Once in a New moon

A camping weekend at Tawharanui conveniently coincided with the new supermoon due to the  perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. This was close enough for a good viewing as it rose into the night sky.

Then we headed into the bush with head torches in search of kiwi and other nocturnal species. We were lucky and saw one Brown kiwi scurrying across a track in the light of my torch. A morepork with silent flight passed in front of me. I later heard its hunting calls.

 Native fish and an eel were watched below a bridge again in the light of the head torches.Other birds seen during daylight hours included kaka, kakariki, bellbird, Caspian tern and NZ dotterel.

It was also fortunate that Tansy found a Shore skink on the sands of Tawharanui beach. Unfortunately  it  had been attacked, possibly by a gull and had part of its tail missing.