Well the weather since getting home has been great. Sunshine and blue skies, with the odd frost but nice warm days. Last week was spent catching up on paperwork, spending time planting native trees at our section, and catching up with friends and family. This week it's back to work! Spent this morning inside staring at the computer screen so decided to head out with the camera this afternoon. A new little egret has been found in Hawkes Bay - take a look on birdingnz.net - and so I thought I'd head out to check a few spots to see if I could find either the old bird or the new own.
I got a little side-tracked by people white-baiting on the Tukituki River, and took a few photos of that. For those unfamiliar with whit-bait they are the juvenile form of a bunch of endemic New Zealand freshwater fishes (in the family Galaxiidae) - take a look here for more info. Basically it is a big thing in New Zealand to catch them during the season and they are considered a delicacy pan-fried as fritters (with just a bit of egg and seasoning) - beautiful! Anyway, I spent some time taking photos of the white-baiters with their nets and little channels they had made to direct the fish upstream into their nets. Kind of neat patterns.
Then headed through Haumoana on the lookout for the egret, but no luck so on to a small pond where there are sometimes interesting ducks, in Te Awanga. Nothing much there so headed to Muddy Creek. No sign of egrets but welcome swallows were a nice distraction, so spent some time with them, and then as the sun got low did some silhouettes with the black swans. Didn't turn out too bad!
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| Looking up the Tukituki River towards Te Mata Peak |
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| Whitebaiter with the rivermouth and sea in the background |
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| Looking upstream, Mount Erin with the TV repeater on it |
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| Whitebaiter checking his net |
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| Checking for whitebait |
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| Welcome swallow in the late afternoon light |
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| Little pied shag shaking itself |
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| Welcome swallow checking me out |
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| Strong side-lighting on a welcome swallow |
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| Black swan with strong side-lighting |
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| Backlit |
Tokiko said
ReplyDeletebeautiful Tukituki River, scenic place just what I like.and I just wish I could have been there.
swallow is very cute !
you are expert photographer.
Hi Brent,
ReplyDeleteThe great egret and little egret are found at the start of the pond, well 100% of the time for the great egret "Theres a pipe that runs under the road which he rests on"
Tim
Thanks Tokiko!
ReplyDeleteTim which pipe at which location..I'd like to try and find these birds again this week.
Cheers,
Brent
Hi Brent,
ReplyDeleteIts down the end near the bend in the road next to the palm.
The white heron is normally always there and easy to get within 3meters there, "Though backgrounds arnt great as theres lots of man made objects in the background"
Its as you come down the main road past the pond theres the corner and if you look around that area the white heron is almost always there, if he's scared he will fly off to the tree above the pond but will come back in a few minutes.
Little egret has been hanging around there also and down the far end of the pond towards the sea.
For the new little egret if you could check out the pond (horse shoe lake and the shallows on the side of the pond towards the river as he was dancing on the shallows) I think this could have been a high tide roost?
Also around the upper end of muddy creek towards clive river could be a good spot as it was tending to stay with spoonbills.
I will be able to help refinding it on the weekend for a bit as I am moving house this weekend.
Cheers
Tim