Miraz Jordan

The goldfinches love the lawn after a spot of rain. 🐦

I watched birds today for the annual garden bird survey. Not a great score. 🐦

• Swallow 2
• Magpie 2
• Fantail 2
• Gull 2

It's another gorgeous day and fairly warm for winter. I biked to the estuary at Princes Street — 5 Km / 20 minutes each way — and spotted this Royal Spoonbill sweeping for food in the river. 🐦

Also spotted: gulls, dotterels, ducks, white-faced herons, Oystercatchers.

There was a white-faced heron in the mangroves at the edge of the river. 🐦

I walked the Hātea Loop Shared Path – Huarahi o te Whai this morning, and enjoyed the various sculptures along the way.

I also spotted this little Kōtare | Kingfisher. 🐦

Sparrows on the lawn, and paradise ducks on the area behind us. 🐦

Seen through the window, goldfinches chaffinches on the lawn. 🐦

Oops, a reader has pointed out these are goldfinches.

A young looking Kōtare | Kingfisher on the stump out back behind our place. 🐦

Yesterday I had scrambled eggs on toast at Serenity Cafe in the Town Basin. The food was OK though the eggs had a slightly unusual taste.

Disconcerting though was the gull just above my outside table waiting for me to leave my food unattended. 🐦

Finally it's not windy and though not specially warm it's not cold either so I biked the 10 Km round trip to the west side of the estuary (at Princes Street). 🐦

It was mid-tide but there weren't very many birds around. I did get snaps of Mt Manaia, a white-faced heron and a pied stilt.

It's blimmin windy today. When we went for a walk we saw a bunch of gulls hunkered down on a sand bank in the river. 🐦

After 20 minutes brisk walking from the Racecourse beach entrance I reached the bird sanctuary and rested for a few minutes in a deep squat.

This gull arrived just a couple of metres from me to see what I was up to. 🐦

It's only a 10 minute stroll to the prettiest and most accessible part of the nearby Dune Lake.

Along with some ducks, a pair of Kakiānu | Black Swans on the lake were enjoying the pleasant sunny day. 🐦

Good news for the wider local area — Breeding season successes - Local Matters: 🐦

It has been another busy summer, with breeding season now complete for some of our most endangered birds. As always, it’s been a rollercoaster, but the final results are encouragingly positive, with tara iti (fairy tern), tūturiwhatu (dotterel) and matuku-hūrepo (Australasian bittern) all enjoying successful breeding seasons.

To top it off, we’ve also recently confirmed the presence of critically endangered pekapeka-tou-roa (long-tailed bats) in the Mangawhai and Te Ārai area.

Great news for local bird lovers — New Zealand's rarest endemic bird - fairy tern - has boost in numbers | RNZ News 🐦:

New Zealand's rarest endemic bird - the black-headed tara iti/fairy tern - has had a boost in numbers, according to the Department of Conservation.

The department (DOC) said a census at the end of March showed the population of the small coastal bird had increased about 15 percent.

It said compared to 1983 when there were only three to four breeding pairs - now, there were nearly 50 birds more than one-year-old in the wild and 11 breeding pairs.

'Our' white-faced heron continues to delight me. This was its second visit today as it inspected me (inside) from about 4 metres away. 🐦

Earlier I'd seen a movement in my peripheral vision and saw the heron closer, walking past the window, watching me carefully. At the 'end' it turned and went back.

This chin scratch must have gone on for more than a minute before I got tired of waiting and took the photo anyway.

Then, after a bit more scratching it finally stopped. 🐦

Through the window. This morning's visitor. 🐦

Just learned about this, bird lovers — Kākāpō Cam: Rakiura the kākāpō – 2026 nest 🐦.

A hidden world revealed: We’re live from the nest site of female kākāpō Rakiura on the remote, predator-free island of Whenua Hou/Codfish Island in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

It's encouraging to see notices like this one up by Rainbow Falls in Kerikeri. 🐦

A huge amount of work is restoring native birds to a few areasof the New Zealand landscape.

It's always a good morning when the kids drop in for a visit. 🐦

I love that this Pied Stilt at the estuary is on a lean. 🐦

Now every time I see a heron within cooee of our place I wonder if it's one of 'our' herons. In this case it was at the beach close to our house. 🐦

One of the tracks to the river mouth takes you through a sea of golden rushes.

I visited at low tide, just after dawn, and the area was a vast mudflat where birds were feeding. 🐦

I visited the estuary south of the river today. Midday, blazing sun, no hat, loads of people at the beach, high tide — conditions were far from ideal so no photos.

Then I saw clouds of birds whirling away from some disturbance. Thousands of Godwits and White-fronted Terns. What a sight! 🐦