Forest & Bird honours bird call recording pioneer

26 June 2009 – Wellington

 
Forest & Bird media release for immediate use

Forest & Bird honours bird call recording pioneer

Conservation organisation Forest & Bird has awarded John Kendrick, of Waipu, its highest honour – an Old Blue – for his outstanding work as a wildlife film-maker and sound recordist.

Anyone who listens to the bird calls on Radio New Zealand National’s Morning Report will appreciate John Kendrick’s work. Many of the bird calls played today were made by John 40 years ago, after he suggested in 1969 that National Radio start broadcasting native birdsong.

As a Wildlife Service audio-visual officer for 20 years he travelled to remote parts of New Zealand to record bird songs, carrying a homemade reel-to-reel recorder. Among his more memorable expeditions was recording what is presumed to be South Island kokako calls in several areas during the early 1980s. The South Island kokako is now considered extinct, though some people dispute this.

During John’s career with the Wildlife Service from the early 1960s he was a photographer and made many wildlife films on subjects such as endangered saddlebacks, the sub-Antarctic Islands and Canadian geese. He helped film New Zealand segments for a David Attenborough series about extinction in 1974.

He inspired thousands of school pupils with his presentations on wildlife and conservation. He helped start the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club, for young people interested in nature, and he shared with children his enthusiasm for nature when he was a Kiwi Conservation Club co-ordinator in Whangaparaoa.

After retiring from the Wildlife Service, John was a natural history tour guide, mainly showing overseas birdwatching enthusiasts around New Zealand.

John, 87, has been a member of Forest & Bird for more than 50 years, and is still involved with conservation projects in Northland.

The Old Blue award will be presented to John at Forest & Bird’s AGM in Wellington tomorrow (June 27). The awards are named for the Chatham Islands black robin called Old Blue who helped save her species from extinction during the early 1980s.

ends

© Scoop Media