The story behind this image…
Back in 2016, the team at Wingspan, the National Bird of Prey Centre based in Rotorua, NZ, was told of a number of dive-bombing incidents along a popular and busy mountain biking and walking track in the Redwoods. Wingspan went out to investigate and found a pair of nesting Kārearea (NZ Falcon) (that came to be known as the pair at Nursery Road) with one female chick. Wingspan banded the chick and I photographed the pair and their chick extensively until the chick fledged.
The image you see on the top is just one example of mother’s love and care in action – a brief moment when mum (on the right) feeds her juvenile daughter (on the left).
Fast forward to 2017 and Wingspan was again given reports of divebombing but from a different area of Rotorua. Volunteers on site at the Hemo Gorge nest site managed to get a closeup image of mum’s leg and from the band on her leg we were able to identify mum as the juvenile of the Nursery Road pair (the very same juvenile that you see in the top image).
Now a mum herself of two healthy chicks, it was awesome to have seen and photographed her showing the very same love and care to her chicks (as seen in the image below where she is feeding one of her chicks) that she received from her mum.
A huge Thank You goes out to the team at Wingspan as well as the army of volunteers who work tirelessly and passionately to ensure the safety of this precious taonga of Aotearoa.
A mother’s love never ceases nor changes…
