Recent Sightings September-2018

Best bird watching is two hours either
side of high tide.

The flocks of arctic migrants are growing and so are the number of sightings of the more rare birds. With our project coming up this summer it was fantastic to see the arrival of 10 Pacific Golden Plovers a few weeks ago. The Spoonbill are still here, seen last week on the shell bank playing tug-of-war together and feeding together with a seal in the stream across the mudflats. Summer is just around the corner.

Migrants and Vagrants
824 Bar-tailed Godwit
387 Red Knot
10 Pacific Golden Plover
3 Ruddy Turnstone
2 Black-tailed Godwit
2 Northern Shoveler
1 Curlew Sandpiper
1 Eastern Curlew
1 Red-necked Stint
1 Whimbrel

NZ Species
2700 Wrybill
1630 South Island Pied Oystercatcher
150 Black-billed Gulls
130 Caspian Tern
63 Royal Spoonbill
45 Banded Dotterel
4 Variable Oystercatcher
1 Kotuku (White Heron)
Australasian Bittern
Australasian Shoveler
Banded Rail
Hybrid Black Stilt
New Zealand Dotterel
Pied Stilts
Spur-winged Plover

More about bird sightings.