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Hi all,

On the eBird tip off from Phil Hammond. Myself Matthias and Russ Cannings headed down to check it out. Phil had reported two little Egrets on eBird and we were treated to fantastic views of a single bird at approximately 2-2.5kms away.

Other birds of note were a flock of 9 cattle egret hanging out on the mudlfats which was a first for Auckland for all of us.

Plus reasonable numbers of all the usuals, SIPO, White faced heron, Kotare, red billed and black billed Gull, caspian term and oddly enough an adult gannet came zooming past heading deeper into the estuary.

Hi David

Just to set the record straight my sighting last month was of 1 Little Egret not 2. I have heard a verbal report of 2. A few years ago there were 3 together at Mangere

Your sighting of Cattle Egrets in the harbour is interesting. As you know it's unusual to see them on salted tidal mud. Was that from the end of Greers Rd? If so what direction from there

Hi Phil,
I have scrolled some crude markings on the image below to illustrate. We were at the foot of Greers Rd looking south and first noted the Little Egret at the base of the red arrow. As the tide pushed out the stilts it was roosting with at the edge of the mangroves, it flew over to the yellow highlighted area which was also where the Cattle Egrets already were. They were not foraging but simply roosting on a little shellbank or scattered rocks with Caspian Terns. A few moved around as the tide rose (this was about 2 hours before high). The blue arrow shows the direction of the gannet.


I have seen Cattle Egrets forage a bit on the mudflats at Miranda but these birds were most likely 'hanging out' after a solid day of cow stalkign in the Papakura/Karaka area (just my guess).

Russ C
Morrinsville, NZ