Miraz Jordan Profile Photo

Miraz Jordan

I love simplicity and silence. I enjoy taking photos of birds. I also enjoy drinking tea — green, white, yellow, oolong. I live at Waikawa Beach in New Zealand, which I love, and strive to be an actively decent human being. Apparently the bizarre is normal now. Now 69, I'm super happy to be getting old — it means I'm not dead yet! 100% human (she / her). I joined the MB community on 05 January 2018. Follow me on Micro.Blog at https://micro.blog/miraz.

  • A pair of Paradise Ducks announced their arrival in the paddock next door. Meanwhile a blackbird serenades me from the railing of our deck. (Volume up; apologies for the shaky cam.) 🐦

    Paradise ducks in a paddock.

  • Four, with water droplet. 🐦

    Pied stilt with leg lifted, water dripping off one foot, and legs seeming to make the shape of a 4.
    Pied stilt with leg lifted, water dripping off one foot, and legs seeming to make the shape of a 4.

  • Quite often when I sit on the deck to read in the sun a little friend joins me for a chat. 🐦

    Welcome Swallow sits on the rain gauge.
    Warou | Welcome swallow sits on the rain gauge.
    Welcome Swallow on the rain gauge.
    Warou on the rain gauge.

  • When these two little Barbary doves saw me coming along the lane they flew over to the gate to check me out more closely. 🐦 😍

  • The Kuaka | Godwits are back after their epic journey from the top of the northern hemisphere and they're hungry. 🐦

    Three long billed birds delve deep into the sand in the shallows of the sea.
    A long billed seabird beside the breaking waves holds a piece of food in its bill.

  • It's spring and this beautiful little Weweia | New Zealand dabchick was watching me from lake Puna o te Ora. 🐦

    Little brown bird with beady eye and orange breast floating on a lake.

  • Sparrows in the rain. 🐦

    Sparrows in the rain shelter below an overhanging piece of plywood.

  • It was a very unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach. My friend Stephen Betts found this injured bird on the beach and took it to Wellington Zoo for care. 🐦

    Sad looking mid-size brown bird on the beach.
    Mid-size brown bird on lawn.

    Photos by Stephen Betts and used with permission.

    The zoo updated:

    the albatross is bright this morning and currently stable. It is indeed a light mantled sooty albatross.

    Toroa pango | Light Mantled Sooty Albatross.

  • Down at the beach today I thought I saw a piece of fluff blowing in the wind. Then I realised it was actually a Black-fronted Dotterel (16-18 cm; 30-35 grams; orange beak). Then I spotted a Banded Dotterel (20 cm; 60 grams) too. Then I managed to get both in one photo. 🐦

    Banded and black-fronted dotterels near one another.

  • Being mid-winter there are few birds around. I was pleased to see the spoonbill back. It was joined by a couple of spur-winged plovers and a dozen Pied Stilts. 🐦

    Spoonbill, spur-winged plovers, stilts in shallow water on the beach.

  • This fine pheasant was feeding in the paddock next door. 🐦

    Brightly coloured male pheasant in a paddock.

  • When I prepared apples for stewing today I put the cores on the picnic table. The Tauhou | Waxeyes were very happy with that arrangement. 🐦

    Small birds on the picnic table eating apple cores.

  • An unusual sight on the beach today: a Karetai hurukoko | Cape petrel, probably exhausted — it didn't move when I came close but managed to get away from a small wave. 🐦

    New Zealand status: Native; Conservation status: Naturally Uncommon.

    Gull sized bird with black head and black and white chequers on its body, sitting on wet sand.
    The bird has its wings spread as an incoming wave bubbles round its legs.

  • On the beach this morning: a (seeming giant) Spur-winged Plover next to a (truly small) Black-fronted Dotterel. 🐦

    On the left a tiny dotterel, next to a much larger spur-winged plover.

    Plover: Length: 38 cm; Weight: 350 - 370 grams

    Dotterel: Length: 16 - 18 cm; Weight: 30 - 35 grams

  • It was dusk when we left the movie yesterday and birds were roosting in the big trees along the Square in Palmerston North. 🐦

  • At dawn this morning there were 3 Royal Spoonbills in the ponded area of the beach where the Pied Stilts like to hang out. I was delighted, as I thought the spoonbills had abandoned us. 🐦

    Pied Stilt: who dis?
    Pied Stilt: who dis?
    Three spoonbills snoozing.
    Three spoonbills snoozing.

  • At 7 am, still about 40 minutes before sunrise, I stepped on to the beach. Although there was barely any light the pair of Paradise Ducks on the nearby remnant lagoon loudly announced my arrival. In the background are a few birds twittering. 🐦

  • An interesting 11 minute interview — NZ's smallest bird makes new sounds | RNZ 🐦 :

    A new study shows the tiny titipounamu or rifleman has the ability to learn to make new sounds, just like parrots.

  • This Pohowera | Banded dotterel has somewhere to be … 🐦

    Banded dotterel flying just above the sand.

    While this Black-fronted Dotterel is looking good …

    Black-fronted dotterel with its dark stripes and white chest.

  • My day went awry in the best possible way. I cut short my bike ride to collect my Fuji X-T5 and take photos of a rare visitor to Waikawa Beach: a Kōtuku | White heron. 🐦

    Such amazing birds!

    Tall white bird stands tall beside a river.
    Pure white bird with sharp yellow beak and neck kinked flies across the image.
    Black shag in the river looks at the heron on the bank.
    Peekaboo!

  • I knew it was still too dark at dawn to take photos of the Pūkeko by the lake, but I did anyway. I like the effect on this shot. Fujifilm X-T5, lens: XF100-400mm, ISO 12800, 600 mm, 1 ev, f22, 1/30 s. 🐦

    Dark bird with glowing red face shield beside almost glowing rushes, everything else black.

  • At the beach this morning: 3 spur-winged plovers and a pied stilt.

    Spur-winged plovers, pied stilt by a large puddle of water.

    In the next there's a spur-winged plover, a pied stilt, a black-fronted dotterel (in the background), while a swallow flies by. 🐦

    A spur-winged plover, a pied stilt a black-fronted dotterel (in the background), while a swallow flies by.

  • This morning I joined a couple of other members of the Horowhenua branch of Forest and Bird to do a bird count at Waikawa Beach estuary. We don't have so many birds around at the moment, but along with the usuals we spotted a flock of maybe 60 white-fronted terns, and also 5 banded dotterels. 🙌🏼 🐦

  • Pied Stilt (and friend). 🐦

    Pied stilt with reflection.

  • This Pied Shag kept an eye on me while drying its wings at the beach. 🐦

    Pied shag on the beach with wings spread.
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