Fly By

At times you can almost set your watch by the flight of these swamp harriers as they patrol the shell banks around the estuaries at high tide. This is the time that they can spot a number of birds roosting. I was wondering how their nesting went this year with the very high tides.

 Contrary to some local opinion that they nest in high trees around the estuary I tend to trust the observations of an experienced Wildlife Ranger friend  that their nests locally have been in marshland in the Onepoto Reserve and would be very susceptible to the recent high tides just like our 'Shore birds'. I should check this out next season.