On A Rainy Saturday

1 & 2 January, 2016

Nick came to visit on New Years’ Day, showing up at the door with a wailing Alex who took a moment to realize that it was me and that I was in this strange house in this strange place.

I had an excellent morning observation with the kea from about 9-11:20 and I had intended to go again in the early afternoon but Nick doesn’t like hanging around for hours while I obsess over kea and Alex would probably have had a meltdown of some sort.

So, since I was being visited by two babies we decided to go out and do some human friendly things. We took Alex to see the kune kunes which made him let off a string of excited unintelligible vocabulary while reaching his arms out towards them and opening and closing his hands.

I fed momma pig an apple and we popped into the hotel for a lemonade. As we were walking home we passed the semi tame white rabbit grazing in his usual area.

The train engines were being lined up for the Trans Alpine passenger train and I thought Alex might like to look at them. We came out of the middle subway that runs to the station to find that the Trans Alpine was there already. A group in the first carriage waved to Alex while he stared at them in a bewildered state.

The TA stops at this station every day at 3:30 in the afternoon. They have to add extra engines to pull the train up the grades in the pass. The process only takes around five minutes and then they head off toward Christchurch.

We went to Arthur’s Pass village next to get some food at the Wobbly Kea. I walked to the DOC visitor’s centre to ask about the banded kea I had seen. The woman told me the Kea Conservation Trust is now responsible for banding so I will try to contact Tamsin Orr-Walker to get info about the individual birds I’ve been observing. Hopefully she will be interested in some of my data and we can have a nice exchange of information.

Nick and I took Alex on the Bealey Nature Walk and I was able to take some better photographs of the sundew species there with my micro lens. We walked to the river and Nick entertained Alex by throwing big rocks into the pools and making a big splash. Alex tried to do the same but ended up throwing the rocks behind him. Alex wanted to walk by himself along the wooden paths even though he had difficulty with some of the stairs and would use his hands and feet to climb down. If we tried to pick him up and carry him he became irritable.

Nick made it clear he didn’t want to sit at Death’s Corner while I hunted Kea so we drove home and I returned in my car. It was about 7:35 when I arrived and the only Kea present were two birds sitting high up on the metal power line tower. I was able to get some information about the individuals that had been present thirty minutes prior. There had been about eight in all including one banded with the letter “E” who I have never seen before. Maybe the day was too hot because none of the birds came down to the parking lot and the two on the power pole flew off to the mountains after a machine gun call seemed to summon them there.

Today I got up at 6 and struggled to get myself awake. Alex had woken up in the night, wailed, crawled onto the mattress with Nick and me and proceeded to kick, head butt and wedge himself between us so that getting comfortable and going back to sleep was impossible.

I managed to get to DC at 7:15am. There were no birds in in the parking lot and mine was the only car so I waited and watched until I saw one kea land above me on the old Otira pass road.

I got my notebook and camera and hiked up the gravel road remains until I saw 4 walking around a little way ahead of me.

She immediately flew over and landed by me so I sat down to observe.

Within minutes C, a hen and a subadult male came out of the bushes and headed toward me. C must be the patriarch because the other male hung back while C walked over to check me out.

The hen also stayed with him and seemed solicitous of food from him. She had a slight yellow coloration to one part of her eye ring so I’m guessing she is a subadult as well.

We were soon joined by four other birds including another female fledgling that 4 repeatedly tussled with.

The adults began to forage and fossick in their group, tossing large rocks out of the way to see what was underneath and munching on daisy heads and other low growing alpine plants that were present in abundance.

This was an obvious social feeding time. C would perch on a rock from time to time and check to see that everything was in order. The behaviour of C was very neutral toward the other birds. He did not set up his crown feathers or make any aggressive displays toward the other birds.

4 and the other fledgling female would lock beaks roll on their backs, kick, flap their wings and hop around each other. When I got closer to them to take pictures I noticed that they were making a low metallic sounding noise toward each other which seemed to signal that they were both ready to tussle.

One male walked up to my face set his crown and nape feathers up and made a strange sound like a police siren approaching. It was louder than the fledglings tussle call but not shrill. I have no idea if this was a challenge or an attempt at flirting and I may never know because he was chased off by C who seemed to be telling him to move along and mind his own business.

Another amazing display happened between two subadults. It seemed like a courtship display of some sort where the two touched beaks before standing shoulder to should and unfolding their wings to show a little bit of the red coloration underneath. One bird gently grabbed the nape feathers of the other and appeared to be getting into position to mount although he did not. There were no vocalizations during this. Perhaps this was practice courtship.

Throughout my time observing I was approached by different birds to see what I was doing before they wandered off to a nearby plant to have breakfast. At one point I was laying on my stomach to get a bird’s eye level view and 4 hopped on my pants leg followed by A.

A light pinch on my Achilles tendon led to the curious explorer flapping to a nearby distance and resuming his fossicking.

My presence seem to be accepted and not interfere with the birds’ normal fossicking and play behaviours. I was pleased to see 4 nibbling at the flower heads and another fledgling had mastered holding her food in one foot and eating it.

I saw a few moments of allopreening but the main goal of the birds seemed to be feeding.

No one made any begging gestures for regurgitated food although one bird did give C a quick preen on his neck as he was passing by.

Kea seem to get itchy feet and I wonder if they don’t get sandfly bites too. One fledgling went to town picking at her feet with her beak for a good two minutes.

There are a lot of orange, pollen stained feathers around the beaks and there is a lot of kea sneezes. Most of them are quick “chew” sounds but one individual’s sneeze was so powerful that it ended in a medium pitched cry.

At one point another bird joined the group so there were nine in total.

After about an hour of being with the upper road group, 4 flew down to the parking lot with another fledgling and A.

They seemed to get somewhat hyper and the male landed on top of a tourists’ rental van and flapped his wings and screamed at them when they got closer to look at him. He then went to town, stripping the rubber off their radio antennae.

The family was still quite taken with him and this may be because the van was a rental and the repair bill will be going to someone else.

4 chased the male away and took over tearing at the antennae.

Then she hopped onto my car and tested the seals on the windows and tried to mangle my antennae although it is all metal and wouldn’t yield.

When I approached the car she hopped around the roof like a playful puppy ready for a tussle. The other fledgling tried the back tire with her beak while the male poked at the front one and stuck his beak into the front of the car to see if there was anything to pick at.

4 picked at the back wiper and jump back in surprise when I showed her how the wiper arm lifted up. After the rigorous Kea Warrant of Fitness test my old vehicle seemed no worse for the wear.

The birds’ play came to an end when a black backed gull flew over and they took off together back toward the old Otira overpass where I had observed them feeding.

I left then to get home to Nick and shortly after it began to rain steadily.

After breakfast Nick and Alex headed home and I returned to DC. I saw 4 perched on a rock in the rain but she looked uncomfortable and soon flew away. I am guessing the rest of the kea have found dry spots under rocks and bushes because I did not see them although I did her some contact calls.

I have been indoors the rest of the day. The outdoor pants I was wearing were not waterproof nor were my sneakers and I was getting wet and cold.

I took a monster nap and now I am thinking of going to the Wobbly Kea for my last dinner of this trip. Tomorrow I will try to do one last morning observation. I will be sad to leave this area and desperate to get back as soon as I can.

 If I can get in some long weekends out here throughout the year that would be ideal. A week seems like too long to be away from the family but only getting out for one long visit a year won't help me get any robust data.

I will put on my gumboots and take my umbrella now so I can do an evening check in at DC. I have a feeling the group will all be nestled away somewhere dry while I’m wondering around in the wet trying to find them.