I woke up this morning to brilliant sunshine streaming
through the windows. We had already decided that today was to be a day of doing
very little so that I could stay off my feet and rest them. My ankles have not
been too good just lately and I wanted them in good condition for the nature
workshop I am doing tomorrow at Zealandia. But the sun was shining and I so
wanted to be out with my big lens on such a perfect day!
 |
| Mallard duck and ducklings |
So I came up with the idea of taking my new camping chair to
the Petone Estuary and sitting with my camera. I wasn’t going to go looking for birds; I was
just going to wait for them to come to me. Best idea I have had in a long time!
The tide had turned and was on its way out, but there was still a lot of water
about and very few birds. So I sat and watched. Within minutes I saw what I can
only describe as a duck train! Mother duck and a train of ducklings following
close behind – very cute.
 |
| Red Billed Gull |
The gulls were the first to arrive as the tide receded, I
noted several different species of gulls, both red billed and black billed
gulls were fishing side by side. Next came the Caspian Tern. It landed on the
start of the sand bar and waited. It was still waiting an hour later when the
water was almost totally gone. I was starting to make up stories for it – I could
imagine it had said to a fellow tern “meet you at the sand bar”, and it had
been stood up. Another hour waiting and it finally decided to have a fly about,
but having found no other terns, went back to waiting. I felt sorry for the lonely
tern.
 |
| Caspian Tern with wings spread |
Next to arrive at the Estuary was the oyster catchers. I
have never really watched them before but one by one they all carried out the
same little routine. Fly in and land, then take a bath. Meticulous care was
taken on the wing feathers before splashing about one more time, then getting
on to feeding themselves. It was almost like they just had to be looking their
best for the camera.
 |
| Oyster Catchers |
 |
| Oyster Catcher |
The grey heron put in an appearance next. It wandered up and
down the beach in front of me, stirring up the water with one foot them diving
its head into the water to grab any unsuspecting crab that showed itself. I didn’t spend too much time watching the
grey heron as it wasn’t doing anything unusual and you can have only so many
heron photos.
 |
| Grey Heron |
Next up came the swans! This was indeed a surprise for me as
I have never seen the swans here before. I knew they were there from time to
time but never when I personally have been there. Four of them casually swam in
feeding along the way on the weeds in the water. They stayed for a bit then
left just as gracefully as they arrived.
 |
| Black Swans |
The last of the birds to arrive was the starlings. LOTS of
starlings. They strutted around amongst the oyster catchers, often getting squawked
at for getting too close. The sun showed off their stunning colours as they
pecked about on the sand bar.
One of the birds that I really wanted to catch in flight was
the kingfishers. Today I saw one pair in the distance flitting about but none
where I was sitting. I had purposely sat where I knew the kingfishers usually
were but they chose today of all days to go elsewhere. Never mind, there is a
lot of summer to come for me to catch up with the kingfishers again.
