Miraz Jordan

We did a little 1.2km loop walk at Limeburners Creek Wetland in Whangārei. We saw a few birds, including this probably leucistic Mallard. Note the tiny duckling behind the small duck at bottom right. 🐦

Today, with a new bird-watching friend, H, I visited the Waipū Bird Sanctuary. We saw lots of Oystercatchers, Godwits, gulls, NZ Dotterels, ducks and a few other birds, but of particular note was a bird new to me — the Ruddy turnstone 🐦 :

An annual circumpolar breeder on Arctic and subarctic tundra, the ruddy turnstone is one of around 40 Arctic breeding wading bird species that migrate south and reach New Zealand.

A fellow down the road breeds and protects rare Cape Barren geese. 🐦

Today I spotted half a dozen of them near the river and was struck by how very big they are:

Length: 85 cm
Weight: 5.3 kg (male), 3.8 kg (female)

September's pukeko chicks have been independent for a while now. This morning we spotted 3 tiny new chicks that are all black fluff and legs. 🐦

A local knitter made this bear and when I saw it I realised perhaps our house could use some Christmas decoration after all. So cute. 🐦

Late yesterday, when I put the sprinkler on, the pukeko were delighted and came to play in the water. 🐦

The herons do so enjoy hanging out on the fence. This young one is a bit ruffled in the breeze. 🐦

At the river were two shags on a branch in the water. One is a Pied Shag but a clearly smaller shag was nearby. I think the smaller one is a Kawau tūī | Little black shag 🐦 :

Little black shags are similar in size to little shags, but they lack any white plumage and have a relatively short tail. They are much smaller than black shags.

A fellow down the road has a very large property by the river mouth and is happy for respectful folks to ride their bikes or walk there. He breeds the rare Cape Barren goose 🐦 :

Cape Barren geese are almost wholly terrestrial, inhabiting open grassland, including planted pastures, on the fringes of wetlands; they avoid scrub-encroached grasslands.

Comfy pukeko. 🐦

The neighbour's fence was the place for all the cool birds to hang out this morning. 🐦

This morning, through the slightly open door, I watched one of the baby herons (who have now left home) hang out on next door's roof. Then a couple of Pukeko strolled around the garden. 🐦

I really like the effect caused by the very narrow view I had between the doorframe and the edge of the door.

Hooray for the 8x iPhone zoom that allowed me to capture this Spoonbill feeding in Ruakākā River. It's the first Spoonbill I've seen up here. 🐦

Huge commotion at the heron nest just now as the adult chased off a potentially marauding hawk! 🐦

Pleased to see a hawk, but not if it's going after baby herons!

I was checking out the baby White-faced Herons. 🐦 …

… when one took off …

… and flew …

… a short distance.

Well done baby heron!

Big day: at least one of the two baby white-faced Herons will fly today. Calisthenics have been underway. 🐦

There's a mysterious little lake (or two) on the corner between McEwan Road and the intersection where Port Marsden Highway meets Point Marsden Road. (Who came up with these confusing names!?)

There was a black swan pair with two young on the grass. 🐦

I've been expecting the White-faced Heron babies to launch themselves from the tree any minute, but zooming in, I can see there's still a bit of fluff on the top of the head. The parents are leaving the babies alone for longer and longer now. 🐦

Yesterday while chatting outside in full sun with our landscape designer I noticed the ground beside me kind of shimmering. I looked up to see a very large flock of birds (perhaps godwits?) flying directly overhead, casting shimmering shadows.

That was delightfully, splendidly weird! 🐦

Through a window on a dreary morning, but although I often hear the pheasant, today I actually saw it. 🐦

Less than 10 metres from me : adult heron grooming. 🐦

Another chick at the river mouth the other day — this time a dotterel. These birds are so hard to see: follow the post at mid-top down to the bottom third of the photo to see the chick. Its parent is on guard nearby. Oystercatcher in the background. 🐦

At the river mouth the other morning I spotted this Oystercatcher with two tiny chicks. 🐦

Those white-faced heron chicks are getting quite big. The parents seem to leave them alone a bit more now. 🐦

Before driving home we made a quick visit to Haruru Falls, just outside Paihia. The chickies by the entrance were cute. 🐦

The falls were lovely.