Kohuroa River Walkway

 

The tell tale sign of a kingfisher nest is a hole in a tree, in this case a puriri, with noisy chicks inside. That  sound builds to a crescendo rather like cicadas when the chicks hear the adults calling bringing fresh food to them.

A strong Easterly hits the Bay

Miranda-Time for Reflection.

 A perfect hot, calm and blue sky day to visit the Miranda Shorebird Centre and catch up with Keith to hear news about the birds and Centre activities. Also to share sad notes about the loss of a great member of the shorebird team-Jim Eagles who sadly  passed away just recently.

I had many enjoyable meetings with Jim when he joined me for the Wader bird counts at Shoal and Ngataringa estuaries over recent years . We would chat over coffee afterwards and he was such an interesting and learned man to share some time with. He is deeply missed by all. 

Visiting Miranda brought that home today and it was good to have some quiet time reflecting on lost friends while enjoying the many thousands of birds some feeding but mostly roosting at high tide today. 

Camping at the Kohuroa Walkway

 We were here at a similar time last year ago van camping near the walkway. The weather is brilliant with a gentle sea breeze to keep the heat down but with plenty of swims at the nearby bay that was not problem at all. No sign of young NZ dotterel this year but fun watching two young kingfisher begging their parents for food.

Kaipara - The Terns

The mission was to check out the white fronted Tern colony that had been displaced by recent storm driven high tides and so the birds had Island hopped to this smaller Island to continue nesting. 

We had the usual low tide drag of the the kayaks through and to the muddy channel edge but knew we would be rewarded on the way home later as the tide would be  in with a lovely paddle back right up to the boat ramp.

The birds were certainly here in large numbers we estimated between 350 -400 nesting pairs although it was difficult to ascertain if all the birds on the ground were nesting. as it was now high tide.

 Certainly we could see the heads of the white fronted tern chicks as they peeped out from under their parents protective wings. In amongst them was a SBBGull nest complete with a well developed juvenile. Predation could be a risk for the white fronted terns with such capable predators in their midst. 

Also at this high tide roost site were a mix of thousands of SIPO's, red-billed gulls. Knots and Bar-tailed Godwit all rather fidgety and suddenly they were all up except the nesting white fronted terns who just stayed on task protecting their young and eggs. 

Just before this estimated 6- 7 thousand mix of species  took off five Fairy tern with their flickering  quick direction changing flight flew in briefly but soon left heading down the eastern side of the island. Later we were able to observe one of these birds at the western high tide roost site that the disturbed birds had now settled at.