HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

 

 What a year this has been with my Kermadec adventure and visits exploring New Zealand and  WA. We have had a lot of success stories with our conservation efforts and this has led me to meet and share time with some great people in amazing places. I look forward to more adventures in 2017 and Wish You All a Fantastic 2017.

 

.Hopefully these four eggs have now hatched and we will soon see some young pied stilts protected by their parent during the next few days of  the beginning of 2017.

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.

Wadjemup Island

Another visit  to this beautiful island to track down Osprey nests and watch these amazing birds fishing. I have found the perfect secluded bay within sight of an Osprey stack nest and after I have a swim or two to cool down from the 34 degrees a bird attempts to catch fish. A hover then a powerful dive

Osprey on their stack nest.

The perfect secluded bay to watch Osprey

Missed! -No fish held in those strong claws.