I asked him a simple question: how to watch a bird. He had a simple answer. ‘Birds have a great sense of hearing. Don’t bash through the bush if you want to see them. You see far more if you just take the trouble to sit down. I used to carry a plastic bag so I could sit down on a wet bank. Just sit down, and quietly watch. All sorts of things happen.’
White-eye feeding young, Okere, 14.1.38
An older rooster
IN THE BEGINNING Turbott. With his deep sense of modesty, he will doubtless despair at the suggestion he is godlike, but at 92 Turbott is the grand old man of New Zealand ornithology. Along with legends such as Stead, Wilson, and Moncrieff, he was among a select group of only 15 people who formed the Ornithological Society of New Zealand in 1938.
Turbott is the only one of those originals left standing. Which he was, quite capably thanks, his long, loping stride carrying his classic New Zealand male birder’s build – tall, rangy, trim as a tent pole – when I had the pleasure of visiting him at his retirement apartment on an afternoon in May. He kept a tidy ship. The apartment was immaculate. He had his Pentax 7 X 50 bins on the window ledge. Later, he fished out the birder’s other essential tool of the trade – a small water proof notebook to record his observations. He had literally filled enough notebooks to last a lifetime: Turbott was a birder back when they were called birdwatchers, as a boy growing up in Stanley Bay on Auckland’s North Shore, and later as staff zoologist at the Auckland Museum from 1937 to 1957, assistant director of the Canterbury Museum for the next seven years, then back at the Auckland Museum as director for 15 years, until retiring in 1979.
Born in 1914, he was a foundation pupil at Takapuna Grammar in 1927. He took to birds early. He said, ‘There are people who take to bird-watching as a pleasure without hesitating. It just needs a bit of sympathetic observing; it’s a personal pleasure to identify the bird you’re looking at, to develop the habit of accurate observing. When you look at Geoff Moon’s photos, you know he’s aware of the exact shape and colour and habit of the bird. A little old lady said to me the other day, “There’s a bird with yellow on its head out with the sparrows.” But it was a goldfinch. It has yellow on its shoulders, not on its head.’
As a child, it was Turbott’s fate that he lived down the street from Robert Falla – later Sir Robert Falla – an early authority on New Zealand birds, who would be Turbott’s co-author on the landmark 1966 Field Guide. Turbott said, ‘I was very lucky. He was terribly good when I was a kid. I remember one day he told me to catch a tram to Greenwood Corner, where he picked me up and we went to Manukau Harbour. We got there, and I remember him saying, “Now, there’s a Caspian tern.” He said, “Borrow my field glasses.” The only tool a birdwatcher needs is something with which to get a closer look. That was the moment I became addicted.’
Turbott’s story is the story of New Zealand ornithology. Of course, he bought a copy of Moncrieff’s New Zealand Birds when it was published in 1925 (he was still at primary school) and then W. R. B. Oliver’s volume, in 1930: ‘That was a big event.’ He met both the authors – he met everyone.
There was Edgar Stead: ‘The best shot in the South Island. In a way he was the tail-end of the Buller tradition. Stead was the first recorder of a whole lot of migrants coming to Lake Ellesmere, and he popped them off. I was at the tail-end of it, too… Oh, sure! Any self-respecting bird section of any museum in those days had a gun. I’ve shot up the odd specimen. I popped off a few fantails from the Three Kings. I’ve been guilty. But I’ve never shot a saddleback…’
He explored offshore islands for birds with Major Wilson, as well as Major Buddle, who became a close friend: ‘I knew him as Bud. He was a marvellous chap. He was obviously a brave man – DSO was the highest honour next to the VC. He’d been badly gassed, and could walk only a short distance without panting. I’ve been so lucky in going to places that are really primitive New Zealand – the Hen and Chickens, Little Barrier, Poor Knights. These are unaltered places, and Bud and I did as much of that as we could. He lived under Mount Hobson and drove an early model car. I went to the Poor Knights with both the majors. They were very strict about camp discipline, but they were both such good fun.’
Turbott had such knowledge, such experience; it seemed a dreadful oversight he had not been made Sir Graham. He even served his country, as they say. One of the very strangest chapters in New Zealand ornithology is known as the ‘Cape Expedition’ – a totally hush-hush operation, in which Turbott and a band of colleagues were sent by the government to perform coast-watching duties on the subantarctic Auckland Islands during World War II. ‘Cape Expedition’ was the code name. Turbott’s year-long tour of duty began on 20 December 1943, sailing into Ranui Cove on the New Golden Hind, a luxury 91-foot yacht
