Karearea

This is the New Zealand Falcon. Maori called it Karearea. Its conservation status is given as "recovering". We saw two or three this afternoon when a group of us from the 50 year reunion walked up a track just short of Glenorchy at the Northwestern end of Lake Wakatipu to see the remains of an old scheelite mine and battery (scheelite is calcium tungstate). On the way up the track I had heard its distinctive call, which I had not previously heard and did not recognise. We were milling around at the site of the abandoned battery, when I heard the call again, and then spotted the source of the call (which I have just confirmed as the call of Karearea).

I have put into extras another shot of a karearea. The first one flew off in response to the people, and soared around for a while, before landing on the top of a leafy tree. When it flew off again, it was joined by another one, and they were both hassled by a similar sized blacker bird, most likely an Australian magpie. After quite a bit of aerial acrobatics. the birds all went somewhere else.

It was a really good walk, and the mountains, with snow caps, and blue sky set the scene perfectly. After walking back down, we walked into the little village of Glenorchy, where I met up with S (whose knee precluded doing the climb).

I woke early enough to have a predawn run along the edge of the lake, which is when I took the other extra.