Famous falcon flys the coop

FRANK NELSON

Diana Dobson, aviary manager and one of the pillars of the Marlborough Falcon Trust, still tears up when talking about the sudden loss of her beloved Fern, for so long the trust’s popular advocacy bird.

Their 11-year relationship ended in November while filming at the Brancott Estate Heritage Vineyard, near Blenheim. The film crew had almost finished when Fern shot high into the sky and did not return.

“I just knew that was it. I just knew,” said Diana, who believes Fern spotted a distant male and went to investigate.

Diana had Fern since she was a 10-week-old chick, spent countless hours training her, and used her in hundreds of flying displays and school visits. Now she’s been left devastated.

“With birds of prey, you’re the one that loves them but really they don’t love you,” she says. “We build a bond, we build trust, but it’s all forged through food and nothing else. You don’t have the connection like you’d have with a dog.”

However, Diana still regards Fern as a “marvellous advocate” for the trust. “I have to look at all she taught the people of Marlborough,” she says, recalling visits to schools, kindergardens and retirement homes.

Lizzie Macfarlane, who manages the trust’s education programme, was with Diana on many of those trips. She gives talks to primary school pupils and hosts school groups while they watch flying displays at Brancott Estate and visit the aviary nearby.

Lizzie, who works on average about 10 hours per week, and Diana are the trust’s only two paid employees. Trust chairman Andy Frost and five other trustees -- Phil Bradfield, Jeff Clarke, Sandie Sutton, Rob White and Tony Roddan -- are all voluntary.

In addition, about 50 volunteers bring what Andy calls an “amazing spread of skills” to tasks such as cutting up meat and feeding the falcons, helping with the release of young birds, maintenance work and gardening.

Pernod Ricard, the Paris-based international giant that now owns Brancott Estate (formerly Montana), has long been the principal sponsor of the falcon trust, says Andy.

“They have put in over three-quarters of a million dollars in cash and kind,” which largely covered the cost of the Brancott Road aviary as well as the nearby hilltop walkway and flying display area.

The trust champions a three-pronged conservation strategy: education, the rehabilitation of injured birds, and a captive breeding programme using those birds which would not survive if released.

“It’s wonderful to see the injured birds and know that their chicks will be heading back into the wild,” says Lizzie, who taught in Costa Rica, Kenya, Auckland and Blenheim’s Whitney Street School before joining the trust more than five years ago.

The best season so far produced 12 chicks while last year’s total was four. Over the past 10 years 77 chicks have been released which the trust believes is about 1 percent of the total kārearea population.

The number of New Zealand falcons, which range from Fiordland to the Waikato, is estimated at between 5000 and 8000, meaning this country’s only native bird of prey is officially “at risk”.

Falcons are under threat mainly because, as ground-nesting birds, they are terribly vulnerable to a host of predators. However, the trust has a wider vision than just the kārearea, says Lizzie.

“It’s a much bigger picture … educating on the importance of protecting all our native species and hoping everyone can play an active role in preventing further extinctions.”

Marlborough Lines sponsors this programme which the trust hopes to extend next month (March), taking its message into kindergartens and pre-schools using a falcon puppet, a large picture book, plus (when Fern’s replacement is ready) a real bird.

The enthusiasm of the children has led to four schools “adopting” falcons – Witherlea (whose bird is Jet), Renwick (Flash), Rapaura and Fairhall.

Diana has already begun the long process of training a potential replacement bird, Te Hau (The wind). But much as she loves the flying, her burning passion is helping injured falcons … indeed, any bird needing care.

From the kārearea to the humble sparrow, Diana’s house and heart are open at any time, day or night, for an injured bird or abandoned fledgling. She’s happy to take on cases that most people, including vets, regard as hopeless … and she’s even happier to prove them all wrong.

Using her background working as a vet nurse and many years of practical experience since, she fixes broken wings and other major injuries, providing round-the-clock care for the most needy cases. “Intensive care ticks a lot of my boxes,” she says.

She was doing the same thing while living in South Africa and Ireland where, as in Marlborough, people got to know her and bring her injured birds.

Diana admits she’s driven, almost obsessive, when it comes to birds. At dinner with friends or at family gatherings, chances are the birds will somehow intervene.

Steve, Diana’s husband of 40 years, has grown used to sharing his life and his house with untold injured birds but will still gently suggest she turns the phone off when they go out.

“But I can’t,” says Diana. “If there’s a call at night and I have a vision of a bird needing help, I just have to get there.”

So of course, nobody was surprised when Diana was awardeda Queen’s Service Medal for services to wildlife conservation in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.