In Feb the arctic migrants are getting into their breeding plumage – red chests for the male godwits, fine brown barring for the females. A juvenile Black-billed Gull has unexpectedly took up residence in Widgery Lake, it left and in March we had the first banded rail sighting on the lake for some months.
Migrants and Vagrants
4800 Bar-tailed Godwit
1400 Red Knot
31 Pacific Golden Plover
16 Ruddy Turnstone
6 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
3 Pectoral Sandpiper
1 Marsh Sandpiper
4 Red-necked Stint
12 Curlew Sandpiper
2 Eastern Curlew
1 Little Tern
1 White-winged Black Tern
NZ Species
1300 Wrybill
97 Banded Dotterel
5000 South Island Pied Oystercatchers
13 Royal Spoonbill
900 Black-billed Gulls
4 Caspian Tern
200 White Fronted Tern
400 Pied Stilts
8 Variable Oystercatchers