Waiting for the tides to change

Juvenile Royal Spoonbill

I can't get out to the kingfishers this week due to the tides being all wrong and I am not enjoying the wait for them to be right again. My obsession is screaming at me to take more kingfisher photos yet when I follow the tides and go to Petone all I find is spoonbills. Crazy when only a few months ago I was complaining about not being able to photograph the spoonbills!

The kingfishers at Petone are wise to me. I did see one in the distance but it wasn't going to let my lens get anywhere near close enough to photograph it. So instead I sat and waited for something, anything to walk in front of my lens. The juvenile spoonbill was the first to arrive doing a special rain dance just for me.

Not long after the parent bird joined in and they worked in unison up and down the channel in search of food. Every now and then the young one would nip at the parent's leg and would get growled at for its efforts. It may be looking more and more like an adult bird but its behaviour is anything but.

I doubt that the camera will be out much this week because I have to admit I am bored with the Petone Estuary at the moment. I want kingfishers damn it and I want them where I want them! I know, I don't want much but next week I should be able to get back to Pauatahanui again and finger crossed the kingfishers will play nicely for me when I do get there.

Getting there first...

So to continue from my last post, I was sitting waiting for the kingfishers, watching the antics of the white-faced herons when a couple of pied stilts flew in one at a time. Again it was one juvenile and one adult and again the adult bird was not happy about the juvenile being in its space. The adult bird attacked the younger one, at one point even trying to drown it!

The attack continued for about ten minutes in which time a spoonbill decided it was going to join the party. It wandered back and forth in front of me for simply ages - or it seemed that way. Then the kingfishers arrived. They didn't seem to mind that I was closer, and I am guessing that is because I was there first and they were able to see that I was not a threat to them.

It amazes me how they can fly in and land on the branch without me seeing. They always seem to do it when I am distracted by something else or have my camera set for something else as happened last night. This time there were two of them flitting about feeding I clicked away for a bit before taking the time to correct the settings, not wanting to miss the shot. I managed to get a few that I am happy with, they would have been better if the sun was out so I could get better catch lights in their eyes but it was not to be.

 

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

Continuing the obsession

Another day, another kingfisher, or in this case another three kingfishers. I am starting to see subtle differences between each bird to the point where I can identify which one I am photographing. The males are typically much brighter and vibrant in their colours (showoffs!) and the females have the duller colours.  The immature birds according to the books I have been reading are the ones with the mottled markings on their breasts - I have seen a few of these also.

Female

The books tell me that kingfishers in New Zealand breed from October to January, however it has been a long dry summer and the behaviour I have been observing would suggest they are currently feeding a nest. Every second crab was whisked off back into the trees and possibly a burrow near by, and there was a pair who were doing this task in relay.

Two females - one possibly immature

One of the kingfishers clearly spotted me (I think it was the female) and she kept a watch on me from time to time, but didn't seem that threatened by the camera. I was photographing them from inside the car and had taken the hood off the lens to reduce the size of it hanging out the window. If I get out of the car, or get any closer they are gone. They are very clear about the space issue and will not tolerate you getting into their space at all.

Mature Male

Mature Male

Down the hatch! - Mature Female

Another obsession

Ok I admit it, I get a little obsessive about my photography. Right now the obsession is on Kingfishers. But it is the obsessive part that allows me to get the images I want, it gives me focus and determination to improve all the time. I did it with the Waxeyes, and be warned, I am not finished with them yet, and I am now doing it with the kingfishers. Both birds are small and fast and thankfully a lot of what I learned with the waxeyes, I can apply to the kingfishers.

The main lesson learned in both cases is patience. I have never been good at it and get bored very easily, but I can also be stubborn and it is that characteristic that I am using with these little bullet birds. I know what can be achieved and I am determined to get there no matter how long it takes. I might get (well do get) frustrated at times with one thing or another but I am not about to give up until I get what I want.

Having learned just how close I can get to the kingfishers with using the car as a hide, I am not really trying anything else at the moment. Eliminating the birds fear of me has given me a huge advantage that I am not about to give up easily. When I have exhausted all the possibilities with this spot then I will look at some other form of portable hide so that I can do the same elsewhere without the car.

In this set of images I moved away from the sweet spot on my lens and tried to blur the background out more. It would have helped if I could get down lower but that is not possible so I have to compromise in other areas. I am happy with the results so far.

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.