In April I had my infrared camera with me when I was lucky enough to visit the Wingspan Trust (a bird rescue) in Rotorua, and see handlers working with the little kārearea / NZ Falcon – a tiny powerhouse of a raptor, that can fly up to 200km per hour (!), and take down prey larger than it is. Their conservation status is “threatened”, and they are quite rare, at least compared the the Kahu / Swamp hawk, which I see quite often here in the South Wairarapa. BUT THEN, this bird landed in the scraggly tree outside my lounge window, and sat long enough for me to find a camera – my friend from Wingspan confirmed it as a male juvenile kārearea. Definitely a ‘wahoo’ photograph for me, albeit the light was bleak and wintery.
*ok, it’s a falcon, not hawk, the reference is to an improv game
Come Hawk*
A Little Art 