Roosters rule in Cornwall Park

From Tommy the vanishing turkey to castaway chooks, SUZANNE McFADDEN finds odd squatters in a city park.

Welcome to Cornwall Park, home to about 30 dumped but thriving chickens, at least one turkey and some hard-to-find pheasants.

There are now about five little flocks of chickens ruling the roost in the southeast corner of the Auckland park, each with its own territory

The brassy chooks cross the road just because they can, bringing traffic to a halt before crossing back again.

The stretch of road they frequent on Twin Oaks Drive has been named Chicken Corner in their honour.

They were dumped there, maybe by failed backyard poultry farmers, and their numbers are swelling.

But park director Michael Ayrton says the chickens are welcome. "They make people happy, so we are pretty relaxed about it."

It was a different story in Lower Hutt, where the council got in a great flutter over 50 chickens dumped in a Days Bay park. All the chooks mysteriously disappeared one night.

Cornwall Park's colourful bunch - about 30 roosters, hens and tiny chicks - do not lack for food or attention. Nearby residents come to Chicken Corner every day with bags of scraps, and some provide water as well.

And then there is the mysterious case of Tommy the turkey. The cooks in the park restaurant are in a flap because Tommy is missing.

The wizened old bird, who visited the kitchen twice a day, every day, for five years to dine on scones, has not been seen since the week before Christmas.

His friends fear someone has gobbled him up with cranberry sauce and peas for their festive dinner.

Tommy and his feathered family were dumped in the park about five years ago, but the tough old gobbler was the only one who turned sociable.

Every morning and late afternoon, Tommy would strut down to the back of the restaurant for his meal of scones and muffins.

Restaurant manager Neville Edgerton says his staff were distraught when Tommy failed to turn up for his Christmas lunch - afraid he had ended up as someone else's.

"He would have to be boiled for 10 hours and slow-roasted before anyone could get a meal out of him," says Mr Edgerton. "He was a big old bugger.

"But he was pretty special to us. He came down the hill every day, and he'd eat out of your hand. We tried to get him to drink a cup of tea, but he wasn't keen on that."

There has been a daily search around the base of One Tree Hill in the unlikely hope that shrewd old Tommy might have been hiding out until the festive season was over.

But this week, a Tommy look-alike (but seeming suspiciously younger) has been spotted grazing on the other side of the hill. The restaurant staff think he is an imposter, because he hasn't dropped in for a meal.

The latest feathered newcomers at the park are not so easy to spot in the long grass around One Tree Hill.

Half a dozen pheasants have been released to roam free by the park trust board, but the elegant birds keep to themselves.

"We liberated them from a game farm," Mr Ayrton says. "There used to be pheasants in the park about 30 years ago, so we reintroduced them.

"You don't see them during the day. They hide out in the long grass of the grazing paddocks.

"They're pretty smart - they fly away if they are threatened. And we don't have to feed them - they eat grubs and grass."