Spoonbills Lake Ellesmere

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Anncm
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Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 6:51 am

Spoonbills Lake Ellesmere

Postby Anncm » Wed Sep 26, 2018 7:11 am

Hello - firstly I must qualify that I know very little about birds. I was cycling the Rail Trail on Saturday afternoon (22/09/18), along the section between Kaituna Valley car park and the turn off to Birdlings Flat and saw a flock of large white birds in the swampy area on the left of the track (heading towards Birdlings Flat). They had pale coloured legs and bills. I recognised they had spoon shaped bills but didn’t really think anything of it until I checked them out online - I believe they were yellow-billed spoonbills. The time was approximately 2.45pm, there were about 10 - 15 birds, and they were gone on my return cycle two hours later. Anyway - I thought my posting this may be of interest. Next time I’ll take a photo : )
Jan
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Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:43 am
Location: Christchurch

Re: Spoonbills Lake Ellesmere

Postby Jan » Fri Sep 28, 2018 11:37 am

They were most likely Royal Spoonbills that breed in Lake Ellesmere nowadays. It has occurred in the last 10 years only and a very large colony has built up. 700 birds is not uncommon.
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Oscar Thomas
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Location: Dunedin
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Re: Spoonbills Lake Ellesmere

Postby Oscar Thomas » Fri Sep 28, 2018 6:20 pm

Interesting you mentioned the pale coloured bills. Of course, Royal spoonbills only have black bills so this may be worth investigating. An influx of 10-15 YB spoonbills would be quite something if it turned out to be true.

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