Banded Rail Come Back Home

The two surviving young banded rail have been released after two months in the tender care of Gaye Butcher and her family at the Bird Rescue Centre with Mill Creek Animal and Bird Encounters near Whitianga.. Looking very healthy, the birds flew into the wetlands and were seen soon after feeding and looking right at home.

Doris and Tejo van Schie came down from Auckland especially to see the birds released. The birds' survival was thanks, in no small measure, to the efforts Tejo and Doris made to get them into care as soon as possible after they were discovered near the Trail as recently hatched orphan chicks.