Despite a terrible weather forecast we
awoke to a relatively nice morning…and though we had better make the most of
it! So off we headed to look for the
target of the day – Blue duck. There
have been rumours going around that our regular site for this species has been
not producing this year. So the decision
to check all possible places was made, and off we went. The second stop we made, Phil came running
back and beckoned. We raced out and he
explained he had seen a bird fly past down the river. So we went onto a bridge and scanned both up
and down. Nothing…damn…we were just
heading back to the van and spotted the bird paddling back up the river. So back down, got everyone onto the bird, but
it was really mobile and did a bit of a sweep around the river and then
disappeared off around the corner.
Deciding we might have beeter luck somewhere else, we continued on.
Next stop we had another bird, and had the
scope on it long enough for a few to get it, but others had to make do with
binocular views as the bird flew straight towards us and right under us…and
disappeared out of sight around the bend of the river. Pretty nice really!
So we then focussed on our next target –
long-taield cuckoo. Having spent two
very quiet days in long-tailed cuckoo territory we were keen to make the most
of this day as we were in a good area.
We managed to hear a distanc one, and tried to get closer to where it
was, but it had stopped calling. We
scanned and checked quite an area of forest, but nothing. We did get robin and tomtit, and really nice
views of a very obliging common redpoll.
But, no cuckoo…except for great views of another shining cuckoo!
We decided to head back to the lake and try
and find a fernbird or two…but damn it even they were playing hard to get! We did find a Royla spoonbill roosting with
cormorants at the southern end of Lake Taupo, and checked a few spots for
bittern, but none of them were found.
We headed on to another couple of spots,
where we had lunch in the sunshine and scanned various parts of rivers coming
down from Mt Ruapehu. Excellent views of
pipit and some nice red admiral butterflies, but no more blue duck. So then on to Ruatiti, the usual sure fire
spot. We scanned the entire river from
down through to Ruatiti Domain, meeting up with some other birders we knew on
the way. They had been there for a day
and a bit and had been searching in vain as well. So we gave them a few pointers and then
headed through to the Domain, checked around there and then most of the spots
again on the way back…still no luck. It
is hard to understand what has happened at this site – have the ducks
gone? Is it just the time of breeding
with birds being very secretive (last year we were there the same time of year and
saw at least a few, and I have been there before this time of year and seen the
birds)? Have predator numbers increased
or river conditions changed drastically?
All a bit worrying really.
As we headed towards Ohakune the rain
started to come, and as we headed for a forest patch to try for the cuckoo
again it bucketed down , along with some of the forecast hail. It showed no sign of letting up, so we headed
straight through to Feilding and checked into our accomodation before another
lovely dinner.
Bird
of the day – TBA
Day
total – Seen =46 + 1 heard (long-tailed cuckoo);
new for the trip = 1; total for the trip to date = 119
Common redpoll showing himself off
Looking for long-tailed cuckoo
A duck-less spot, but a beautiful river.
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