Nelson Feathers: Kārearea - getting ready to leave home

I passed by the kārearea nest yesterday. First time past, I saw who I think was Pebbles (she looks like Wilma) was on a log near our rope, a couple of metres from our track. She screeched as I neared, then flew towards a branch closer to me, then closer again. After that she essentially ignored me. She preened for a while, then flew west off the spur, and a somewhat clumsy landing in some foliage.

I wondered where Bam-Bam was, then I heard a screech from the west side of the spur, and eventually found him on a branch about 80m from me. He strutted up and down for a while, and screeched occasionally.

First three photos are Pebbles (I think), the last one Bam-Bam (I think!).

I passed by again later in the afternoon, and all was quiet. I waited for a while, wondering where Pebbles and Bam-Bam had got to. No sign of them around their nest site. They are pretty well camouflaged so a slow, careful scan is warranted. After five minutes or so I heard the classic "keh keh keh" of a kārearea off the west side of the spur. I found the pair of them on a branch about level with my location about 20m from me (it's a steep hill and they were perhaps 10-15m off the ground.

They remained on the branch for the time I was there (about half an hour), preening commonly, sometimes taking a power nap (not much more than five seconds), stretching, and suddenly alert to any noisy bird passing overhead. I fired off about 600 photos, I reduced this down to about 20. I decided not to reduce further, it's not often I get to see a pair of kārearea fledglings, it may be years before I get this opportunity again. No reason to be stingy with bandwidth!