Our little ruru!

On a recent trip to the Whirinaki Forest, we woke up to this little guy perched next to our cooking shelter. It was such a treat to see him in the daylight and our friend, Leigh Nicholas, got this great photo of our little ruru (morepork) visitor. I have always loved the sound of moreporks at night but I didn't realise that they have such a wide variety of calls. Did you know they make a 'cree' sound that is often mistaken for a male kiwi? In fact, I made this mistake myself and have been telling anyone who would listen about the kiwi I heard at the camp. Now I know it was probably a morepork 🤣 Moreporks also croak and sound precisely like frogs. I was telling Hollie this when she clicked that the family of frogs she thought had moved onto her property were actually moreporks. So they had us both fooled! Who knew they were such versatile musicians? If you want to check out the crazy sounds Moreporks make, this is an excellent resource: https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/morepork Photo: Leigh Nicholas