Maketu/Little Waihi 2021

[Tim Barnard]

Had a big search around both estuaries today.
Little Waihi
Barwit 604
Knot 80
PGP 36
Wrybill 3
Fernbird and Banded Rail

Marae sandbank
Barwit 265
Knot 4

Maketu Spit
Little tern 1
White-fronted tern 34

Te Pa Ika
PGP 43
Barwit 34

Great day out - good numbers of the other usuals.

Tim

[rowey]

Hi Tim

Are those numbers of PGP about what you would expect for those locations, or continuing the decline of recent years??

Kieran

[Tim Barnard]

Pretty much what I’d expect. The birds are mobile and numbers do vary. I often see a big kick up in late March/April. I’ve put that down to birds around the BOP flocking up prior to migration. Purely guesswork on my part.

[Oscar Thomas]

On a distant and drizzly view of Little Waihi yesterday we picked out one Pacific Golden-Plover amongst ~300 of the Bar-tailed Godwits and 40 of the Red Knots, as well as the local Little Tern. Over at Te Pa Ika were 5 more PGPs and 82 godwits, as well as 2 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. There was also a bird there that stood out to me as the best candidate for Chestnut Teal I’ve come across in NZ with a particularly dark head and body. I’ve been down this road before and this isn’t saying much, but I just have some record shots from before it flushed. A few are on the camera so it’ll be a few days until I’m back in Dunedin and can post them but I doubt it’ll prove anything conclusive.