Not what I thought....

I'd just finished some long overdue bike maintenance, looked up and there was what I thought was a tropic bird soaring high on the strong northerly breeze. Wow, this is something rare indeed, not often seen in NZ waters and never, as far as I am aware, as far south as Sumner!! With great excitement I rushed inside, grabbed the camera and changed lenses with still greasy hands, and managed to get two shots before it disappeared over the top of Scarborough. I didn't even really get a chance to see it properly, just a white bird with a long white tail.

Only when I loaded the image did I see it was not so exciting at all. In fact a bit sad...a black backed gull that had somehow got tangled up with a plastic bag. That explains why it was being "shadowed" (not attacked) by two other gulls, one of which you see in this heavily cropped, rather poor quality image.