The Forest & Bird-backed Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust has taken another important step in the development of its Kaikoura Peninsula colony after the translocation of 102 more chicks to the site last month.

Mark Solomon, Kaiwhakahaere of Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, will be speaking, along with author, artist and conservationist Sam Mahon, who has known Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trustee Geoff Harrow for many years.

With a very successful translocation programme nearing completion, road users around Kaikoura are being asked to be vigilant and keep an eye out for crash landed Hutton’s shearwater fledglings.

The Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust celebrated transferring 102 Hutton’s shearwater chicks from the Kowhai River colony to the Kaikoura Peninsula colony last week.

If we have a theme running throughout our teaching, the kids latch onto it better. It helps them to see the value of what they’re learning in the classroom. Bill Lonsdale, Kaikoura High School.

The Hutton’s shearwaters were ceremonially farewelled for winter on Sunday morning by 60 supporters of the endangered seabird that breeds only in Kaikoura.

Mortlock McCormack Law (MML) worked alongside Paul McGahan, Geoff Harrow and Lindsay Rowe from HSCT, three fantastically driven individuals dedicated to saving the endangered Hutton’s shearwater. These birds have formed a key part in New Zealand history being part of the mahinga kai (food basket) for a number of Maori generations. Once prolific in New Zealand, they are now reduced to only two wild remaining colonies and remain under constant threat of extinction.

The Hutton’s shearwater/Kaikoura titi is a nationally endangered species of seabird that breeds only in two locations high in the Kaikoura mountains. Fortunately, it now has some serious backing from the local community.

What a flight of discovery I have had over the past 45 years studying Hutton’s shearwater (Puffinus huttoni), known as the Kaikoura titi or pakaha to Ngai Tahu, or simply muttonbird to most New Zealanders. Birds had always interested me having joined the New Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society in 1936 as a 10 year old, but it has been this particular seabird species that has resulted in my lifelong quest to ensure their preservation. Geoff Harrow, Trust Patron.