The Birds

The birds tell a story. Not, thankfully, the Daphne du Maurier version! In Australia we were literally accosted and initially confused by the myriad species of birds. It was like learning a whole new language. They tell a story about Australia, its vastness, its diverse ecology, and the adaptability of species over thousands of years.

But New Zealand is a young country both geologically and also in terms of human habitation. The first colonizers arrived no more than 1,000 years ago from Polynesia and became the indigenous Maori peoples that Europeans, mostly Anglos, encountered in the 18th century. With the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 with the British poured in, particularly from the 1860s on. The story of their settlement is told through the local architecture, as we learned on a recent heritage walk of Mount Eden Village. Our fun guide pointed out along the main street of the village the various styles present, from Victorian, Edwardian, Arts & Craft to Art Deco, and the story of expanding growth these told.

So what does this have to do with the birds?

Pre-colonization the islands had no mammals, simply birds and insects. What survive today are a limited number of endemic species such as the kiwi, kakapo, kaka, kea, and korimako (bellbird). And many of these are endangered because of the introduction of mammals and the reduction in native habitat caused by intensive farming and urbanization. We have yet to see many of these endemic birds, but on our recent tramp on the Shakespear Regional Reserve (already recounted by Marsha), we did see the piwakawaka (fantail), kereru (new zealand pigeon – see pic), toutouwai (north island robin), tui, putangitangi (paradise shelduck), and kotare (sacred kingfisher).

Then (and you can read this in the bird books with repeated statements like “. . . introduced in the 1860s . . .”) you have a whole catalogue of birds familiar to a British birder, such as myself: blackbird, goldfinch (not the US variety – see pic), house sparrow (yes, they rule), chaffinch, starling, quail, meadow pipit, and skylark. All of these we saw at Shakespear.

And then there are a few species who have found their way to these islands from Australia, such as the magpie lark, eastern rosella (see pic), australasian gannet (takapu), black swan (wani), and white-faced heron (matuku moana), all of which we identified at Shakespear.

So unlike Australia, the diversity of species here is limited, a testament to the history of these small, temperate, windy, and squally islands, islands which are distinguished by earthquake and volcanic activity. And therein lies their beauty and their threat.

Following the devastating Christchurch earthquake of 2012, new building codes have been introduced and each building is being rated as to its ability to withstand the shakes. Unfortunately for Friends here, the Meeting House is built on a double brick foundation which is unstable is shaken. So the Meeting is having to face the fact that within 35 years (the period dictated by law) the building must either be reinforced, razed and rebuilt, or sold and the meeting move elsewhere. Reinforcing is probably the cheapest option, but it still will not be cheap (in excess of NZ$500K). Land is at a premium here in Auckland so no doubt it could be sold for a pretty penny, but where would the Meeting go and still be a presence in the city?

In the meantime, the house sparrows are found in every nook and cranny.