Since Friday Struan Farm has been participating in the Great Kereru Count 2017. I've been taking walks in the mornings and late afternoons to find and observe the native wood pigeons on our property, also noting random sightings. The count runs until October 1st.
The first day I was somewhat disappointed. After having seen them flying all over the place the previous week, I only counted two! The second day was sunny, and I went out a bit earlier. I came across one chowing down on one of our plum trees in the orchard again (sorry pidgee, but I'm going to need to put a stop to that with scare tape!). Then I walked up to our boundary fence behind the Cottage. There are three large willow trees coming into leaf, and historically the pigeons hang out there. I wasn't disappointed: 17! The next day I saw 15 before a hawk frightened most of them off into the bush.
Registering an observation is easy. If you let them take your location off your computer or phone, it's registered automatically in the map. Then you note day/time and basic information about where the birds were and what they were doing. You can also upload photos. The information is being used for research on these birds, NZ's only native seed dispersers.
Here are some of my pics:
That last one above isn't the best photograph, but I wanted to get photographic evidence of some of the numbers in these trees for the Count. I'm having fun doing this. Think about participating if you've got the time and the birds on your property or somewhere nearby.
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