BirdingNZ.net

Hello,
We went for a walk at Waikanae Estuary this afternoon, shortly after midday. We entered close to Hadfield Street entrance. Just into the first minute of our walk stumbled across this little chap who was looking exhausted and hanging out right by the path. He did a run and tried to fly but unsuccessfully at that point. We decided to leave him to it and he was gone by the time we walked back through.

We didn’t get a great photo with his tail, so assumption on the ID - appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks
Charlotte

A few days of strong westerlies and northwesterlies along this coast to 'blame'. It might be worth keeping a lookout for other wrecked birds. During the big wreck a few years ago we had a couple of dead Broad-billed Prions in the garden.

Ok thanks Graham, I hope it’s managed to sort itself out and found a safe place to rest in. Good to know for next time. Saw the other posts on the Big Wreck, what would you usually do if you saw a bird in this position along that stretch of coastline?

Hi Charlotte,

there is an SPCA outfit on the way North out of Waikanae on the old SH1. A year or two ago we rescued a f/w terrapin from the surf at Pukerua Bay (thought it was a sea turtle in trouble at first) and took it to Nga Manu - it was eventually reunited with owner in Pukerua Bay. SPCA is better equipped for this kind of incident.
Cheers
GrahamB

Thanks Graham good to know!

I walked along Waikanae Beach yesterday and found 9 Antarctic prions and 4 fairys + a fluttering shearwater - all freshly dead, so there has been a bit of an Antarctic 'wreck' it seems. All the Antarctics looked to be young birds.

Thanks for this info, Alan. I must refresh the ID of Antarctic Prion before I go out next time somewhere along Kapiti coast.
Cheers,
GrahamB

There's definitely been a wreck of prions and other birds over the past couple of weeks. Annette and I did a beach patrol at Waikorea (NW Waikato) yesterday and found 36 prions (21 Salvin's, 8 Antarctic, 2 fairy, 5 scavenged and headless), as well as a fairly fresh white-capped mollymawk, a white-headed petrel, three blue penguins, and two sets of scavenged wings that by colour and measurements (192mm and 195mm) I'm fairly sure were little shearwater. The wind had swung around and was blowing offshore (the sea was as calm as I've seen it there), so nothing more coming in for the time being. The beach is 5.4km long.

Looks like a fairy prion to me too, Charlotte.

Imagine with the weather they’ve been having up north this weekend, there’s bound to be more.