Famous falcon flys the coop

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.

The trust champions a threepronged 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 in 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.

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. 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 awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to wildlife conservation in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Delivery Price Schedule for Marlborough Lines Limited from 1 April 2023

Pursuant to the Electricity Distribution Information Disclosure Determination 2012

This schedule sets out Marlborough Lines Limited’s (MLL’s) line delivery prices to apply from 1 April 2023.

These prices cover the costs of MLL operating and maintaining the electricity distribution network which delivers power to over 26,500 Marlborough consumers. MLL’s costs to recover include charges from Transpower, the owner and operator of New Zealand’s electricity transmission grid which MLL is connected to. The way in which Transpower charges its customers, including MLL, is changing from 1 April 2023. MLL will now also be required to pass through Transpower’s settlement residual credits to electricity retailers trading on MLL’s network – a contributing factor in this year’s price increases.

MLL’s price changes from 1 April 2023 include:

• A small increase for most consumer groups to cover increases in MLL’s costs (note that increases are generally to the fixed price components).

• Increases for remote consumers relative to non-remote consumers. Connections in remote areas cost significantly more to maintain a supply to, higher prices reflect and signal the cost of supplying these connections.

• Increases in the fixed daily charge for Residential Low Fixed Charge consumers from 30c/day to 45c/day consistent with the Electricity (Low Fixed Charge Tariff Option for Domestic Consumers) Regulations 2004.

Any consumer who owns (or purchases) an Electric Vehicle (EV) may like to connect their EV charging point to MLL’s controllable tariff (12 or 16 in this price schedule). MLL charges approximately 3c less per kWh of energy under the controllable tariff. For further information, please contact MLL or your local electrician.

For an ‘average’ residential consumer (DL, DS15) who consumes 8,000kWh per annum, the price increase (post-discount) will be approximately 12 cents per day (4.3%), excluding GST.

MLL passes its prices on to consumers’ electricity retailers who may in turn rebundle these prices. This may mean that you will not see MLL’s prices reflected in the same manner on your monthly invoice from 1 April 2023.

If you are concerned whether you are on the price plan best suited to your circumstances, please contact your electricity retailer.

Further information on MLL’s line delivery pricing, including guidance on eligibility criteria for price plans and a copy of the delivery price schedule, can be found under the pricing section of MLL’s website at: www. marlboroughlines.co.nz