Heron hunting

Ah, balmy summery days. They just make you smile. Today was one of those warm Westerly days, where the mercury hits the 20's and everything with wings goes chirp.

With blue skies above, a need to both exercise the recovering knee and also grab the blip-o-the-day, I headed onto the Little River Rail Trail, parking up at the Kaituna car park down the road. With the then light breeze behind me -I had the Nor'Wester in my face on the return journey, much to my chagrin - I got up a fair bit of speed as I made my way to Birdling's Flat, only stopping to grab shots of the birdlife on Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora as I passed by.

Today many of the usual suspects were on display. I set out looking for white herons/kotuku, which I was fortunate to spy three of on my return leg, just past the car park and in the shallow waters near the outlet of the Kaituna river. Today's blip is not one of the kotuku, as although I was close enought to view them quite clearly, every time I inched closer to get just a bit more frame filled, they flew further out to the lake. Clever.

So today's blip features one of their cousins, the White-face heron. Well, sometimes a grey suit is a lot classier than a white one, right?

Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora is a significant habitat for birdlife, with 167 species making it their home for at least some of the year. It is the most diverse site for birdlife in New Zealand, with 80% of all native species being found around the lake and its environs. I've listed below just a few of those that I saw today between Kaituna and Birdlings Flat;
White Heron
White-faced heron
Royal Spoonbill
Pied Stilt
Pied Shag
Black Shag
Paradise Shelduck
Australasian Shoveller duck
Crested Grebe
New Zealand Scaup
Black Swan
Mute Swan
Skylark
White fronted tern
Caspian Tern
Red Billed gull
Harrier
Pukeko
Black back gull
Masked Lapwing
Kingfisher
Grey Warbler
Welcome Swallow
Cirl Bunting
Fantail

Not bad for a 14km bike ride eh?