We were up and out of the rooms pretty
early this morning and headed out to try and track down on of the main targets
for the day – blue duck! We headed out
to a couple of likely spots, and within about 10 minuets had a bird in the
scope. It appeared to be a single bird,
possibly a male with a mate somewhere on a nest (hopefully), and we watched it
feed for a little bit, then perch on a rock and preen, before it slipped up the
river and behind some cover. We decided
to carry on and see if we could find more ducks. Heading through a patch of forest we heard
the familiar call of a shining-bronze cuckoo not too far away, and with a quick
whistle it came flying in and perched really closely. It was clearly revved up, with another bird
nearby, and needed very little to excite it.
It perched in front of us and called several times, before shifting
perches and calling again, an excellent photo opportunity and views.
We then carried on and searched several
more patches of the river, but to no avail.
We couldn’t find any more blue duck, and decided to headed back to the
van. We passed the spot where we had
found the first bird, and again watched him feeding, this time in some fast
water. After about 10 minutes the bird
then flew off upstream, leaving some happy birders in his wake.
We then headed back to the Motel, packed
the van, grabbed some lunch at a nearby bakery, and then headed north towards
Taupo. We stopped at a great spot for
fernbird, and had views of at least five different birds, mostly skulking in
the undergrowth, but several making flights and perching briefly up in outer
branches.
It was then on to Taupo for a twitch…would
you believe a rook twitch! A pair of
rooks are nesting in Taupo and we managed to locate the nest trees, and there
perched in the top of the tree was an adult, with flapping juveniles up in the
tree above it…I’ve seen it all now! A
group of British (and one ex-Brit) huddled around the scope looking at a rook! We then raced off to the east, heading
towards Napier. We headed to a forested
site first, where we ate our lunch and had a brief flyover of another distant
falcon, and saw a pair of kokako, which headed off uphill and sang away.
Heading into the forest we found all the
usual suspects with great views of tomtit, North Island robin, grey warbler,
pigeon, tui and kaka, but struggled to find rifleman. We could hear them in many places, but they
just seemed to disappear. Finally we got
a couple of half decent views, and then with real persistence, we managed to
find a bird at eye level in good light.
Nice!
Then off down to Napier, where we met Sav
in Taradale for another twitch, this time something a little more exciting in
the form of two plumed whistling ducks.
A range of other waterfowl was nearby and a breeding colony of little
pied cormorants as well.
It was then time to check into the
accommodations and we then headed up to Brent’s house for a BBQ dinner. Great wine, food, and views, a fitting end to
another excellent day!
Day total – Seen = 54 + 1 heard (long-tailed
cuckoo); new for the trip = 4; total for the trip to date = 122
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