Seashore Resource

He was standing at the entrance of Kiri’s burrow. The western sky was pink with the setting sun, but inside the forest it was already dark.

Kiri pulled her head out of her warm feathers and yawned.

"You’re too early Willie. It’s not dark yet and I’m having a lie-in." She tucked her beak back into her feathers.

"Come on Kiri! It’s a beaut evening, no wind, the moon is full and the tide is going down. Let’s go down to the beach and hunt crabs!"

"Crabs – huh! Last time we caught crabs I got my feathers all mucky and it took ages to preen them. I’ll stick to worms."

"You needn’t get muddy. I’ll catch the crabs and bring them back to the bank for you. They’re such fun to catch! And look, I’ve brought you a worm." Willie was hopping from foot to foot, a rather battered worm dangling from his beak.

Kiri sighed, but she got up, took Willie’s worm, shrugged her feathers into place and they set off. They followed the stream out of the forest to the edge of the town. Where the stream ran through Kiwinui town, it had been channelled into a concrete ditch and then into a big pipe under the main road. This was strange and frightening to the birds, so they skirted through the paddocks around the town and met the stream where it flowed free again, down to the bay.

Willie had turned back to the mud, but then he stopped. Slowly he walked back to her.

"Yes, they do taste a bit – " Then he raced up the bank, into the bushes and threw up!

After a time he came out, his tail down, wiping his beak on the grass.

"Yuk! That was awful! What on earth can be the matter with the crabs? They’ve never made me sick before."

He crouched down beside Kiri and groaned. Kiri was most alarmed. She listened and scented the air for danger, but the beach was quiet and still and soon Willie began to feel better.

"Let’s go home" he said. "I don’t want to see another crab."

"Wait a minute. I’ve just realised something. You were catching those crabs very easily, Willie. Why didn’t they rush down their burrows and hide?"

She peered over the edge of the bank. Reluctantly Willie joined her. As their eyes became accustomed to the dark they could see a great number of crabs wandering around on the mud. As they watched, a crab toppled over, waving its legs in the air. Kiri climbed down the bank and sniffed the mud and the water*.

"The water smells nasty. I think the crabs have been poisoned. Something is polluting the stream and poisoning the animals. You were lucky Willie. You might have died!"

"We had better tell Shelley shag. Tomorrow there will be lots of birds here. The gulls will have to be warned and the godwits. Now we’d better go upstream and see where the trouble is coming from. Come on Willie."

Poor Willie. He really wanted to go home but Kiri set off along the bank and reluctantly he followed her. They came to the outskirts of the town and the huge pipe that channelled the stream under the main road. The tunnel was pitch black where the moonlight did not reach in.

"We’ll have to paddle through" said Kiri, hesitating at the entrance.

"We’re not scared of rats. Come on Willie!"

Keeping very close to each other, the birds crept through the pipe. The water got deeper in places and wet their breast feathers but then the light ahead of them grew brighter and they came out on the other side of the road. Now the stream flowed in a concrete channel. Along its banks were factories and shops.

"The smell is getting worse" said Kiri, clambering over rocks, bottles and cans. "Aren’t humans careless, Willie. We don’t mess up our place like this." She nearly tripped over the springs of an old car seat.

A pipe opened from the river bank and a cloudy liquid was running out of it. Kiri turned her beak away in disgust. Even Willie could smell it.

"That’s where the poison is coming from. And look at all the rubbish! It must come from that factory back there. What shall we do?"

"We can’t tell Henry, he’s gone away on holiday."

"I’m sure people would stop this Willie, if only they knew about it. But how can we tell them?"

Kiri crouched on the bank, up wind of the dreadful pipe. Willie wandered around, poking his beak amongst the rubbish. He pried open a can and squawked with excitement. Kiri came running.

"What is it? Oh, what’s happened to your beak?"

"It’s paint. Don’t fuss, it’ll wipe off. Kiri, we can use the paint to write a message."

"Now what? Said Kiri crossly. Some of the paint had spilt on her feathers and she was out of breath.

"Watch this!"

"Oh Willie, that’s terrific."

"Have I spelt ‘poison’ right?"

People did get the message. The next morning while the tired birds slept in the forest, a crowd collected on River Road. People peered into the canal and soon an inspector came from the Regional Council. When the factory manager arrived he got a hard time from the townspeople, and was glad to get into the factory with the inspector to sort out the problem. The pipe stopped running almost immediately, to the annoyance of the newspaper reporter that arrived later. However, he took a picture of the message on the road and it appeared on the front age of the Kiwinui Gazette with the headline: "Mystery Message Uncovers Pollution"

*Most birds have good eyesight but little sense of smell. Kiwis are different. Their eyesight is weak, but they have a strong sense of smell. Their nostrils are at the tip of the beak and they can actually smell worms and grubs in the soil.