Topic: Johnny Kendrick
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Johnny Kendrick, alongside Geoff Moon,at Te Arai and Pakiri, recorded the earliest video footage of the now critically endangered NZ Fairy Tern as well as adjacent nesting birds, the Caspian and White Fronted tern. Johnny has kindly made segments of his 1958 footage available on Te Arai Kete. See links below.
John ‘birdman’ Kendrick, singlehandedly brought New Zealand birdsong to our radio-waves(Radio New Zealand/National Radio). He was also a talented wildlife photographer and cinemaphotographer. In 2010 he was awarded a Queens Service Medal for his services to New Zealand Wildife. Click here for his recollections of 'hiding out' at Te Arai and Pakiri in the 1950s.
John Kendrick, Photo: Jeff McEwan
In 2009 Conservation organisation Forest & Bird awarded John Kendrick, of Waipu, its highest honour – an Old Blue – for his outstanding work as a wildlife film-maker and sound recordist.
Anyone who listens to the bird calls on Radio New Zealand National’s Morning Report will appreciate John Kendrick’s work. Many of the bird calls played today were made by John 40 years ago.
As a Wildlife Service audio-visual officer for 20 years he travelled to remote parts of New Zealand to record bird songs. Among his more memorable expeditions was recording what is presumed to be South Island kokako calls in several areas during the early 1980s. The South Island kokako is now considered extinct, though some people dispute this.
During John’s career with the Wildlife Service from the early 1960s he was a photographer and made many wildlife films on subjects such as endangered saddlebacks, the sub-Antarctic Islands and Canadian geese. He helped film New Zealand segments for a David Attenborough series about extinction in 1974.
He inspired thousands of school pupils with his presentations on wildlife and conservation. He helped start the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club, for young people interested in nature, and he shared with children his enthusiasm for nature when he was a Kiwi Conservation Club co-ordinator in Whangaparaoa.
After retiring from the Wildlife Service, John was a natural history tour guide, mainly showing overseas birdwatching enthusiasts around New Zealand.
John, 90, who now lives in Waipu, has been a member of Forest & Bird for more than 50 years, and is still involved with conservation projects in Northland
For John Kendrick's August 2011 interview with Kim Hill, National Radio click here
