chorus when I get up at 6.30am for work. It's not easy to capture surround-sound with a wee camera but with help from Audacity to amplify the audio and Movie Maker to create a movie, I hope I can share the experience with you.
Korimako (bellbird,
Anthornis melanura) make up most of the sound; Captain Cook described its song as
"it seemed to be like small bells most exquisitely tuned".
Here's 90 seconds of the dawn chorus on 9 October 2013 (974Kb):
There are several riroriro (grey warbler,
Gerygone igata) territories around and their warbling song is very loud for such a small bird. They will be busy rearing clutches before the long-tail cuckoo arrives and lays eggs in the riroriro nests. I couldn't see the riroriro but here's the audio (15 secs, 329Kb) and there's a lovely picture of one at
http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/grey-warbler
As I walked home this morning I heard a putangitangi (Paradise shelduck,
Tadorna variegate) female calling to her mate. Her shrill cries remind me of a nagging woman and the male's deep honk sounds like he's saying 'yes, dear'. They are only found in New Zealand and they mate for life. You can just make out the female on the left (with the white head) and the dark-coloured drake just to the right and walking towards her. More info can be found at
http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/putangi.html (25 seconds, 414Kb).
I didn't have my camera out last Friday at midnight when the noisy rustling out from the deck turned into a kiwi. Carla and I were standing on the deck and we both saw it; exactly what I came down to the island to see. Monday 14 October is the start of 'Save the Kiwi' Week and with your help maybe future generations will be able to see kiwi in the wild too. Check out
http://www.trademe.co.nz/stores/kiwis-for-kiwi for special kiwi deals, or maybe pop a donation in the collection bucket at DOC.
