Hunting in shallow water

This morning we went south to Onehunga; S to a dance class and me to Onehunga Wharf and the northeastern edge of the Manukau Harbour. I had a pleasant and unhurried walk. 

There is a boardwalk through mangroves until some flat land above highwater mark where a wide pedestrian and cyclist path is well above high water. On the landward side of the path relatively steep banks (low cliffs) are covered with ginger plants, convolvulus, and moth plant. Three declared noxious weeds. Totally covering the cliffs and the flats almost up to the path. Just before the path ends it runs past large industrial buildings. Beginning about there and then back towards where I started out on the path, major efforts have been made to remove the weeds, and to remove the dead trees; trees which die due to being smothered by one or more of the three weeds.

My blip is of an adult white-faced heron. Rare until the 1960s, this bird was little known before then and has no known name in Te Reo. Note the plentiful new mangrove plants. The mangrove forests along the sides of the upper Manukau Harbour are effective and safe places for fish to grow into adults.