Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

General birdwatching discussion, help with bird identification, and all other things relating to wild birds and birding in NZ that don't fit in one of the other forums.
Davidthomas
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Davidthomas » Mon Jan 14, 2019 9:03 am

Mute Swans for the most part are an established feral population donated to New Zealand by the Queen in the 1800s although they’ve been topped up over the years by ducks unlimited who’ve bred them and sold them to fund conservation projects etc.
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Adam C
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Adam C » Mon Jan 14, 2019 9:40 am

I guess what Im saying is these ones having bred in the system aren't a pair of wing clipped pets to my knowledge unless someone else knows otherwise. I'm sure there are plenty around but first ones Ive seen for a while I figure I can count as wild or if we want to get birdy a 'tick' :)
“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

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Davidthomas
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Davidthomas » Mon Jan 14, 2019 9:54 am

Any of the ones on Ellesmere are fair game in my eyes s they definitely breed out there and I don’t think anyone has released any in recent history.

There are also often wild birds at the Taranaki wetlands near Waikuku beach, Pegasus wetlands and sometime seen in other spots.
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sav
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby sav » Mon Jan 14, 2019 9:05 pm

Hi AC and all,

Of course you can count what you want, and particularly in terms of your Canty Big Year, you can make the rules, but Guinea fowl have to be pretty close to chickens anywhere. It would be very hard to confirm a true feral population anywhere in NZ, because of the numbers bred in captivity.

Mute Swan at Coopers Lagoon and elswhere near Ellesmere have to be OK. Turkeys in most places probably are, since no-one seems to farm them.

We (for Wrybill Tours) tried to convince ourselves that the larger concentrations of "feral chickens" were countable - but in the end sense prevailed.

Anyway, who really cares?
Sav Saville
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ
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andrewcrossland
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby andrewcrossland » Mon Jan 14, 2019 10:02 pm

I agree with Sav with regards the veracity of Guinea Fowl as a wild bird in Canty or NZ, but for the purposes of the Canterbury BIG YEAR I think its ok - as long as we all agree they're living wild and not hanging out by the letterbox of someone's farmyard. One of the aims of this big year is to get more Cantabrian birders out giving it their all, so a few "dodgy" species, as long as its a level playing field and we all agree to the limitations around them.

Another aim of the BIG YEAR is for people to actually go out and investigate the populations of various ferals - we know for example that SC Cockatoos, and Mute Swan have bone fide wild pops in Canterbury, while others are have been around long term like Cape Barren Geese at St Annes Lagoon, Feral Geese flocks at Lake Ellesmere, wild turkeys on the road between S H/W 1 and NapeNape Beach and Feral chickens at Ruru Rd substation, Bromley, but we need to know more about peafowl, Guineafowl, Barbary Doves, Golden Pheasant, etc.

That all said, enough with rubbishy old ferals, lets go out and find another Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Black-tailed Native Hen, Painted Snipe, Stilt Sandpiper, White-necked Heron, or a Gentoo Penguin............
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Adam C
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Adam C » Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:50 pm

Stilt Sandpiper! Naw ya talkin!!!!
“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Samuel Ullman
Jan
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Jan » Fri Mar 22, 2019 3:07 pm

Visiting a friend in Leeston this morning, I went there via Coe's Ford where there's a lot of water in the river [Selwyn] for once, which gladdened my heart as a keen 'clean up our rivers' advocate. Just after the ford there was a lovely Rooster of the feral chicken variety, no doubt dumped by someone. I'm not ticking it, but Bev might! No Cattle Egrets around Drain Rd or Cants Rd though there were a number of herds with irrigators going and WFHerons in attendence were present. There were several very large concentrations of BBacked Gulls on newly worked arable paddocks. Maybe 500 birds in a group at once.
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Jan » Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:17 am

Apparently Cattle Egrets are still at Drain Rd, cos Bev saw 2 with gulls yest afty. I looked through one huge flock of gulls without success in the morning. The irrigators were going at Drain Rd when I was there but only a few heron and not many cattle either.
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Sun Mar 24, 2019 9:52 pm

I peeled the thread from here off to a new one: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8255
I took a bit of a stab at where the discussion shifted significantly, so if you feel something needs to come back to this one, or more from this one needs to go to that one, sing out.
N
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hen
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Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby hen » Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:40 pm

Hello. I am new here. Pardon the stupid question, but what is 'ebird'? Why would the guinea fowl go there?
hen

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