Godwits

Went to the Boulder Bank today hoping for a good couple of hours of kingfisher/kotare hunting and shooting but these Godwits distracted me!  Saw lots of kingfishers/kotare but they were all a bit too far away and/or I wasn't quick enough with the camera.  There was however, a large gathering of wading birds just offshore a hundred or so metres away from me.  As I stalked a little closer it became clear there were a significant number of Godwits with a lesser number or stilts, terns, gulls and oystercatchers out there.  Just as I lined up my first shot something made them startle and I was treated to a mass take-off.  If you look closely at his group you might pick out a banded one on the left and a closer look still reveals an antenna protruding behind it.......obviously one of the tracked birds that helps to feed data about their comings and goings to the scientists who monitor them.  I felt quite privileged to see this gathering at reasonably close quarters but was a bit mystified about why they weren't all 11,500 kms away, sunning themselves in Alaska?!  I learned later that it's the adults who migrate leaving the juveniles to winter over in New Zealand.  I may be wrong here......feel free to add a comment and evolve my learning!

Anyhoo......as I left I found a jacket with a phone in the pocket flapping    around in the car park so spent a fair whack of the afternoon trying to figure out how to reunite them with their owner.  Let's hope facebook and Neighbourly work to solve the mystery.

Temperature dropped significantly this afternoon so the cold ('real winter') blast we were forecast is here.......cold but oddly refreshing :D