Richard Robinson Underwater Photojournalist

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FALLEN FROM GRACE { 41 images } Created 25 Mar 2020

The rarest bird in New Zealand is the fairy tern, with perhaps 36 adults left in existence.
It’s got everything going against it: weather, cats, its own DNA, and the fact that humans love the white-sand beaches where it raises its young.
Only a small group of people, many of them volunteers, stand between it and oblivion.
What will we lose if it vanishes altogether?
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
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  • The rarest bird in New Zealand is the fairy tern, with perhaps 36 adults left in existence.<br />
It’s got everything going against it: weather, cats, its own DNA, and the fact that humans love the white-sand beaches where it raises its young.<br />
Only a small group of people, many of them volunteers, stand between it and oblivion.<br />
What will we lose if it vanishes altogether?<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 01.TIF
  • Free Fall – There are just 36 Fairy Terns left in New Zealand. What do we lose if they vanish altogether?<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 02.TIF
  • These delicate, dismembered wings of a fairy tern were collected at Mangawhai Spit in December 1979 and stored in the collection of Auckland Museum. The bird’s scientific name, Sterna nereis, references the Nereids, 50 sea nymphs who were daughters of Nereus, the “old man of the sea” in Greek mythology.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 03.TIF
  • Crouched in his hide, DOC ranger Keven Drew makes a note every time a fairy tern parent feeds its chick. If chicks survive storms, predators, human disturbance and attacks by male terns, they’ll fledge (leave the breeding site) at about 27 days old. Parents continue to feed and teach their young for months. “They’re pretty devoted,” says Drew. “It’s a long haul for them.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 04.TIF
  • Parents continue to feed and teach their young for months. “They’re pretty devoted,” says DOC ranger Keven Drew. “It’s a long haul for them.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 05.TIF
  • Parents continue to feed and teach their young for months. “They’re pretty devoted,” says DOC ranger Keven Drew. “It’s a long haul for them.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 06.TIF
  • Once widespread around the country, fairy terns now breed over the summer on a handful of Northland beaches, such as Mangawhai, that are also loved by holidaymakers.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 07.TIF
  • Nesting sites are roped off and monitored by rangers, including Ayla Wiles but some people ignore the signs. Drones are a new threat, as fairy terns think they’re an aerial predator and leave chicks unprotected while they try to fight them.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 08.TIF
  • DOC ranger Ayla Wiles candles a New Zealand Fairy Tern egg to confirm if it is fertile.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 09.TIF
  • During the summer breeding season, fairy terns spread out to breed at Waipu, Mangawhai, Te Arai, Pakiri and the Papakanui Spit. In addition to a breeding site, each pair has its own defended feeding territory where they hunt for food, foraging in estuaries and close to shore. Over the winter, the birds swap from the east coast to the west, gathering together on the Kaipara Harbour.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 10.TIF
  • During the summer breeding season, fairy terns spread out to breed at Waipu, Mangawhai, Te Arai, Pakiri and the Papakanui Spit. In addition to a breeding site, each pair has its own defended feeding territory where they hunt for food, foraging in estuaries and close to shore. Over the winter, the birds swap from the east coast to the west, gathering together on the Kaipara Harbour.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 11.TIF
  • Metal-Red and Red-Black Metal mate at Mangawhai in October 2019. Fairy terns are called after the colours of their leg bands—unlike kakapo, all 211 of which receive individual names. DOC technical advisor Tony Beauchamp is opposed to names. He says he doesn’t want people to get too attached to the birds, and to focus on recording specific bands. “If people are tuning in on their bands, we know they have definitely seen that bird. When they have names, some people have a tendency just to assume.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 12.TIF
  • During the summer breeding season, fairy terns spread out to breed at Waipu, Mangawhai, Te Arai, Pakiri and the Papakanui Spit. In addition to a breeding site, each pair has its own defended feeding territory where they hunt for food, foraging in estuaries and close to shore. Over the winter, the birds swap from the east coast to the west, gathering together on the Kaipara Harbour.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 12b
  • Though most of the fairy-tern population are mature birds, less than a third have formed breeding pairs. In an effort to encourage new pairs to get together, Forest & Bird is hoping to attract them to an alternative site on the Kaipara Harbour that’s relatively people- and pest-free. The conservation group brought in several tonnes of shells, and added some decoy terns, made with the help of a 3D printer by environmentalist and designer Shaun Lee.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 13.tif
  • During the summer breeding season, fairy terns spread out to breed at Waipu, Mangawhai, Te Arai, Pakiri and the Papakanui Spit. In addition to a breeding site, each pair has its own defended feeding territory where they hunt for food, foraging in estuaries and close to shore. Over the winter, the birds swap from the east coast to the west, gathering together on the Kaipara Harbour.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 13b
  • Spot the one-day-old fairy tern chick in this picture. If chicks are threatened by aerial predators, parents will simply take off and leave the nest, trusting that the chick’s disguise will keep it safe. The birds are most vulnerable to land-based threats during the summer months between egg-laying and fledging.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 14.TIF
  • On Christmas Eve DOC ranger Keven Drew was watching a nest site at Mangawhai, where two chicks—siblings—were huddled behind a bit of wood. One wasn’t moving much. Drew had noticed that its mother had only been giving fish to its sibling. “It was on its dying legs, really. I thought, full money, it was going to die, so I put it in my pocket. I thought, ‘If you’re going to die, you might as well die in comfort’.” He wrapped it in a clean cloth and put it in his chest pocket—and after about an hour “the bloody thing came round”.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 15.TIF
  • He spent that afternoon and Christmas Day juggling his regular work with chasing single male terns out of the nesting site and fishing for gobies to feed the sick chick. But, on Christmas afternoon, the chick was running out of energy. It ate three fish, but vomited most of them up. Drew went to have a shower and make a coffee, and when he came back it was dead.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 16.TIF
  • Drew lived in a caravan at Mangawhai for the duration of his contract (some rangers are only employed on fairy-tern work over the summer). He spent Christmas trying to keep a one-week-old chick alive. It hadn’t been receiving food from its mother, who favoured its sibling, and it died at 5pm on Christmas Day.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 17.TIF
  • He spent that afternoon and Christmas Day juggling his regular work with chasing single male terns out of the nesting site and fishing for gobies to feed the sick chick. But, on Christmas afternoon, the chick was running out of energy. It ate three fish, but vomited most of them up. Drew went to have a shower and make a coffee, and when he came back it was dead.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 18.TIF
  • He spent that afternoon and Christmas Day juggling his regular work with chasing single male terns out of the nesting site and fishing for gobies to feed the sick chick. But, on Christmas afternoon, the chick was running out of energy. It ate three fish, but vomited most of them up. Drew went to have a shower and make a coffee, and when he came back it was dead.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 19.TIF
  • Stefan Sav, resident vet at the Auckland Zoo X-rays the deceased Fairy Tern chick, looking for signs of trauma before preforming a necropsy on the bird.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 20.TIF
  • Stefan Sav, resident vet at the Auckland Zoo X-rays the deceased Fairy Tern chick, looking for signs of trauma before preforming a necropsy on the bird.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 21.TIF
  • Stefan Sav, resident vet at the Auckland Zoo X-rays the deceased Fairy Tern chick, looking for signs of trauma before preforming a necropsy on the bird.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 22.TIF
  • Stefan Sav, resident vet at the Auckland Zoo X-rays the deceased Fairy Tern chick, looking for signs of trauma before preforming a necropsy on the bird.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 23.TIF
  • Auckland Zoo vet in residence Stefan Sav X-rays performs a necropsy on the dead Fairy Tern chick, looking for trauma and taking biopsies for genetics.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 24.TIF
  • Auckland Zoo vet in residence Stefan Sav X-rays performs a necropsy on the dead Fairy Tern chick, looking for trauma and taking biopsies for genetics.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 25.TIF
  • Auckland Zoo vet in residence Stefan Sav X-rays performs a necropsy on the dead Fairy Tern chick, looking for trauma and taking biopsies for genetics.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 26.TIF
  • Auckland Zoo vet in residence Stefan Sav X-rays performs a necropsy on the dead Fairy Tern chick, looking for trauma and taking biopsies for genetics.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 27.TIF
  • Caring for an abandoned tara iti chick at Te Arai involves near-constant surveillance by DOC rangers, including Shelley Ogle.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 28.TIF
  • Volunteers such as Reg Whale and his cat-pig dog Ken also keep an eye on vulnerable parents and chicks over the summer. “The birds need to come first, before people, just for their breeding season,” says Whale. “If it was a kiwi breeding site, it wouldn’t be a problem to keep people out of the whole area.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 29.TIF
  • New Zealand Fairy Tern volunteers are transported across the Mangawhai harbour in the trusts boat Audrey to monitor chicks.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 30.TIF
  • One reason may be that humans are affecting the fairy terns’ food supply. Some researchers and volunteers believe the removal of a stand of mangroves from the Mangawhai Harbour in 2015 caused a drop in the numbers of the small fish that fairy terns eat. A 2014 study found fairy terns often forage close to mangroves, though a link hasn’t been proved between mangrove removal and the failure of fairy terns to raise chicks. Today, some groups in Mangawhai are pushing to remove more mangroves.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 31.TIF
  • Birds NZ volunteer Ian Southey and the Fairy Tern Trust have been monitoring goby numbers in the Mangawhai Harbour. A 2014 study found gobies were the most important food species for fairy terns, and that Mangawhai birds feed near mangroves. Southey believes food shortages may be impacting breeding: “Overseas studies suggest that when food is short or poor quality, small terns lay fewer eggs.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 32.TIF
  • Birds NZ volunteer Ian Southey and the Fairy Tern Trust have been monitoring goby numbers in the Mangawhai Harbour. A 2014 study found gobies were the most important food species for fairy terns, and that Mangawhai birds feed near mangroves. Southey believes food shortages may be impacting breeding: “Overseas studies suggest that when food is short or poor quality, small terns lay fewer eggs.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 33.TIF
  • DOC technical advisor Tony Beauchamp catches a chick at Mangawhai to band with the colours pGY-pGM. Fairy terns are called after the colours of their leg bands —unlike kakapo, all 211 of which receive individual names. Beauchamp is opposed to names. He says he doesn’t want people to get too attached to the birds, and to focus on recording specific bands. “If people are tuning in on their bands, we know they have definitely seen that bird. When they have names, some people have a tendency just to assume.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 34.TIF
  • DOC technical advisor Tony Beauchamp catches a chick at Mangawhai to band with the colours pGY-pGM. Fairy terns are called after the colours of their leg bands —unlike kakapo, all 211 of which receive individual names. Beauchamp is opposed to names. He says he doesn’t want people to get too attached to the birds, and to focus on recording specific bands. “If people are tuning in on their bands, we know they have definitely seen that bird. When they have names, some people have a tendency just to assume.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 35.TIF
  • DOC technical advisor Tony Beauchamp catches a chick at Mangawhai to band with the colours pGY-pGM. Fairy terns are called after the colours of their leg bands —unlike kakapo, all 211 of which receive individual names. Beauchamp is opposed to names. He says he doesn’t want people to get too attached to the birds, and to focus on recording specific bands. “If people are tuning in on their bands, we know they have definitely seen that bird. When they have names, some people have a tendency just to assume.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 36.TIF
  • 58% of the population of New Zealand Fairy Terns roost at Big Sand Island in the Kaipara Harbour.<br />
While most New Zealanders will never see a kakapo or takahe in the wild, the fairy tern is one of the few critically endangered species that lives among us, says DOC’s Tony Beauchamp. “If you’re on the beach near Auckland, and you know what you’re looking at, you will see a critically endangered species in your midst.”<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 38.TIF
  • Fairy Tern,  Orakei Bay 1873 - Hundreds of bird specimens added to Auckland Museum's collections by founding curator Thomas Cheeseman were shot by his younger brother, William Joseph, and their labels bear the tag "W.J.C." The museum could not afford a taxidermist, but Cheeseman's sister Emma learnt the skill and prepared many of the specimens. <br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 39.TIF
  • “If we’re going to save them—or even if we’re not—there’s an obligation to be honest, and to reckon with what is actually being lost.” - Australian philosopher Thom van Dooren.<br />
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue 162 March - April 2020.<br />
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/fallen-from-grace/
    FAIRY TERN 40.TIF