Nick’s contact details for future issues of the magazine are:
Nick Allen
65 Allin Drive
Waikuku Beach
North Canterbury
Phone (03) 312 7183
Email: nick_allen@xtra.co.nz

The Society depends entirely on volunteer effort. This is a quite remarkable feature for an organisation of over 60 years of age. The Ornithological Society of New Zealand is however a completely different body from that of 60 years ago. This is not surprising – the world has changed inordinately in that time.

It seems obvious to me that ornithology itself has radically changed. When OSNZ began, birds in New Zealand were comparatively little known. Therefore any observation was likely to be a completely new chunk of knowledge – that is still the case of course, though the picture “grain”, in photographic terms, has become much finer.

As a result professional ornithologists and birdwatchers formed a kind of continuum, and amateur ornithological contributions easily ranked alongside those of the professionals. Browsing early Notornis issues, I am struck by the basic level field ecology which dominates most papers.

Today’s science (wherever it is heading in the future) has made immense advances compared with 60 years ago. Current ornithological papers are crammed with complex, specialist techniques, and professional ornithologists have to be as adept at the use of cutting edge technology, often way beyond the reach of non-specialists, as basic field craft.

We have also seen a sea change in conservation, with a completely new governmental and nongovernmental environment. The issues for preservation of our biodiversity meantime have never been more pressing.

So where does that leave OSNZ? Can we afford to remain a small organisation, maintained by volunteer effort? How do we cater for the professional scientist, as well as the emerging band of twitchers? We are unique among organisations that know of in that we do not have a plan for the future of any kind – is this appropriate in 2003? It seems to me that with the proliferation of other bird-related organisations and activities that we cannot, above all, afford to be complacent, relying on our considerable but, I venture to suggest, diminishing stature.

OSNZ News started with Barrie Heather. Paul Sagar then competently guided it through some 13 years. I have overseen its transition to the colour magazine Southern Bird. Over time its contents have slowly changed. It is time for another hand to take it to the next stage. Meanwhile I intend to devote some of the time freed up by relinquishing the role of editor to assisting the task of searching for where OSNZ should go from here. I warmly welcome any contribution you may have to that endeavour.

TONY CROCKER

On the morning of Friday 29 November I was lucky enough to go on the Oceanwings trip out of Kaikoura. The weather was cloudy, but not windy, and a reasonable selection of “to be expected” pelagic species was encountered, which made the trip very worthwhile for the variety of Spanish, Dutch, Australian, British and American tourists and birders on board.

At the end of the trip, as the boat was approaching the dock, a radio call from a departing whale-watching boat alerted us to the presence of “a penguin, quite big, and maybe a Yellow-eyed” on the boulders that make up the edge of South Harbour. The Oceanwings skipper, Gary Melville, hurried along to have a look and we were quickly able to find the bird, sitting on the top of the boulder pile, in full view, and at about 15m range.

A little swearing followed the immediate realisation that the bird was in fact an adult Chinstrap Penguin, which, given the views that we had, was hardly a difficult identification task. It was apparently quite well (not emaciated, not oiled, and not moulting). Dave Jackson took several photographs of the bird from the boat, and then, after a few minutes we continued to land.

Unfortunately a couple of people then walked along the top of the boulder wall towards the bird. I’m not sure if they were looking for the bird or just strolling on the wharf, but they managed to scare the penguin off. It promptly hopped into the water, dived and was lost to sight. It was not seen again.

The record has been accepted by the OSNZ Rare Birds Committee and constitutes the third record for the New Zealand mainland (there also being two records for sub-Antarctic islands). Chinstrap Penguin is a most unlikely bird to reach New Zealand once, let alone five times, since the vast majority of the world population breed on the “wrong” side of Antarctica, and there is only a tiny colony of about ten pairs at the Balleny Islands in the Ross Sea. The fact that the bird chose the harbour of the country’s prime pelagic birding operation in preference to the hundreds of kilometres of wild rocky coastline that are either side is truly mindboggling – but I am very glad that it did!

SAV SAVILLE