Home on the ground

Last updated 23:32 05/12/2008

LINDSAY BOWRING

OUT IN THE OPEN: The chicks were spotted with only a tree trunk for protection.

Relevant offers

A pair of morepork chicks could have been a meal for the first passing rat, but tight predator control in a bush block in Silverstream has given them a fighting chance.

The chicks - mere fluff balls and only a few weeks old - were stumbled upon by a Greater Wellington regional council predator-control contractor on Corrections Department land.

The council said it was rare to see chicks in such an exposed area. Moreporks, or ruru, were well heard but rarely seen.

Council biosecurity officer Glen Falconer said the eggs were laid with only a tree trunk for protection.

Moreporks usually nest in remote and hidden tree hollows, in clumps of perching plants or in cavities among rocks and roots.

Mr Falconer said that, without predator control in the area, it would have been highly likely that the eggs would have ended up as a meal for the first rat, possum, stoat, ferret or feral cat that wandered by the makeshift nest.

"Even if they had hatched, these little balls of fluff wouldn't stand much of a chance against a hungry predator."

The chicks' nest is in the Witako block, which is one of 92 areas in the predator-control programme run by the council throughout the Wellington region.

Since the chicks were found, extra predator traps have been put around the nest.

Ad Feedback

- © Fairfax NZ News