Og the 'Orrible

Zealandia's toutouwai or robin talks have been  advertised and officially started a couple of weeks ago. I did my first 'show and tell' on Tuesday. I dutifully stood by the sign advertising the talk at 2.15pm. The day was cool but the sun was shining and there were plenty of people about enjoying the valley. It is one of the most sheltered places to visit in Wellington in winter as it is protected from both southerlies and northerlies. Locals are beginning to cotton on to this, leading to a steady stream of visitors. A female tuatara was out basking and a couple of people were watching her. I managed to gather seven people and launched into my talk.
I explained our robins are not actually related to Northern Hemisphere robins, instead being closer to tomtits. I extolled the fact they are numerical geniuses in the animal world being able to count reliably to seven and unreliably to twelve. Studies being carried out at Victoria University verify this. They also cache food once their tummies are full and steal cached food of others. They are very canny little birds indeed.
We set off to a robin's territory to show off some of these wonderful skills. Mr RpB-pBM was a right little trooper who appeared as I set up, posed photogenically for the tourists and cached his fourth meal worm having gobbled the first three in rapid succession. My audience left at this point, except for two American University students who decided to accompany me as I worked with the rest.
The guy at the picnic table who is unbanded, Mr Dither, was true to his character, hopping back and forth, at times not getting the sequence quite right. He flicked open the leather leaf on the little log and got his meal worm, ate it, looked for another before I had replenished it and danced about shaking his wings. He was then unsure whether to cache the next one or eat it, then checked to see if I had placed another one in the hole before he had made up his mind. Finally he ate it. As he took the third he noticed a robin lurking a little distance off and instead of caching he went roaring off to chase that robin away with a mealworm still hanging out of his beak. I packed up and off we went to the next customer - Mr OG-KM or Og for short.

Now Og is proving to be a dominant little bird who has figured what is happening in his neighbourhood. He has no qualms about turning up at the dinner table no matter whose house it is in. He polished off a few mealy worms before caching and we shifted off to Salmond seat, the territory of an unbanded bird. Og was there to greet us, flitting and chirping. We can only feed the correct bird at each site so despite his best efforts Og was not rewarded for his cheekiness.
Off we set to the next site. Much to the amusement of the US students, Og followed us, keeping to the bush, and there he was again  as soon as I set up the arena, hoping for a feed and very pleased with himself.  Again I packed up and shifted on.
 At the next site the situation was repeated. Og the 'Orrible had stalked us and was the first bird to turn up. My student friends were delighted with his antics and his persistence despite the fact I never rewarded him. He was never backward in coming forward and I had to hold my ground and not give in to his cuteness or the entreaties of the students who thought such persistence should be rewarded and who were totally infatuated by him at this stage.

At the last two sites the correct birds turned up and all went to plan. My students waved goodbye - they were off on the ferry the next day and wanted to see a little more of Wellington before then.

I went back to base and wrote up my notes, amused by Og and his tricks. I thought out some new strategies to help keep Og at home but no doubt he will also be putting his bird brain to good use and will be trying to outsmart the next person who comes bearing mealy worms.