A BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Diana’s life with falcons
DIANA DOBSON (60) HAS SPENT A LIFETIME CARING FOR INJURED BIRDS. SHE NOW MANAGES THE MARLBOROUGH FALCON TRUST’S AVIARY AND ITS BREEDING PROGRAMME
I’m pretty sure I’m known as the crazy bird lady of Marlborough. But running the Falcon Trust is a dream come true. I feel very privileged.
I’ve been looking after sick and injured birds for more than 40 years, right from when I was young and living in the UK.
I’m one of four girls and we’d all often go out with Mum, looking for nests in hedgerows, collecting feathers – that sort of thing. I would say I’ve cared for around 5000 over time.
I joined the trust, based at Brancott Estate, in 2011. There’s eight of us. I’m the only full-time staff member. There’s a parttimer, Lizzie McFarlane, but it’s mostly volunteers, all with the same goal of creating awareness of a very special bird.
The estate provides a habitat for the falcons, who act as vineyard ‘bouncers’ − they scare off the smaller grape-damaging birds – plus it supports a captive breeding programme.
Fern is our advocacy falcon. She arrived when she was just a couple of months old, along with her brother Swoop. Training her was a massive commitment, but so, so rewarding.
You have to forge a bond with your bird, and you do that through food and trust. It means five hours a day, every day for months, at the same time each day. You can’t be a part-time falconer, you can’t just decide to have a Sunday off or wander in at 7pm with your glass of wine!
What I truly love is walking out in the hills − just me and my bird flying around. I can be inside making a cup of tea, Fern will be flying around outside, and I’ll whistle and
she’ll come straight back.
When we take her to schools, she just sits there quietly on my glove, letting the kids get really close or feed her.
There’s a word for a welltrained falcon – you get your bird ‘manned up’. I like to say Fern is ‘woman-ed up’. She is very special.
Swoop was put into the breeding programme. He’s one of 13 in that. They’re birds that can’t be returned to the wild because they might be blind in one eye or have a wing that doesn’t work properly. You can’t send something that’s supposed to be the fastest bird back out there when it can’t fly, that would be terrible.
Last year, we released 12 chicks into the wild. It might not sound like many, but it is really significant. We’ve lost an awful lot of birds in New Zealand, we don’t want to lose these. There’s fewer than 6000 left and no equivalent anywhere else in the world. They are unique.
The trust also provides a rehabilitation service. Recently we had a call from Wildlife Dunedin who had a male falcon with a broken wing. They flew him up on Air New Zealand so we could fix him up and fly him back. Funny, I know!
Falcons need a lot of positive reinforcement. For example, if there’s an injured bird that needs to be netted, I have to do it in disguise – that means a wig, sunglasses, overalls – otherwise they get very upset. They’re not going to recover if they’re terrified of you!
Falcons have a fantastic diet – quail, pigeon, duck. We have hunters bring us things, keeping the freezer well stocked. I used to do all the butchery side of things until a few months ago when a volunteer arrived and was very happy to take over that role. He is invaluable!
I live in the Waihopai Valley. My house is like a zoo. One of the bedrooms is allocated to my birds. I’ve had four hawks in there, all facing different ways, all sitting on heated pads to keep them warm. I’ve got ducks, hens, chickens... plus I’ve got my hand-raised little owl. She fell out of the nest when she was about four days old.
I’ve had her for six years now.
My husband Steve and I have been married for 36 years. I told him when we met that I was really into birds, that they were in my DNA. He just thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty weird.’
I remember saying to him on the plane on the way over to New Zealand, ‘I will not do birds here, I'll go into the wine industry.’ And then six months later, I was back into birds. Steve’s fantastic. He puts up with a lot!”
The era you’d like to time travel to? The beginning of the Victorian era… no cars on the road. They’re the main cause of many injured birds that come into my care. You’re invited to a dinner party, what do you bring? Usually a clutch of rescued/ orphaned chicks due for a feed. The bravest thing you’ve ever done? Saying goodbye to my dear mother when leaving for New Zealand. Little did I know then that she’d later join us here.