Several flights of Kuaka | Godwits flew north while I was hanging out at the Dune Lake. One lot flew right over me, and so low I could hear the whirring of their wings. It was magical. 🐦

Photos from a different group.

Paradise Ducks would be a great alarm system — they spot you from miles away and don't stop squawking till you leave.

These were down at the river mouth yesterday. 🐦

Today we drove south slightly to look at Langs Beach, about 3 Km south of Waipū Cove.

Then we drove a tad further to Mangawhai Heads and Mangawhai, all rather built up.

The sandspit is home to the extremely endangered Tara iti | Fairy tern. 🐦

The relict population of fewer than a dozen pairs survives between Whangarei in the north and Auckland to the south. The tiny population is gravely threatened by introduced predators and disturbance or encroachment by humans. They are intensively managed during the breeding season.

This pukeko was hurrying by with a tasty morsel. 🐦

Magpie yodelled at me from the corner of the fence this morning. 🐦

Black swans and mallard ducks on the nearby Dune Lake. 🐦

The 8x optical zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro is quite something. 🐦

You can tell it’s spring. A pukeko family of 2 adults and 3 chicks on the grass not far from our house, and a pair of white-faced herons nesting in the tree closest to us. 🐦

Kiwis, or folks who know NZ Birds, give Birdle NZ a try. 🐦

Birdle 🇳🇿 15/09/2025

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https://birdle.nz

Voting for Bird of the Year closes on 28 September 2025.

Bird of the Year ‹ Forest & Bird

Today's visitor, moments after it started to rain heavily. 🐦

I want to thank Microblogger Patrick Taillon for putting me on to this 2 hour long video — LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching which I watched over several sessions. 🐦

Partly documentary, partly mockumentary, it was a great look into the birds of North America and the folks who dedicate themselves to seeing / hearing them and adding them to personal lists.

I laughed a lot.

Two brothers learn about competitive birdwatching by becoming birdwatchers—spending a year living in a used minivan, traveling the country to compete in a ‘Big Year'.

First there was one, then two, Matuku moana | White-faced heron. 🐦

You never get too old to rescue puffins: it's part of who we are.

Summer Puffling Patrols: Saving thousands of baby puffins from light pollution 🐦:

In this 13-minute Wild Hope video from Nature on PBS, biologists Erpur Snaer Hansen and Lucas Canas document the Atlantic puffins that breed on Iceland’s Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), where roughly 400 puffins exist for every human resident.

Meanwhile, it turns out we have our very own White-faced Heron outside the back door. 🐦

A dawn walk at the beach took me to the sandspit on the north side of the Ruakākā River mouth, a wildlife refuge, where birds nest. 🐦

There were quite a few NZ Dotterels and Variable Oystercatchers, along with black-backed gulls, a shag and possibly a duck.

No photos yet, but so far the birds I've spotted around here are:

• Mynah (they don't live as far south as Waikawa Beach)
• Sparrows
• Gulls
• Magpies
• White-faced heron

I may also have heard spur-winged plovers.

I've located my bird feeder, but haven't yet found the food … 🐦

We don't actually leave for a few days but I decided just before sunset on a sunny and relatively warm afternoon would be a good time to do a farewell visit to the beach.

My bird photography skills have rusted over winter. 😒 🐦

Turns out it's breeding season for the Tūturiwhatu | New Zealand dotterel. 🐦

Moments after I hung out the bird food the tauhou were eating their way through it. 🐦

Pīwakawaka | Tirairaka | Fantails are notoriously hard to photograph in flight as they flit, dart, squirl in the air. 🐦

Today was apparently "Sit On The Railing Day" which gave me a rare chance.

For comparison:

Piwakawaka: Length: 16 cm; Weight: 8 grams. (Not sure if the length includes the tail…)

Sparrow: Length: 15 cm; Weight: 28 grams.

I finally hung some bird food in the olive tree by our front door. Sparrows and Tauhou are enjoying it. 🐦

One of the great things about Meridian building a huge solar farm very close to our new house in Ruakākā is that first all kinds of investigations take place.

That's how I came to know that all the birds listed below have been observed within a radius of about 5 Km of our house. 🐦

As well as matuku, a number of other Threatened and At-Risk species of birds have been recorded within the Proposal site, namely, spotless crake/pūweto, dabchick/weweia, brown teal/pateke, banded rail/moho pereru, pied shag/karuhiruhi, little shag/kawaupaka, little black shag/kawau tui and pipit/pihoihoi as well as South Island pied oystercatcher/torea and Northern New Zealand dotterel/tuturiwhatu.

The white dot on the map below showing where various birds were spotted is 2 Km in a straight line from our house.

I'm specially excited that Bitterns | Matuku are in the area.

I also love the special engineering provision to help prevent cars and bittern colliding as the birds fly to a nearby location:

A 2.0 m earth bund and vegetation planted on top will ensure birds flying directly from the wetland will have sufficient height to avoid the road corridor as they will need to gain elevation to pass over the vegetated bund.

It's a good thing it's not Dotterel nesting season. Last night's tide seems to have been unusually high and would have wiped out the nest. They last nested just by that larger bit of driftwood only a couple of metres from the white tape. 🐦

When I first glimpsed a black bird hopping along the railing I assumed it was 'our' Blackbird. Then I realised it was actually a Tui. See the white bobbles on its throat in this terrible quick iPhone snap through the window. 🐦

Two Pied Stilts at the beach today: one doing yoga and the other taking a bath. 😆 🐦