Pink-eared duck reported at Piha

[jdowding]

I've had an email from a visiting Polish scientist, Dr Romuald Mikusek. He reports seeing a pink-eared duck at Piha. I don't have a date, but suspect sometime in the past week or two. It was seen "near Piha Beach next to the bridge" at 36.954590 deg S, 174.470462 E. He was confident of the ID, but not aware at the time that it was a rare bird in NZ. Having identified it, he started to move forward to take a photo, but the bird disappeared into dense vegetation along the edge of the stream. I've marked the location of those coordinates on the attached screen grab from Google Earth.

[Grahame]

Paul has been at the site all afternoon and is still there looking. He has been unable to find it despite a comprehensive search, the following is part of his message.

Plenty of potential identification traps swimming about in the lower reaches of the creek in view of the footbridge where the report comes from.
There's bespectacled juv Shelducks, all derivatives of shonky Mallard crossbreeds, and at least one very light Grey Duck type bird with big dark eyestripe/ear coverts. Good candidate?

[Tim Barnard]

No. Nothing like.

[jdowding]

Have just been advised that the sighting was on 15 January, so 4 weeks ago. Wouldn't be at all surprising if it has moved on. I remember a pink-eared duck that stayed for some weeks at the Mangere ponds in 1990 among mallards and shovelers—perhaps worth keeping an eye out if anyone is there (or anywhere else around Auckland with large congregations of ducks).