Lyn

Lyn was banded in Arthur's Pass village in early December 2019 and named after Lyn Mckinnon*, a close family friend of one of the kea team. This kea along with two other young fledglings (Tamsin and Featherman) tested very high with lead poisoning and were taken to Christchurch for chelation treatment to eliminate lead from the system. After a three week course of successful chelation treatment, Lyn and the other kea were released into the wild near Andrews Stream, Waimakariri valley, in the hope that they would not return to the lead-filled scrounging 'paradise' of Arthur's pass village which would put them straight back into the danger zone. Lyn was fitted with a radio transmitter and monitored along with a number of other study birds over the following years. Lyn appeared healthy and adjusted to a mountain life over the next two years, moving further and further away from the village and settling in around the head of the Poulter and Cox valleys east of the Divide. In March 2022 Lyn was found dead and recovered from the headwaters of the Cox. *Lyn Mckinnon had a fascinating career in both journalism and education, following retirement and a Woolf Fisher fellowship award for teaching - she served as an editor for the New Zealand Rural Press and won further national journalism awards with other publications such as “The Deer Farmer’. Lyn is the author of ‘Only Two For Everest’, an in depth account of the people behind New Zealand's first Himalayan expeditions and is currently a volunteer writer for the Nurse Maude Biography Service.