Hikoikoi Reserve - Petone Estuary

The last post was from Sunday afternoon, so now we go back in time a few hours to Sunday morning. We followed the low tide to Petone and parked up by the boat sheds. One of them is currently for sale and it is an enticing possibility - however if given the choice of a boat shed or early retirement I am afraid the boat shed lost.

The light was not great with the sun shining in our faces and the birds were not playing fair either but I still managed to get a few shots.  We have positioned a new log for the kingfishers, hopefully next time we go down it is still there and the birds are using it. If they do it will make photographing them so much easier.

Been shopping!

I haven't been out with the camera yet today so thought I would post a few more from Friday night. The batteries are charging for the new camera (Canon 7D) but I only have one smallish card until the new ones arrive from Ascent on Tuesday. I am looking forward to trying it out as soon as the batteries are done!

There are a lot of scruffy looking kingfishers flying about at the moment. I look forward to them all finishing their moulting or whatever they are doing, as I know they will be way more impressive to photograph when they have their proper colours. Not that I am complaining, I love their scruffy looks too.

The white-faced herons never fail to put on a show for me when I am sitting at the beach. It is hard not to take yet another shot of them. Below is a speeding bullet on wings. These guys move so fast and you can see the determination on their faces that they WILL get their prey!

A mixed bag...

Yesterday afternoon I headed back over to Pauatahanui with the intention of photographing more kingfishers. Unfortunately I forgot to check the tides first so arrived there about thirty minutes away from high tide. Normally there isn't much to see around this time, or so I thought, but I am stubborn and decided to sit it out and wait.

It wasn't long before I noticed a couple of Caspian Terns flying past the car and landing some distance from me. One of them was squawking a lot and the other was hovering above with a small fish in its beak. Instinctively I picked up the camera and photographed the event. The images are not that great because of the distance but I have to tell you it was fascinating to watch!

After that I saw lots of Caspian Terns out fishing in the channel, they would fly high always looking downwards, then dive for their dinner before flying back low to the water. It was almost like a dance but again, a little too far away for me to record.

As the tide started to go out the usual suspects started arriving in their usual order. Swans and geese first, followed by the white-faced heron and then the pied stilts. The spur-winged plovers fly past making lots of noise but didn't settle anywhere close.

I had decided that six o'clock was my cut of time, and as I had already been there for a couple of hours I had to stick to that. The kingfishers hadn't shown up yet but I was resigned to not seeing them as the tide was still too far in. I was proven wrong yet again, five minutes before I packed up my gear a kingfisher fly into reach of the lens. He didn't stay long and but I did manage to get a few shots before he left again.  All in all it was a mix bag of images that I ended up with but worth the trip out there.

Yesterdays delayed post

I had these images ready to go when I received the phone call that changed my blog post completely. So here they are today, a day after they were shot but worth the wait!  As you can tell, I was back at the kingfishers again. I arrived a little early so there was a bit of a wait for the water to recede far enough for the log to be enticing as a perch.

This kingfisher arrived on the log with dinner already in its beak. It looks more like a grasshopper or a katydid than anything else. On the original large file you can clearly see the insect's eyes watching you.

The crabs were fascinating to watch. If no one or no 'thing' was a bout then they scuttled about all over the place. The minute there was a shadow of a bird or the vibration of a foot print they just sunk into the mud unseen. It is easy to see why there is such an abundance of bird life there though, the chances of going hungry are very slim.

Once again I moved my chair that little bit closer but I think this time I reached the limit to the birds patience. I did see a couple but they didn't come back as often. I think next time I will take a step back again to keep within their comfort zone.

The white-faced herons also put in an appearance. One even trying the rain dance that the spoonbills performed last week. All it seems to have been able to bring us is fog over Wellington, it's still sunny in the Hutt Valley.

The waiting game

There was a time when I would do a drive by the inlet and if the birds weren't not there I would continue driving and look for something else. In doing so I always seemed to miss the most amazing shots that other people managed to capture. These days I have learnt to do things differently.

Recently I have been using the car as a hide while photographing the kingfishers but I wanted to see just how close they would let me get to them if I was there first. I set myself up on the edge of the bank in my chair and waited.  There was quite a wind blowing and it was so cold I was worried that my shivering might ruin the photos! I must be getting soft!

While I was waiting for the kingfishers I was rewarded for my suffering by a couple of white-faced herons. One adult and one juvenile. The adult was set on chasing off anyone who came near his patch and the juvenile was trying out the kingfisher's branch for size.

Chasing time and tides

Yesterday my allocated time for photography didn't fit with the tides at Pauatahanui, so we headed down to the Petone Estuary for a change.  I parked myself on the opposite side of the lagoon to normal and sat and waited. It was a matter of minutes before two Royal Spoonbills flew in to feed. They were feeding almost before they had folded up their wings!  Guess they were hungry.

Adult Royal Spoonbill displaying breeding plumage.

The spoonbills made their way from one side of the lagoon to the other depending on where there were people, dogs and bicycles disturbing them. I had parked myself in the right position because each time someone or something spooked them, they came back to where I was, and they didn't see to worried about me. Probably because I didn't move a whole lot.

As we were leaving I noticed (pointed out by my husband) that there were two herons really close to the path we were walking down. One of them was a juvenile having a bad hair day!  Looked kind of cute with its head feathers all fluffed up. I did see one kingfisher while we were there but that was only for a fleeting moment. The slower birds just aren't as much fun as the kingfishers!

Adult White-faced Heron with the crab that got away!

Juvenile White-faced Heron

Juvenile White-faced Heron

White-faced Herons

Adult White-faced Heron fishing for dinner

It was a delight to be able to observe a white-faced heron family interacting with each other at the inlet yesterday evening. Two juvenile birds were constantly being chased by an adult. I don't know if they were from the same family but I choose to believe so. The two young ones were fighting over a log to stand on, and in the end neither of them got to keep it as the adult bird chased them both off.

Juvenile White-faced Heron

I was actually waiting for the Kingfishers to arrive, I managed to get to the inlet before the tide had gone out too far and was curious to see at what point they showed up. I had changed up my camera settings in an effort to reduce noise and improve the background in the images. The herons kept me fully entertained until the kingfisher arrived.

Juvenile White-faced Heron

Actually it was rather interesting, the herons hung around the kingfisher's log until the water receded beyond the log, and it was at that point that they flew off and the kingfisher flew in. I didn't see them both there at the same time throughout the entire evening. The herons kept their distance only moving in closer once the kingfisher had flown off.  They were both fishing for crabs, so were competing for the food.

Juvenile with crab

I wonder if the herons are interested in cleaning up the pile of crab legs that the kingfishers leave under their logs. As the tide went further out, the kingfishers were more active.  I managed a few shots of them, but they can be another post, this one is for the herons.

Adult strutting in to sort out the youngsters

Adult taking control of the log.

Petone Estuary

After such a successful morning at Pauatahanui yesterday we thought to continue the day with a trip to the Petone estuary as well. As usual the campsite was set up - camp chairs, light stands and umbrellas for shade. This time there were four of us so the campsite looked even more impressive. So much so that one of the local boatshed owners popped over to say hello and bring us some nice cold drinks! Ah the life!

Unfortunately the birds were not as obliging so not a lot of photographs were taken. I got a few more of the heron but with all the weed and rubbish about most were not worth displaying here. It's a shame that such a great place can get so full of litter and rubbish so fast.

Pauatahanui - White faced herons

We drove round the inlet this morning to see what was about. The Canada geese were floating about with all their goslings. It was surprising how different the goslings were after just one week of growing their feathers. Their adult colours are not far away now.

We watched and photographed them for a bit and then we had a nice surprise. Two white faced herons flew in to the water right in front of us and proceeded to have breakfast!

Shrimp and crab was on the menu this morning. I managed to shoot a huge amount of great images but have chosen only some of the more interesting ones for this blog post. I don't wish to bore you with lots and lots of the same bird, so this selection is of the two birds fishing for breakfast.