Mrs Jewell cast reincarnated

Members of the crew of wrecked General Grant have been reincarnated as kea. I can’t begin to explain how happy this makes me.

‘Sanguily The Cuban‘ has just been spotted near Jordan Stream, Mid South Island, exhibiting such behaviour as: Feeding on berries, flying, playing. Came and went for about 2 hours. It’s him, for sure.

This is the work of my friend Lulu Jordan, who eats adventure for breakfast, and in January took part in a project tagging keas, earning naming rights. She took the characters from my novel, Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant, matched them with a bird, and released them into the wild. She manages to squeeze such interesting work in between hunting tar in the mountains and 23 days rafting the Grand Canyon. Lulu is one of the coolest people I know.

Mrs Jewell was banded in January 2023 on the Bald Range. Her entry says: Mrs Jewell is named for the only woman to survive the General Grant shipwreck in 1886 off the coast of the Auckland Islands. Though her story of the 18 months marooned were never recorded she must have been a woman of great patience and tenacity.
The General Grant personified (birdonified?) was recorded on Kelly’s Hill
Bartholomew Brown was seen on Kelly’s Hill
Bill Scott who appropriately has a great looking bill according to Lulu, also on Kelly’s Hill
And James Teer, the man himself reborn as a mighty kea, flying on gorgeous wings above the mountain ranges, a bird named for his strength and fearlessness.

If you’re wandering the South Island alps and see one of these majestic birds, please report your observation to the Kea Database. I’ll be watching out for where they go to play. I’d love to learn that James Teer made it back to Jackson Bay.