More from Scorching Bay

Today is overcast and we even had a little bit of rain earlier, so the camera is probably not going to make it outside. Here are a few more images from yesterday's shoot at Scorching Bay.

Scorching Bay

This morning the mission was to visit a tern colony at Scorching Bay. These birds are so used to people being there due to the fact that the colony is within metres of a local cafe. This of course makes it the perfect spot for a photographer to stop for a coffee break.

So you can imagine our dismay when there were no tables free beach side. We trudged across the road to order some lunch and one of the staff starting joking about the size of our lenses, and asked if we needed the menu to be held way over the other side of the room for us to read it. To which my reply was "No thanks, but a table outside would be great!"

Before we could blink an eye, another table and two chairs were being bought out from a nearby shed and hey presto we were seated right by the terns. You certainly can't beat that for service! The food was pretty good too!

Instead of just concentrating on shots of terns in flight, I looked more for the interaction they had between each other, or other behaviour. I wanted something different to the norm and I hope I have succeeded with some of these images.  I will return to the terns again, if only to experience the excellent service at the cafe!

A second day at Makara

After finding the terns on Saturday I was keen to have a second shot at them, but the weather report on Sunday predicted rain and I had pretty much resigned myself to staying home for the day. Well the rain lasted all of ten minutes and then the sun came out so I bundled up my gear and we headed back to Makara Beach.

It was definitely threatening to rain when we got there but the terns were there so I really didn't care that much if it rained or not. At least not until it got too heavy to keep the lens free of raindrops. In between arriving and the rain coming down heavy I managed to photograph the terns from a slightly different angle and with a  more cloudy and stormy sky behind them.

There were people going past them from time to time at which point they all take to the air before settling back down in formation in a new position on the beach. They didn't quite go where I wanted them to this time but there's always another day.

 

Terns at Makara

We arrived out at Makara to wind and low cloud and not much else, but within minutes of parking the car we noticed a flock of terns taking flight as some people walked past them. After sitting out in the wind for a few minutes we decided it would be just as easy to do it from the car and much warmer! So I moved the car to another car park within lens reach of the birds.

The terns like to huddle close together and all face in the direction of the wind, which for me was a minor annoyance. I couldn't get shots from the front of them so had to make do with side shots, or from the rear of the flock. For the most part it was just a matter of waiting for a bird to turn in the right direction.

The terns were moving about so fast that to capture the full flock in flight I had to be very quick, and totally ready when it happened. There was an old lady on walking on the beach with her cell phone camera trying to take snaps of the terns too and she didn't think twice about going right up close to them to make them fly - something I was not comfortable with at all.

Plimmerton Beach

Plimmerton beach is a spot I often forget to visit with my camera. Yesterday on the way somewhere else with a bit of time to spare we popped in for a quick look around. There on the rocks with the tide half out was a flock of terns sheltering from the wind.  They weren't easy to photograph as pretty much all of them were bunkered down with heads tucked under their wings waiting out the wind. If I had the time I might have managed a few more in flight shots but photography wasn't really the focus of the day so perhaps another time.

Sitting at the beach...

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.