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Brats returned late yesterday afternoon from insect collecting in the Cork
Oak Plantation near Glenlock Interchange and Junior reported seeing "a really
exotic-looking small raptor, probably a New Zealand Falcon."
"A bit of Trans-Tasman dispersal, huh?" I said wryly.
"Well it could have been," came the indignant reply.
This morning we returned and took a short ramble. We heard a puling call
and saw an adult Black-shouldered Kite being pestered by a begging juvenile but
the adult remained unresponsive.
Is this your New Zealand Falcon?"I asked.
"Don't be silly, that's a juvenile Black-shouldered Kite," she said. A man
can't win.
Thought it might be early in the season to see a juvenile, but maybe
it was hatched in autumn, but if so, would it still be sporting juvenile
plumage?
John K. Layton
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