Environment – Down time for birds

We’re all feeling the heat right now – some of us love it but others – not so much. Those who aren’t so happy just hunker down and get through until autumn brings cooler weather. It’s much the same for birds. The hard work of rearing chicks through the spring and early summer is over and life goes quiet.

The dawn chorus of late summer is nothing to what it was in spring. Even the tui is quieter and has stopped waking us at ungodly hours of the morning. 

Right now many birds are going through their main moult – you may have noticed the blackbirds in your own garden looking bedraggled. Their old worn feathers are falling out and being replaced with new ones. This lasts into the autumn when birds start to seem their normal selves.

Away from our gardens, similar things are happening. The robins/toutouwai at Shakespear Regional Park will be reclusive and shabby. Grey warbler/riroriro have gone quiet and the persistent “kek kek kek” of the kingfisher/kotare is much reduced. Perhaps these birds know it is useless to call when the loud chorus of the cicada is at its February peak and drowning out all other sounds in the bush.

By the way, keep an eye out for North Island robins along the peninsula. The young birds disperse widely from home and there is a good chance they will one day settle in bush reserves such as those along the Weiti River.

And what can we do to help the birds through this time? If you have a birdbath then keep it full and clean. High summer temperatures mean the water can go off more quickly than usual. Having the birdbath under the shade of a tree helps. 

As the temperatures start to fall and the birds are looking in top condition again, the dawn chorus comes back in full force.

Among the first to start singing again will be the song thrush. In April they will dust themselves off, fly to the top of a tree or power pole and start to sing their hearts out. They will soon be joined by others – the silvereyes, grey warblers and tuis.

The abundant natural food supply of late summer can also lead to larger numbers of rats around our gardens. It’s a good time to tidy up your rat-traps and maybe try a new bait to see what you can attract.

Make life easy for yourself – have your trap somewhere easy to access. If you find you forget to set it, try keeping a jar of peanut butter beside your recycling bin so that at least every fortnight you’re reminded to re-bait your trap.

If you haven’t caught anything during the summer, the change of season may bring new results.