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Got a call from Niall Mugan who said he has a probable little stint in breeding plumage at the tip of Kaitorete spit and wanted it put out so others can follow up. last seen 1.24pm today amongst red necked stints.

regards Philip

Sorry if this doesn't work but first time adding photos

One more of the back

Looks good to me.

Argh!! I’m in Canterbury but stuck working and won’t make it until the weekend at the earliest. Where exactly did you guys find it?

Hi folks, just back from a day out doing traps and dotterel surveys on Kaitorete Spit and I managed to catch up with the probable Little Stint that Niall Mugan found yesterday and alerted some of the local birder community. The consensus from a few experts in NZ and the UK is that it looks pretty good for a Little with many of the diagnostic field marks of this species evident. The location is the mudflats at the tip of Kaitorete Spit. The series of photos below should be helpful...

Firstly, the location is ECAN/Ngai Tahu land at Kaitorete Spit tip. Birders are allowed to go there as long as folks respect closed/open gates, don't bother livestock and walk across the paddocks/saltmeadow rather than drive. Please note also that a small colony of Caspian Terns is starting to nest so please give them a wide berth as they'll desert easily.

In addition to the Little Stint there were 30 Red-necked Stints, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 1 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 5 Turnstones and a bunch of Wrybills...





A BIG PLEASE to folks going out to look for this bird - there is a yellow-flagged/banded red-necked Stint with it, the flag/band is high up on the tibia and I only picked it up when looking at pics - PLEASE, PLEASE have a go at getting the combo of this RN Stint !!

Some more pics. And further info on other birds at Kaitorete Spit tip today are posted on the Canterbury BiG Year

The little stint was seen early this morning in the same area. Easily picked out from the RN stints initially by its comparatively bright plumage, then the v-shaped mantle and white throat became apparent as we got closer. Most of the other birds reported from yesterday were present too.

Great find and thank you for sharing the discovery so rapidly!

Hey all this would be a lifer for me (and my 14 year old Jack) so pretty keen to have a look. Have tried getting to the end years ago but remember running out of road.

Question is can you drive past the circled area and continue to the end if careful in something like Rav4 with not the greatest ground clearance. Is there a locked gate etc. Also take it as long as you stick to the track, get out and walk once close to the flats at the end all is ok?

See pic attached

Replyin to Adam's query. yes, you can go through that gate and follow the 4WD track out toward the end. There are no locked gates. The track has spots of loose gravel but a RAV 4 would be able to negotiate informal bypass tracks around these. The area along which the track follows is Ngai Tahu land and there are many middens etc in the landscape so keep as close to the formed track as possible. The track broadly follows paper road.

Also - Just letting folks know that Lake Ellesmere was opened by ECAN today and shorty the birds will be spoilt for choice with regards mudflat habitat so expect the Little Stint to possibly move around soon.