Need of Real Sanctuaries.

Forest and Bird, Issue 34, 1 October 1934, Page 15

Need of Real Sanctuaries.

“What is a Bird Sanctuary?” is the title of the main article (written by Mabel Wright) in the July-August issue of “Bird-lore” (official organ of the American Audubon Societies). After a very interesting description of twenty years’ work in the making of “Birdcraft Sanctuary” (about fifty miles from New York City), the writer remarks:— A real sanctuary must have a high fence and an intelligent warden, and enough money to lift it over the hard spots and casualties, and by the mercy of Heaven we have all three. Remember that the warden has killed many cats which have scaled the ‘deterrent’ fence in the twenty years, and still they come! He is always on the watch when an alarm-note sounds. What would have happened if there had been no cat-deterrent fence? Sentimental folk, who often think otherwise, should know that if a person with daily experience keeps to the same opinion for twenty years there must be something in it, and also that if a place is made attractive to birds, it is bound to attract their enemies. ‘Where the carrion is will the eagles gather.’ Hence a warden is a necessity in a sanctuary.” Many a time, the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society has stressed the vital importance of intelligent effective wardenship and fencing of sanctuaries, but the ideal is still far from realisation.