BirdingNZ.net

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 : )

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.

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.