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A New Zealand falcon/kārearea conservation project in the shadows of Tauhara is soaring to new heights, thanks to the introduction of its first female chicks.
In a ceremony at the end of October, the two chicks were brought to their new home, a specially fitted nest box in the foothillsof Mt Tauhara, Taupō.
Under the watchful eyes of the Wingspan Bird of Prey Centre team, students from Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Whakarewa i Te Reo Ki Tuwharetoa and other local figures, the kārearea were settled into the space they would call home for a few weeks.
Hinerangi Mitchell, a student at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Whakarewa i Te Reo Ki Tuwharetoa, holds one of the kārearea chicks.
Taupō artist and conservationist Tāne Lawless would be the chicks’ guardian, seeing to their daily food and care needs with some help from his partner and two sons.
He’s a practised hand at falcon raising, having already reared five male chicks at the site.
This was the third year of a planned five-year programme, with a special milestone being that these are the first females to be relocated from Wingspan in Rotorua.
The centre has two pairs of adult kārearea that cannot be rehabilitated into the wild.
However, they still producef healthy offspring, making an important contribution to the falcon population, even if they didn’t know it.
The chicks were then banded and given health checks by the Wingspan team, before being taken to wild sites like Tauhara to begin their new lives.
To keep them as wild as possible, the new female chicks would be fed and checked once a day - the same frequency they would eat as adults - until they grew big enough to start making their first flights.
Tāne Lawless puts the first chick into the nest box on Mount Tauhara.
This should happen any day now, once the chicks’ flight feathers were fully developed.
Human contact was kept to a minimum, although Lawless would still give them supplementary food and keep watch over them to give them the best chance of survival.
Once grown, the birds would either move on or stick around.
There were hopes that a bond would form between either of the females and the resident male kārearea, who is one of the five chicks already raised on Tauhara and the only one to have stayed in the area.
The others have moved off to find their own territory.
Lawless has given the chicks names to help them on their journey, but only once he got to know their personalities.
“You’ve got to meet them beforehand.”
The chicks were relocated at 22 days old, and needed about three further weeks to grow their flight feathers.
Their names suggested that neither would be a pushover; Te Riri o te Hau / The Fierce One of the Winds and Te Aio i Mua o te Āwha / The Calm Before the Storm.
Lawless said watching the birds grow and develop their own personalities was a joy.
“I’m really enjoying looking after them and they’re doing really well.”
Wingspan’s executive director Debbie Stewart said the translocation programme was a vital part of their work.
“This is a really special one for us today.
“This [program] is the first ever on iwi land and embraces mātauranga.
“We’re honoured to be able to bring these birds on site.”
Tāne Lawless received the Wingspan Raptor Award 2023 in recognition of his work on the kārearea project.
The efforts to bring back the kārearea - which, at 10,000 birds, is rarer than the kiwi - couldn’t happen without the hard work of individuals like Lawless, she said.
His work was so valued that he received the 2023 Wingspan Raptor Award.
“We’re just incredibly proud. A programme like this works because of the volunteers, people and whānau. The mahi he’s put in is incredible.”
Milly Fullick is a journalist based in Taupō. She joined the Taupō and Tūrangi Herald team in 2022.
