Miraz Jordan

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. 🐦

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

In the next there's 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). 🐦

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

From Queenstown we travelled to Te Anau where I was able to spend a few minutes walking round Punanga Manu | the bird sanctuary. I had a wonderful close-up view of a total of 5 takahē. 🐦

Yesterday I took a bunch of rubbish photos at the beach. Today I applied more thought. A pair of white-faced herons was keeping an eye on my process. 🐦

This Paradise Shelduck pair stood out on the lake today. 🐦

I haven't visited the beach with my camera so much lately — many of the birds have gone. Today I took the camera and captured this Tarapunga | Red-billed gull. 🐦

At the Te Anau bird sanctuary I spotted Takahē and Whio (Blue Duck). 🐦

Punanga Manu o Te Anau/Te Anau Bird Sanctuary

So cool 🐦 : 3D printed eggs used in fairy tern rescue programme | RNZ News:

Staff remove the [real] eggs, take them to incubators at Auckland Zoo, and the terns continue incubating what they thought were their eggs.

… a record-breaking breeding season with 22 eggs laid and 14 chicks successfully hatched.

On the beach yesterday. 🐦

Waves? What waves? 🐦

Waikawa Beach, Aotearoa, for the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. 🌊

There was one Ngutupapa | Royal Spoonbill at Kuku Beach this morning. 🐦

Kuku Beach Estuary is a 3.5 Km walk north along the beach, but I drove there by road this morning. A local told me there had been a lot of birds there yesterday, but today there weren't so many. Lots of ducks though. 🐦

Chilly at the beach this dawn. We're now in one of the official Autumns. 🐦

Through the window. A rather scruffy looking Starling. 🐦

Half a dozen Kōurarini | European goldfinches were outside my bedroom window this morning. 🐦

Not sure I've seen a dozen or more Poaka | Pied Stilt all together at our beach before. 🐦

Bird footprints on the beach. 🐦

There is a small group of Warou | Welcome swallows who spend a proportion of their days perched on the deck railing, about 3 metres away, watching Miraz TV. Sometimes they also air their opinions on the failings of the plot or characterisation. 🐦

I took this photo the other day of Kuaka | Godwits in breeding plumage. Do you like the halo? 🐦

Today's bird, on Lake Te Puna a te Ora: Kuruwhengi | Australasian shoveler. 🐦

New Zealand status: Native; Conservation status: Not Threatened

Shovelers are specialist filter-feeding waterfowl with a large spoon-shaped or shovel-shaped bill that is almost twice as broad at its tip than at its base

Some of my Micro.Blog pals might be interested in reading this Waikawa News blog post: Who are all those birds in the Estuary? 🐦

See photos of the 21 birds that commonly use our estuary — excludes common birds like ducks, magpies etc.

Sample bird:

For those who just want the pretty pictures — 🐦

A juvenile Tarapirohe | Black-fronted Tern.

New Zealand status: Endemic

Conservation status: Nationally Endangered

Length: 28 cm; Weight: 95 g;

More at Juvenile Black-fronted Tern.