I was beach patrolling at Waikorea Beach (west coast Waikato, didn't find much except a few very old diving petrels, a fluttering shearwater and a pied oystercatcher that must have been caught out on migration) yesterday afternoon when a couple of Canada geese walked down the beach in front of me. One took off and flew away as I approached, while the other one carried on down into the surf; the sea was running very high, driven by a very strong south-westerly. It held its tail up high like a sail and carried on out to sea, buffeted by the waves. It was such a strange sight I took a bit of video, though by that time it was so far out to sea that it was straining the 64x zoom on the camera - also hard to keep the camera steady in the wind at that range. Then a few hundred metres further along the beach another pair did the same thing - I've inserted them into the front of the video. The tide was almost entirely out at the time. Lots of Velella (by-the-wind-sailors) coming in, but otherwise a fairly normal windy spring west coast day. I have no idea what they were up to - maybe just doing it for the fun o it, but it didn't look like my idea of a good time.
[youtube]ZiE_fxYwzYU[/youtube]
Surfin' Birds
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David Riddell
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Olwen
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Re: Surfin' Birds
Did it make it out of that last wave?
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David Riddell
- Posts: 963
- Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:46 pm
Re: Surfin' Birds
I didn't watch it much longer, but it was still out there when I carried on with my walk. Seemed to be repeatedly swamped, but kept bobbing up. It obviously chose to be out there, for reasons known only to itself. The other two didn't go so far out during the time I watched them.