“Gook probably hatched in the 2001 season, after which I banded him in Whakanewha, making him at least 25 years old and the oldest bird on the motu,” says leading dotterel expert and Waiheke resident John Dowding

Waiheke’s oldest banded bird, a dotterel named Gook, has died at the grand old age of 25. 

“It’s the end of an era, really,” says John Dowding, New Zealand’s leading dotterel expert and Waiheke resident, who had banded the bird in November 2003.

“I have known the bird as long as I have known my own son. When you are in conservation and interact with these birds, you get quite attached to them.

Full story in this week’s Gulf News……. On sale now

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