Sunday, 2 March 2025

A few birds from yesterday

My weekly trip in the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary was yesterday. Watched four kākāriki karaka nests, saw nestlings being fed at the entrance of two of them. The birds were very cooperative, I walked up Kākāriki Spur, and had completed two nest watches by 9.20am! In both cases the male arrived within three minutes of my arrival and got on with business. So I left and got on with the next watch.

On the way up the spur I saw and heard Pebbles and Bam-Bam (the kārearea juveniles) circling overhead. Needless to say they were not present at their nest site when I arrived. An hour or two later when watching a kākāriki karaka nest at the aviary I heard them again noisily flying over Zig-Zag block.

This photo of Pebbles from last week is growing on me.

kārearea new zealand falcon

While walking east along I line to watch another kākāriki karaka nest in Dun Block this very friendly and chatty piwakawaka (black fantail) stuck by me for quite some time. Much of the time was rather too friendly, it was well inside my minimum focal range for my lens (1.3m pulled back to 180mm) so I had to keep stepping back.

piwakawaka new zealand fantail

piwakawaka new zealand fantail

A kakaruai (South Island robin) joined it at one stage. The last photo is one I didn't use last week.

kakaruai south island robin

kakaruai south island robin


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