NZ’s Silent Forests – Where have the Birds Gone?

Botanist Joseph Banks who came with Cook to NZ described the loudness of Aotearoa’s (NZ’s) bush in the late 1700s …

‘This morn I was awakd by the singing of the birds ashore from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile, the numbers of them were certainly very great who seemd to strain their throats with emulation perhaps; their voices were certainly the most melodious wild musick I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells but with the most tuneable silver sound imaginable to which maybe the distance was no small addition. On enquiring of our people I was told that they have had observd them ever since we have been here, and that they begin to sing at about 1 or 2 in the morn and continue till sunrise, after which they are silent all day like our nightingales.’ 

We are now told this has stopped because of the pest population, however, if you listened at the link above you’d know Te Urewera still has this very loud chorus & it has not been poisoned  with 1080.

Thanks to the GrafBoys they have filmed the silent 1080 poisoned forests, and they have filmed the non-1080-poisoned forests.

 

Telling isn’t it?

The Taranaki ngahere has been poisoned with 1080 for 27 years and is about (as at February 2019) to be poisoned again. A local observer Brett Power recently posted a video demonstrating the quietness of the area now. No birds. Eerie silence he says.

Twenty seven years worth?  It seems to not be working then?

Just the other day one of our readers commented below one of our 1080 articles:

“As a retired Hunter & photographer who has always lived in the bush, I can say that I have always known that DoC’s Scientific reports are false, People in the city know nothing about the Great outdoors & the Animals & people who live within the forest. I am 74 years old this year, I have never seen such a decline in birds as there is now.”

Here is another comment:

I myself love photographing Birds, I have been doing it all my life, I did extensive Travel in South Is. when I was young, I have just returned from a Photography trip in Fiordland, So Sad the 1080 Poison has killed so many of the Birds, I only got 3 Good photos of Birds, compared with 50 odd in the 1970s, What I did see a lot of, was 1080 Poison Signs.

And another:

Me and my sister used to take trips out to Kinloch to take our kids for ice creams and just enjoy the scenery. That was until we noticed warning signs for 1080 being dumped in the area and seeing multiple dead birds no way we were going to let our small children play there anymore!

I experience that same thing,when we stayed at this lodge in the taranaki area ,patuha lodge ,silence,no birds, no insects so they did have signs tho, the surrounding bush around the lodge had no life, and at night time too that was freaky to, like a still ness silence in the night breeze, like my brain couldn’t compute,like what’s wrong with this picture..#whensthemaddnessgonnastop  5/11/19  FB

Listen to the commentary here from Brett Power in the Taranaki:

Finally remember the recent revelation from a LandCare Scientist that one of DoC’s South Island aerial 1080 drops would have killed an estimated 10,000 birds. And we’re supposed to believe 1080 only kills targeted pests?

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“NO BIRDS … NO KIWI, TUI, WEKA, KERERU … ALL GONE” – AN OBSERVATION ON THE WEST COAST FROM AN 82 YEAR OLD

Posted recently in 1080 social media pages (name supplied):

Graham says:
“Just before Christmas my worker and I were clearing back overhanging foliage from a footpath in a built up area. Along came an elderly gentleman on his little scooter thing they have these days. He wanted to stop for a yarn so we obliged. He was 82 and had just made one last journey back home to the area he grew up in … the West coast. He went to all his childhood and teenage years haunts and spent time, a lot of it in and on bush tracks.

I asked him did he notice much in the way of change since those days?

The Birds he said … the place used to be full of native birds but all he saw on this whole trip there was one Weka. Everything has gone. The bush is now dead. No Kiwi, no Weka or Tui, even the Kea had gone.

READ MORE: https://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/no-birds-no-kiwi-tui-weka-kereru-all-gone-an-observation-on-the-west-coast-from-an-82-year-old/

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Cruel poisons will never bring back the birdsong

January 27, 2019 Pam Vernon 4 Comments Edit

Mainstream has posted an opinion piece by Fiona McQueen on our diminishing birds.

OPINION: Dave Hansford has launched yet another attack against those opposed to pest control in the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, near Nelson. This sanctuary has just reopened, surrounded by a 14km pest-proof fence. It will be stocked with kiwi, kākāriki and kākā.

READ MORE

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/109905094/cruel-poisons-will-never-bring-back-the-birdsong?fbclid=IwAR3yH5TEU4e8nFP4bqDYU-feu_R-hLPL8QrGFVY1Gaoro3l22tFCbfC6gJ8

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RELATED ARTICLES:

• SILENT FOREST NOW IN FIORDLAND’S HOLLYFORD VALLEY – NO BIRDS – ONLY CICADAS & TOURIST TRAFFIC A LOCAL REPORTS 14/2/19
• THE DECIMATION OF OUR NATIVE KEA – WE ARE WATCHING ONE OF NEW ZEALAND’S GREATEST ENVIRONMENTAL TRAGEDIES TAKING PLACE! 04/01/19
• GO INTO A 1080-POISONED FOREST, SEE FOR YOURSELF SAYS A NZ BUSHMAN OF 35 YEARS – NON TARGET BIRDS ARE DYING 08/07/18
• IS 1080 SAVING OR DESTROYING OUR BIRD LIFE? HEAR FOR YOURSELF THE POISONED VS NON-POISONED FORESTS 12/09/16
  
• WORKERS REPORT THAT NOTHING IS ALIVE NOW … NO BIRDS, NO INSECTS, NOTHING! … AT RECENTLY 1080’D WILKIN RIVER VLLY, MT ASPIRING NTL PARK 3/11/19
• A NZ PIG HUNTER FROM THE ’50S SAYS THAT AFTER 60+ YEARS OF DROPPING 1080 IN THE WAINUI BUSH NEAR TAUPO HE CAN NO LONGER HEAR THE BIRDS…”THEY’RE ALL GONE” 02/11/19
• HEAR THE BIRDSONG IN THE UREWERAS, THEY’VE HOSTED RATS, STOATS, POSSUMS & DEER FOR OVER 100 YEARS & NO 1080 DROPS (THE GRAFBOYS) 14/09/18
• THE TARANAKI FOREST IS SILENT … “EERIE, NO BIRDS” … OBSERVATION FROM A LOCAL 05/02/19
• SINCE A 1080 DROP IN FIORDLAND’S HOLLYFORD VALLEYS IN LATE 2017 THE RAT POPULATION HAS INCREASED & NATIVE BIRDS, DEER & TROUT ARE IN SEVERE DECLINE 30/03/18
• TELL ME AGAIN HOW 1080 IS SAVING OUR BIRDS? 26/12/17
• Pesticides Linked to Declining Bee Populations Also Threaten Birds and Small Mammals
• DEAD BIRD NESTS CONTAIN 36 DIFFERENT PESTICIDES, INCLUDING DDT 20/09/19
• A WHOLE FLOCK NUMBERING HUNDREDS OF KEA WIPED OUT IN ONE 1080 DROP – A FARMER SPEAKS OUT 22/08/19
• A NZ ECOLOGIST FIRMLY BELIEVES THE NEAR EXTINCTION OF OUR KEA & ROCK WREN IS DUE TO THE CONTINUED USE OF 1080 22/05/19
• NZ’S DEPT OF CONSERVATION APPROVES DESTRUCTION OF RARE CRESTED GREBE HABITAT – TO IMPROVE FOREIGN LANDOWNER’S VIEW 12/05/19
• THE RESEARCH OF A US BIOPHYSICIST INDICATES AERIAL POISONING HAS “TWICE AS MANY COSTS TO NATIVE SPECIES AS BENEFITS” & IS “TWICE AS COSTLY TO NATIVE SPECIES AS UNMANAGED POSSUM POPULATIONS” 27/12/18
• THE DIR GENERAL OF DOC CLAIMS 1080 DOESN’T KILL NON-TARGET SPECIES WHILST DOC’S OWN STUDIES SHOW IT DOES 22/12/18
• IN 2004 THE AUTHORITIES KILLED ALMOST 60% OF AN ALREADY ENDANGERED RESIDENT DOTTEREL POPULATION WITH BRODIFACOUM POISON 24/11/18
• “TWENTY YEARS OF 1080 IN THE HAAST VALLEY HAS KILLED OUR KEA POPULATION” 04/11/18
• SOME VERY UNPLEASANT HOME TRUTHS FROM A KIWI EX-1080 POISON WORKER 21/09/18
• DOC’S DUBIOUS ‘SUCCESS’ RATE WITH 1080 – $3.5 BILLION, A DECADE LATER AND NOT A SINGLE ENDANGERED BIRD SPECIES IN RECOVERY 17/12/15
• TWO SCIENTISTS WHO REVIEWED MORE THAN 100 OF DOC’S SCIENTIFIC PAPERS SAY: “THERE’S NO CREDIBLE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE SHOWING ANY SPECIES OF NATIVE BIRD BENEFITS FROM 1080 DROPS” 28/04/18
• IN 1984 THE ENTIRE WESTERN WEKA POPULATION ON NZ’S TAWHITINUI ISLAND WAS EXTERMINATED IN A BRODIFACOUM POISON DROP (IMPORTANT INFO HERE FOR HUNTERS & FISHERMEN) 04/12/17
• WITH THE ANOMALIES NOTED IN KEA DEATHS, A SERIOUS UPGRADE IN MONITORING IS REQUIRED FOR US TO SEE THAT 1080 IS ACTUALLY DOING WHAT DOC SAYS IT DOES 04/11017
• WITH A LONG HISTORY OF POISONING KEA, DOC IS SET TO FINISH OFF WHAT REMAINS – DR JO POLLARD 30/09/17
• BANNED IN MOST COUNTRIES & CLASSIFIED BY WHO AS ‘HIGHLY HAZARDOUS’… 1080 IS A BROAD-SPECTRUM POISON THAT KILLS ALL OXYGEN-BREATHING ANIMALS AND ORGANISMS – DR MERIEL WATTS 21/02/17
• IN 2011, DOC KILLED 77% OF TAGGED KEA WITH 1080 DROP IN NORTH OKARITO 26/09/16

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POSTSCRIPT:

If you have examples of forests grown silent & have videos, and / or comments to make please add them in the comments section or send them via the contact page & I will add them. Random evidence by itself is more easily dismissed by the authorities but all together as a collective the evidence is far harder to dismiss. People need to see what is really happening. It may interest you to know that the FB share buttons frequently disappear from my 1080 articles. I have to regularly review and reinstate missing share buttons, particularly on very popular 1080 posts. If you spot any please give me a heads up via comments.