If we didn't have photos no-one would believe us!

[andrewcrossland]

20180618_094700.jpg (790.93 KiB) Viewed 2514 times

20180618_094650.jpg (802.59 KiB) Viewed 2514 times

[kelly111]

So, we decide to leave this bird and go back to where Matt Rose, Kenny Rose and the other guys in the CCC teams had found the first Northern Shoveler. Directions were straight out at the fenceline just west of the Royal Spoonbill colony.

map 1.jpg

map 2.JPG

We walk parallel to the stopbank (see map 2) and out toward a flock of 500+ Shov/Grey Teal on the lake edge, with another 300+ mostly Grey Teal to the north-west and hundreds more small ducks further south-east.

A Harrier keeps buzzing the birds and flushes the small waterfowl flocks away from the shoreline. The light is dark under a heavily overcast later afternoon sky. We can't find the Northern Shoveler, but turn up two small grebes at the end of the fenceline, exactly where the Shoveler was reported. Just beyond them was a pair of Crested Grebe.

Small grebes are a jinx bird on Lake Ellesmere - occasionally reported, always a great distance away under appalling light, and never satisfactorily identified to species. These two were <100m distant, but frequently diving and in grey light. I took photos thru the scope but of horrendously bad quality. They were greyish, dark-faced, dark-crowned, dark-backed, pale throated, pale rear-ended with no rufous and no yellow tear drop. We provisionally identified them as a pair of winter-plumaged Hoary-headed Grebe. Hopefully they'll be relocated tomorrow or later in the week.

small grebe 1.jpg

me and my son.are going out this weekend to look for it hope to see it.

[Bev Alexander]

Yesterday Eleanor, Sandra, Jan & myself went out looking for the N.Shoveler at Lake Ellesmere. Braving a very cold wind & wet gumboots , in 1 case, managed to see the bird Kenny Rose & co saw on Sunday. It was amongst 1000,s of Aust. Shoveler, G.Teal, Mallards & a mix of Black Swans & Canada geese. But once seen, stood out. We were unable to get any photos & if we had Andrew would have lost his prize for the worst photo of the year. Always good to add a lifer to your list, you forget the the cold conditions then. Thanks to our observant rangers for the post.

Happy birding all.

[andrewcrossland]

Great to hear the "twitch" has begun. I'm giving Grahame a lift out there tomorrow while doing trap checks at nearby lake Forsythe. I have great expectations that Grahame will do his magic and get some shots - tje northern shoveler and the Hoary-headed grebes.

[GrahameNZ]

No pressure then Andrew

[David Melville]

Sav raises some interesting issues.

Northern Shoveler is monotypic – there are no recognised sub-species/races.

It breeds across most of the Palearctic and Nearctic except the high arctic – mostly between 40-60 degrees N, and most winter between 20-40 degrees North.

It is a regular non-breeding season visitor to Hawaii. http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/birds/rlp-m ... e/NSHO.pdf

However a review noted the need for research to increase ‘understanding of movements of individuals that overfly the Hawaiian Islands’. I have been unable to track down any banding recoveries of birds from the Pacific.

Non-breeding birds regularly occur as far south as the Caribbean and Central America.

There is one record from Peru (11 degrees South) https://boletinunop.weebly.com/uploads/ ... p_vol._7_n°2_2012_-_crap.pdf
and one record from Argentina at 48 degrees South: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2uWlR ... pVSzQ/view
[Lake Ellesmere is 43 degrees South]. It was considered possible that the latter bird might be an escape as there is a captive population in Chile, it was concluded that it was probably a wild individual.

If any hunter bags one in New Zealand it would be very good to get the specimen to a museum and to consider the possibility of looking at stable isotopes to try to determine its geographic origin.

David

[andrewcrossland]

The Northern Shoveler is super rare in the Indonesian archipelago, and pretty rare in Peninsula Malaysia and Borneo. Its a little more frequent further northup in Thailand and is said regularly winter in the Philippines. Its a big jump from Hawaii to NZ, but maybe less of a jump island hoping down past the Phillippines. Aside from that record in Norfolk or Lord Howe (I forgot which) back in spring, has there also been an unusual number of records in Australia this year?

[RussCannings]

According to a friend in Broome there have been no other credible reports in Oz this year.

Russ C
Morrinsville, Nz