s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

So, on Monday morning I was out spraying fungicide in the Triangle paddock. We do this in high summer so we can have a place to put the ‘paca if we get good “spore weather”, as some types of fungi produce spores that are really toxic to camelids. Kiills a few every year ’round the country.

As I was walking under the pine trees, spraying away, I spied a lovely native raptor (hawk or falcon, not sure which) lying dead under the trees. A quick inspection showed it was very freshly dead, a few hours at most. II am not sure on cause of death, it might have hit a branch and broken its neck. I don’t know.

I would not want to waste such a beautiful bird, so I called a local taxidery shop. As native raptors are protected, they told me to call DoC (Department of Conservation), which I did. To get protected birds stuffed you need special permission, and generally DoC only gives that permission for birds that will go on public display. They don’t want private collections.

So, DoC will come along at some point and collect the bird. The will offer it first to Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand) to see if they need it for their collectiion. If not, next they will offer it to the local Iwi (Maori tribe) for use in making traditional feather cloaks. If they don’t want it, they will offer it to bird-rehab people, who apparently can do feather transplants to replace broken wing feathers on injured birds. And if they don’t want it, it gets tossed in a hole. I really hope it goes to a good use.

And in the mean time, we have this lovely native raptor in our freezer!