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Shoveler showing right now on the shellbank... Second time lucky!!!

Paul tells me that the N Shoveler has beenat the end of the shell bank all day.
Cheers
Grahame

Paul G tells me that one Northern Shoveler was moving inside and outside theshellspit. The usual five juv or hybrid Black Stilts were still present

1 Northern drake, together with an Aus drake and an unidentified female flew into the creek in front of the biggest hide at 3pm yesterday. There were a handful of Aus elsewhere

For some of the time it was out of view down in the creek, at other times showing well.

After that it was out beyond the spit with 5 or 6 Aus drakes and a female. At all times it was bobbing it's head up and down and we were discussing whether it was trying to impress the female, dispute with the drakes, or something else---any comments?

Phil Hammond
Wrybill Birding Tours NZ
Great Birds, Real Birders

Northern Shoveler showing nicely with the locals off the shell banks at Miranda at first light this morning. Beautiful sunrise over the Coromandel too! Nigel Milius and Wendy Hare

Strangely this one lonely Northern shoveler drake had not migrated back to Asia, while all 4 Northern shovelers had gone back to Asia, with most Northern shovelers in eclipse plumages this month.

The Northern Shoveler was showing well just off the end of the shell bank this morning

Male Northern shovelers start to moult into eclipse plumages on May, and are in eclipse plumages on June and on July they shed their flight feathers.
The eclipse plumages last from June to September.

There is no such thing as male adult Northern Shoveler with breeding plumage on July.

Hi all,

So, Clinton has just highlighted a point that I want to follow up. Clearly there IS "such a thing as ........" but not in the Northern hemisphere where they normally are.

There was another one (a smart drake in full breeding plumage) in Australia last week, and all of the recent NZ records have been in plumage that would not occur in the North at the time that they were seen in NZ/Aus.

What's going on? To have a sinlge bird of any species transition from Northern to Southern hemisphere moult timing is unusual, but Northern Shoveler is a rare bird down here and so to have so many individuals appparently swap allegience is unheard-of.

Any thoughts??

cheers

I'm still in Britain, and including a week in Portugal have a list of 23 raptors (excluding owls). Anyone who would like to guess those can send to sav@wrybill-tours.com No prizes though.....

I think we have umpteen exotic species that show normal responses to daylength still happen in an abnormal situation. What really surprises me is why northern shorebirds don't (usually) follow suit.

At this time of year there could also be mating activity ... any sign yet?

Ian