There are plenty of Hurukōwhai | Yellowhammers to be seen around Waikawa Beach. The bright yellow head is a real giveaway.
Length: 16 - 16.5 cm; Weight: 18 - 30 g Similar species: Cirl bunting, Yellowhead, New Zealand pipit, Eurasian skylark, Chaffinch A small relatively long-tailed songbird with a grey-black bill and pinkish legs in which the male has a mostly bright yellow head and underparts, and a dark-streaked brown mantle, and the browner female has more streaking on the head and upper surface with some yellow on the underparts.
I had heard the Riroriro, Grey Warbler, hundreds of times before I ever managed to spot one. Then I got lucky. This is one of our smallest birds, with a distinctive song.
Riroriro, Grey Warbler: Length: 11 cm; Weight: 5.5 - 6.5 g Similar species: Silvereye A tiny slim songbird that is olive-grey above with a grey face and off-white underparts, with a darker grey tail getting darker towards the tip, contrasting with white tips to the tail feathers, and showing as a prominent white band in flight.
You can hear their chittering generally before you see them flash past. If you’re lucky they might land somewhere nearby and stay for a few minutes. The Kākā uhi whero | Eastern Rosella is a colourful bird, with: a bright red head, white cheek patches, yellow belly. yellow-green upper back mottled with black, bright green rump, dark blue upperwings with bright blue shoulders, and dark green and light blue tail feathers.
In March 2021 I thought I was taking photos of Dotterels at our beach. But I’d recently visited Foxton Estuary and the information boards had made me aware of Ngutuparore | Wrybills: The wrybill is a small pale plover which breeds only in braided rivers of the South Island. It is the only bird in the world with a laterally-curved bill (always curved to the right) Length: 20 cm; Weight: 55 g Similar species: Banded dotterel, Sanderling, Terek sandpiper When I looked much more closely at my photos I could see a clearly curved bill.
Two Kawau Tūī | Little Black Shags by the river. Photo by Marion Cherry. Used with permission. There is a colony of Pied Shags just upstream of the footbridge but one day I thought I saw an all-black shag fly past me. This was recently confirmed by Marion Cherry, who kindly sent the photo above of two Kawau Tūī | Little black shags: Length: 61 cm; Weight: 800 g
Blackbird singing atop a flax spear, with blue sky behind. So common you don't often think of photographing them: the Manu Pango | Blackbird. These from September and November 2021.
Black bird on a railing. Length: 25 cm
Weight: 90 g
Similar species: Song thrush
A medium-sized songbird that is entirely black in adult males with a yellow bill, a yellow eye-ring around the dark eye, and long reddish-brown legs.
Rock Pigeon on a post. Cities everywhere are plagued by Kererū aropari | Rock Pigeons but I only recently realised there are a few that hang out at Waikawa Beach too. I’ve spotted them on the corner of Sarah Street and Strathnaver Drive and on the paddock of the farm at the village entrance.
This bird didn’t want to hang around for photos.
Rock Pigeon in flight.
Two gulls seeming to chat as they walk by the sea. I was never really very fond of gulls, but I'm coming to quite like the ones at Waikawa Beach. Tarapunga | Red-billed gull.
Down close to the river, if you look really carefully, you might see the tiny Dotterels dashing around. I think they’re quite hilarious, the way they dash from one spot to another.
It was only on examining my photos closely that I discovered we have two kinds of dotterels at Waikawa Beach: the Banded Dotterel and the Tūturiwhatu | New Zealand dotterel.
The Pohowera | Banded Dotterel above is slightly smaller and much lighter.
Two photos from mid-March 2022 of a Kawau | Pied Shag at the beach. 🐦
Length: 65 - 85 cm; Weight: 1.3 - 2.1 kg
A large, relatively slim black-and-white shag with white face, black feet, blue eye-rings and yellow facial skin. Black back, nape and upperwings contrast with white throat, breast and belly.
It’s almost Autumn Equinox and soon most of the Kuaka will head back home to Alaska. There were still some feeding at Waikawa Beach on 11 March 2022 though.
Matuku-hūrepo | Australasian Bittern were common in New Zealand in pre-colonial times but are now classified as Threatened – Nationally Critical, numbering fewer than 1000. There are three breeding sites at Waikawa Beach: two along Strathnaver Drive (mid way and near the north beach track) and one at the south end of Reay Mackay Grove.
Update, February 2023: an expert has let us know these aren’t breeding sites, but feeding sites.
Down by the Waiorongomai Stream mouth at dawn on 06 March 2022 were a couple of Taranui | Caspian terns:
A very large heavily built tern, silver-grey above and white below, with dark wing tips, a large pointed bright red bill with dark tip, a relatively short slightly forked tail. Length: 50 cm; Weight: 700 g. There is little evidence of Caspian terns in coastal deposits of subfossil bones in New Zealand, indicating that they may have colonised recently or had a very restricted distribution here until the early 20th century.
Bittern hiding beside grasses. Photo by Kezna Cameron. In the last couple of days a local spotted the elusive Matuku-hūrepo | Australasian Bittern only a couple of metres from the north track off Reay Mackay Grove. A large, stocky heron with a thick neck, heavy yellowish bill and relatively short yellow legs. The beige plumage has dark brown streaking and mottling, and there is a buff eye-stripe on the mainly dark head.
I tend to see Ngutupapa | Royal Spoonbills on the beach solitary, in pairs or even three at a time. Today is the first time I've seen a flock of maybe 12 or 15 — I was unable to actually count because of distance and the big piece of driftwood.
This flock was sheltering from the southerly behind a big bit of driftwood — another reason to leave driftwood on the beach rather than cutting it up and taking it away.
The amazing Kuaka | Godwit flies between Aotearoa New Zealand and the Arctic every year to feed and breed. They are a similar size to the more delicate Pied Stilt. These were on the shore recently.
Kuaka feeding, with wave behind. Two Kuaka and a Pied Stilt.
Hand held photos of a Karoro | Southern black-backed gull as it flew by. Black-backed gulls are often seen on the water’s edge where they scavenge corpses and fish frames washed up on the tide.
I haven’t spotted any Pukeko at the Reay Mackay Grove lakes recently so was glad to see a couple at sunrise today. Length: 38 - 50 cm; Weight: 1090 g (male); 880 g (female) Similar species: South Island takahe |Takahē, Dusky moorhen, Black-tailed native-hen A large relatively compact rail with deep blue-violet head, breast and throat, black back and wings, white under-tail coverts, red eyes and orange legs and feet with long slim toes.
This sparrow-sized bird may have a brick-red breast, a grey-blue head and stripes on its wings. Its call is a fairly simple ‘cheep’. He aha tērā? What is that? Answer: it’s a Pahirini | Chaffinch:
Identification: Length: 14.5 cm; Weight: 17.5 - 24.5 g Similar species: House sparrow A small songbird species in which males are brightly coloured in spring-summer with a brick-red breast and chestnut mantle, greyish-blue crown and nape, black wings with a prominent white wing-bar and shoulder patch.
A juvenile, stunned after flying into a window. Adults of this almost sparrow-sized but lighter bird have a bright red, white and black face. It’s a pale coloured bird with a distinctive bright yellow stripe on its black wing. They’re often seen in flocks. If you hear a shrill, clear pee-yu, that’s this bird. He aha tērā? What is that? Answer: it’s a Kōurarini | Goldfinch:
Identification: Length: 12 cm; Weight: 15 g Similar species: European greenfinch A small songbird with bright yellow wingbars, black wings and tail, a buff-brown back, and pale legs and conical bill, in which adults have bright red, white and black facial feathering, and juveniles are drab brown on the head.
You may see this squat bird hunched on your washing line or on a power line. Or maybe it’ll suddenly dive down to the ground and come back up with a lizard or bug in its large black bill. Green above and creamy-beige below, you’ll know this bird when you see it. He aha tērā? What is that? Answer: it’s a Kōtare | Kingfisher:
Identification: Length: 23 cm; Weight: 55 g A medium-sized kingfisher with a green-blue back, yellow-buff undersides, a large pointed black bill, a broad black eye-stripe from lores to ear-coverts, and a white collar in adults.
This boisterous, medium-sized dark coloured bird chortles and squawks, cough, grunts and wheezes when it’s not singing prettily. Commonly seen feeding on flax flowers, it has an erratic whirring flight. It’s best known though for the white tufts at its throat. He aha tērā? What is that? Photo by Kezna Cameron. Used with permission. Answer: it’s a Tūī | Kōkō:
Identification: Length: 30 cm; Weight: 125 g (male); 90 g (female) Similar species: Eurasian blackbird, Bellbird A large dark honeyeater with a decurved black bill, dark brown eyes, black legs and feet, and black head, underparts, wings and tail showing iridescent blue-green on the head and wings.
Weweia | Dabchick and chick on the pond. Photo by Kezna Cameron and used with permission. Sharp-eyed Kezna Cameron spotted this Weweia | Dabchick and chick on the pond in early January 2022. Kezna says:
Dabchick / weweia - 1,900–2000 left. Extinct from the South Island. The chick rides on the mother’s back for the first few weeks. So nice to see this baby on the pond today 🙂
This medium sized brown bird sings from treetops and forages for snails, worms, spiders and slugs. Its speckled chest is very distinctive. Most people will be familiar with this common bird. He aha tērā? What is that? Photo by Kezna Cameron. Used with permission. Answer: it’s a Manu-kai-hua-rakau | Song Thrush:
Identification: Length: 21 –23 cm; Weight: 70 g Similar species: Eurasian blackbird A medium-sized songbird with pale cream underparts speckled with fawn-brown chevrons, smooth grey-brown head, back, upper wings and tail, indistinct streaking on the head and the upper wing mostly uniform brown in flight.
These large wading birds spend their summers on our beach after an exhausting non-stop 12,000 Km flight over 10 days or so all the way from the Alaskan Arctic. They have a long tapering and slightly upturned pink bill with black tip He aha tērā? What is that? Answer: it’s a Kuaka | Godwit:
Identification: Length: 39 cm (male); 41 cm (female); Weight: 275–400 g (male); 325–600 g (female) Similar species: Hudsonian godwit, Black-tailed godwit, Whimbrel A large long-legged wader, brown above, pale below, with a long tapering and slightly upturned pink bill with black tip.