Miraz Jordan

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! 🐦

Occasionally the herons come back to visit. 🐦

Yesterday we 'discovered' Waipu’s River Walk:

an accessible route through heritage-rich areas, providing ample opportunities to enjoy nature, with stunning river views along the way.

It was a pleasing walk though we'd forgotten hats and the sun was hot.

I was puzzled by these ducks, wondering what species they were, but apparently Mallards come in all sorts of colours because they readily interbreed with other species. Rakiraki | Mallard: 🐦

As a consequence of both their gamefarm origin and hybridisation, the plumages of New Zealand’s mallards are highly variable

At 0510, a while before dawn, I could hear a Ruru | Morepork in the nearby trees. 🐦

I used Fission to amplify the sound so there's quite a bit of background noise but the calls are clear.

I love hearing this bird.

Another shot from the heron kerfuffle the other day. 🐦

Recently the adult white-faced heron and two chicks had a kerfuffle on the fence. Here was one shot, with the parent looking decidedly unimpressed. 🐦

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!