Between November 2023 and March 2024, Natural History curator Colin Miskelly is walking the length of Aotearoa New Zealand on Te Araroa Trail – counting every bird seen or heard along the way. In this tenth blog in the series, Colin describes birds encountered between the township of National Park and Whanganui city.
Walking from National Park to the Whanganui River
The entire route from National Park to Whanganui city is easy walking (or paddling), as Te Araroa Trail follows the Mountains to Sea cycleway. This means wide pathways, easy gradients, and no steps. There is still some mud, but mostly easily avoided.
From National Park, Te Araroa Trail follows the Fisher Track through Erua Forest to Upper Retaruke Road. Day two is a road-walk along the mostly gravel Oio Road to Whakahoro on the east bank of the Whanganui River.
The walk along Oio Road was our wettest day on Te Araroa Trail to date, though for the most part it was just wet enough to make record keeping difficult, rather than affecting the birds themselves.
And all through the motu
The heavens did open
As they are verily prone to.
Christmas Eve at Whakahoro. Photo by Colin Miskelly
Christmas north of Nowhere
Te Araroa walkers have several canoe options on the Whanganui River. Most start their paddle at Whakahoro, and paddle either 88 km to Pipiriki or the full 178 km to Whanganui. We chose to maximise walking and minimise paddling, picking up our canoe at Mangapurua Landing and exiting the river 32 km later at Pipiriki. My previous experience paddling the Whanganui River had shown that relatively few birds are observed on the river compared to when walking (see Birds of the Whanganui Journey ‘Great Walk’).
From Whakahoro the Kaiwhakauka and Mangapurua Tracks run southward for about 40 km, roughly parallel with the Whanganui River. The tracks are rich in history, with much evidence of failed attempts to farm the valleys in the 1920s and 1930s. The most poignant relic is the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’, which was built just as the last settlers abandoned the Mangapurua Valley. The track stops at Mangapurua Landing, and from there to Pipiriki the only options for Te Araroa walkers are to arrange a canoe drop off, or book a jetboat ride with one of the operators who deliver day-walkers to the Bridge to Nowhere short walk.
The boat operators took a two-day break over Christmas, and so we had three slow days (only 14-16 km per day) along the Kaiwhakauka and Mangapurua Tracks, biding time until our scheduled canoe delivery.
The Annual Rain Event eventually petered out late on Christmas Day, and with only a short distance to walk, we were able to wait out the worst of it.
Whanganui River Te Araroa ‘walkers’ share the awa (river) with a much larger number of people on the Whanganui Journey, with the huts and campgrounds booked via the Department of Conservation’s Great Walks booking site. As Te Araroa walkers all carry tents, and generally prefer to avoid crowds, they tend to congregate at the campsites rather than the huts. The only other campers at the delightful Ngaporo campsite (our sole night on the river) were four other Te Araroa walkers who had started their paddle at Whakahoro.
Pipiriki to Whanganui
Te Araroa Trail follows Whanganui River Road for 62 km from Pipiriki to Whanganui city, which we walked over three days. We passed through the historic settlement of Jerusalem/Hiruhārama about 11 km south of Pipiriki, and took time to admire the much-photographed St Joseph’s church, which was built in 1893.
Birds between National Park and the Whanganui River
Erua Forest appeared to be untrapped, and had reasonable diversity but low abundance of forest birds. I recorded 9 North Island robins | toutouwai, 8 tomtits | miromiro, 7 kererū | New Zealand pigeon, 6 long-tailed cuckoos | koekoeā, and 5 whiteheads | pōpokotea in 8 km.
The track provided few opportunities to view the Retaruke River, but we did eventually find a pair of foraging whio | blue ducks from Upper Retaruke Road.
Birds of the Kaiwhakauka and Mangapurua Tracks
These two bike tracks were not trapped, yet had a surprisingly dense population of North Island robins | toutouwai, plus we had some good views of long-tailed cuckoo | koekoeā.
Along 38.5 km of mostly-forested habitat (there are still areas of rank grass from farms that were abandoned 90 years ago), I counted 158 silvereyes | tauhou, 140 robins | toutouwai, 87 bellbirds | korimako, 66 fantails | pīwakawaka, 61 tomtits | miromiro, 46 whiteheads | pōpokotea, 43 grey warblers | riroriro, 40 tūī, 18 kererū | New Zealand pigeon, 15 long-tailed cuckoos | koekoeā, and 11 sacred kingfishers | kōtare. The introduced chaffinch | pahirini and blackbird | manu pango were ranked 5th and 7th respectively, with 62 and 54 birds counted.
There was a reasonable population of kiwi along the tracks. I heard two males near Mosely’s campsite on Kaiwhakauka track, and four males and a female near Johnson’s campsite on Mangapurua track.
Birds along the Whanganui River
The river was running high and silt-laden after the Annual Rain Event, which likely explained the scarcity of fish-eating birds along the 31 km that we paddled.
A highlight was the proportion of ducks that looked like the native grey duck | pārera (28 compared to 26 mallards or hybrids). Grey ducks have disappeared from much of New Zealand due to competition and hybridisation with the introduced mallard. Remote forested catchments like the Whanganui are among the few places where ‘grey-looking’ ducks can be seen – although their actual whakapapa is unknown in the absence of DNA-testing.
Birds between Pipiriki and Whanganui
The long road walk offered few opportunities for birding, with the night herons of Jerusalem/Hiruhārama and Upokongaro being the stand-out highlights (see below). Another feature of the walk was the high density of feral peafowl | pīkao (= peacocks). I counted 98 between Pipiriki and Whanganui, mainly after hearing their strident calls.
Although the route is predominantly farmland, native forest clings to many of the steep hillsides and riverbanks. As a result, our ‘roadside’ birds for the three days included 88 bellbirds | korimako, 29 tūī, 20 kererū | New Zealand pigeons, 16 whiteheads | pōpokotea, 12 tomtits | miromiro, 5 North Island robins | toutouwai, and 2 long-tailed cuckoos | koekoeā. We also had our first black-fronted dotterel of Te Araroa Trail, on a silty bank of the Whanganui River.
The night herons of the Whanganui catchment
Among the New Zealand birding community, the Whanganui region is best known as the only place where there is a reasonable chance of seeing a nankeen night heron | Umu kōtuku. However, these spectacular birds are masters of concealment when roosting in the daytime, hiding away among dense foliage, and so it can take a lot of effort or luck to see one.
The night herons are notable in being the only bird (so far) to have an honorific te reo Māori name. Several New Zealand birds are named after prominent explorers or naturalists (e.g. Cook’s petrel, Buller’s mollymawk, Hutton’s shearwater), but the name Umu kōtuku is linked with the timing of their arrival at Jerusalem/Hiruhāmara on the Whanganui River.
Hōhepa Te Umuroa was exiled to Tasmania in 1846, and died of tuberculosis on Maria Island in Bass Strait. His remains were exhumed and repatriated in 1988, and reburied at Patiarero Marae, Hiruhāmara. Nankeen night herons have been recorded as occasional vagrants (from Australia) in Aotearoa since 1845, but were first recorded breeding in New Zealand at Hiruhāmara in 1995. They are considered by local iwi Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi to be Te Umuroa’s kaitiaki (caretakers or guardians) who accompanied him back across Te Tai-o-Rēhua (the Tasman Sea). As Umu is derived from a person’s name, it must always be capitalised regardless of editorial style.
My first encounter with Umu kōtuku on Te Araroa Trail was decidedly fortuitous – if not religious! I had just taken a photograph of St Joseph’s Church of Hiruhārama when there was a loud clattering behind me caused by a truck dumping a load of rocks. I turned in time to see an adult Umu kōtuku that had been startled from its daytime roost, flying towards me – a rare sighting at the New Zealand tūrangawaewae (ancestral place) of this very special bird.
Umu kōtuku are so secretive that we know little about their distribution and abundance in Aotearoa. The only accessible known colony is behind a café at Upokongaro on Te Araroa Trail about 12 km north of Whanganui. I arranged in advance to meet three local birders there, who were able to point out three active nests and the location of a fourth, with one incubating bird showing well.
We all returned to the site at dusk and witnessed one adult Umu kōtuku flying in, two departing, and one briefly standing outside the canopy of the Holm oak where three of the nests were.
Nocturnal bird counts
Most of the information in these blogs is derived from continuous 2-km transects walked during daylight. In order to gather information on nocturnal birds, I try to complete a nocturnal count at each campsite or hut. Most are stationary 10-minute counts, but when track conditions allow in ‘kiwi country’ I walk a 1-km or 2-km transect in order to increase the chance of hearing and possibly seeing kiwi.
By far the most frequent nocturnal bird recorded throughout Aotearoa is ruru | morepork. During 38 nocturnal counts undertaken between Ninety Mile Beach and Upokongaro, I counted 63 ruru (including 2 seen), 13 North Island brown kiwi | kiwi-nui, and 4 each nankeen night herons and Cook’s petrels | tītī. Diurnal birds heard calling at night included 4 long-tailed cuckoos | koekoeā, 3 peafowl | pīkao, 2 spur-winged plovers, and one each paradise shelduck | pūtangitangi, pukeko, kākā, and tūī.
Bird species added since the previous section
Black-fronted dotterel, nankeen night heron | Umu kōtuku.
Summary statistics for section nine
Cumulative totals for Te Araroa sections completed are given in parentheses.
- Days on the trail = 8 (56)
- Kilometres travelled and surveyed = 213.1 (1458.7)
- eBird/Atlas checklists completed = 121 (807)
- Number of bird species = 51 (96)
- Total birds seen or heard = 6170 (55,271)
- Most abundant species = chaffinch | pahirini (720)
- Most abundant native species = silvereye | tauhou (472)
- Most abundant endemic species = bellbird | korimako (340)
- Most frequent species = chaffinch | pahirini (85.8 % of checklists), followed by blackbird | manu pango (83.1 %)
- Most frequent endemic (and native) species = bellbird | korimako (82.3 % of checklists), followed by tūī (77.0 %)
- Endemic bird score = 41
Other blogs in this series
- Every Last Bird – the Birds of Te Araroa Trail
- Birds of Te Araroa 1 – Cape Reinga to Kaitāia
- Birds of Te Araroa 2 – Kaitāia to Kerikeri
- Birds of Te Araroa 3 – Kerikeri to Whangārei Harbour
- Birds of Te Araroa 4 – Whangārei Harbour to Auckland
- Birds of Te Araroa 5 – Auckland to Hamilton
- Birds of Te Araroa 6 – Hamilton to Te Kūiti
- Birds of Te Araroa 7 – Te Kūiti to Taumarunui
- Birds of Te Araroa 8 – Taumarunui to National Park
- Birds of Te Araroa 10 – Whanganui to Palmerston North
- Birds of Te Araroa 11 – Palmerston North to Wellington
- Birds of Te Araroa 12 – Cook Strait to Havelock
- Birds of Te Araroa 13 – Havelock to St Arnaud
- Birds of Te Araroa 14 – St Arnaud to Boyle Village
- Birds of Te Araroa 15 – Boyle River to Rakaia River
- Birds of Te Araroa 16 – Rakaia River to Twizel
- Birds of Te Araroa 17 – Twizel to Wānaka
- Birds of Te Araroa 18 – Wānaka to the Te Anau Highway
- Birds of Te Araroa 19 – Te Anau Highway to Bluff
- Birds of Te Araroa Trail – Every Last Word
It was great to be able to meet Team Miskelly at Upokongaro and wonderful to know you were able to get a good look at the intriguing Nanjeen Night Herons. Good fortune with tge rest of your travels and your birding along the trail.
Great initiative!!