Thursday, December 29, 2016

Leucistic VOC

It's good to be back and out in wild NZ places again although today is quite windy with some mist and rain. We are kayaking in the Kaipara exploring  and then checking traps and bait stations when we came across this leucistic Variable Oystercatcher at high tide.


Its an attractive bird but just so different and when we see an adult dark morph VOC nearby giving some alarm signals we think this bird is maybe a juvenile but the turns out that the dark morph VOC is just protecting a nest nearby in which a new born chick has just tumbled out of the nest. A second egg is cracked and ready to produce a second chick.
We back away leaving with a few shots of the 'white' VOC and carry on with checking traps and bait stations.