Miraz Jordan

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

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

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.

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

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. 🐦

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 … 🐦

While this Black-fronted Dotterel is looking good …

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!

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. 🐦