One Brown Creeper, Two Swallows

The next couple of posts are all about birds; birds we saw at Whites Bay, Marlborough before we crossed over to the North Island and birds we saw at Zealandia in Wellington, after our visit with the most famous bird of all, Sirocco the Kakapo.

This is a Brown Creeper/Pīpipi, and some have said that this is the one of the hardest birds in New Zealand to photograph, and I would have to agree with them.

Brown Creepers are endemic and are found in a wide range of forest and scrubby habitats in the South Island only. I saw my first and, up until now, last Brown Creepers when we visited Weatherstons goldfield near Lawrence a year or so ago. They are a small, noisy flocking bird seldom seen but often heard as they pass through the forest canopy high above. They rarely stop for long as the noisy chattering flock moves quickly on through the forest, feeding.

I was lucky enough to spot half a dozen birds making their way through the bush near the van & at window height, while we were parked in the DOC camp at Whites Bay- one of the advantages of having dark tinted windows is people & birds can’t see in.

At first I was thinking what are those birds, they don’t look familiar. Then I couldn’t believe my luck as it dawned on me, they were Brown Creepers! I was out the door and following their chatter over to a stand of bush on the inside of the campground. I spent the next couple of hours trying to get the ‘money shot’. I got plenty of ‘bum shots’; they are quite shy and hide their heads well. They are also fast moving and with the dark bush it was hard to catch them, and in fact I had a fair few empty frame shots or shots with just the last couple of centimetres of their tail feathers as they disappeared out of frame.

Brown Creepers are insectivorous, but do eat some fruit. Their main prey are beetles, spiders, moths and caterpillars and I think they were catching insects attracted to flowering Five-finger (Pseudopanax arboreus) here. And that's what held them in the area for awhile, a plentiful food source. They were certainly cute little birds, I loved their bandit eye stripe and long legs.

Quietly moving about on the ground around me while I was targeting the Brown Creepers was another very shy bird, the introduced Dunnock or Hedge Sparrow who has the most beautiful song. This one wasn’t as shy as most I’ve come across and followed along as I moved around the bush. It stayed nearby all the time I was looking up but when I looked down at it, it would quickly move into the undergrowth until I moved on. Then it would appear again. I think it was probably catching the insects I was disturbing.

There were a couple of puddles of water & mud on the track at Whites Bay with two Welcome Swallows doing circuits collecting mud for their nest building. In fact there were three couples trying to collect mud but one pair spent most of their time chasing the others off. I tried to catch them a few times but they were disturbed easily and I couldn’t get close enough for any decent shots. Even after I re-filled their puddle with water when it dried out.

So I was thrilled to find another pair collecting mud from a puddle beside the road at Rarangi when we moved over the hill to the DOC camp there.

And this pair didn’t have any competitors so they were free to spend all day flying back and forward from their nest site to the puddle without any interruption.

Which meant I could lay in wait for them knowing that they would be back every 5 minutes or so. They were flying a large circuit from a rock wall near the beach, across a carpark, then the campground to the road edge. And this time I had a couple of small bushes to hide behind while I waited for their return. They could see me when I stepped out to take the photo but they didn’t seem to be too fazed.

They took an occasional brief rest together on a large piece of driftwood on the beach but then they’d be quickly back to the task at hand, always arriving at and leaving the puddle together, keeping in contact all the way with quiet chattering.

Welcome Swallows are a self introduced species from Australia, they first appeared in the North Island in the late 1950s and increased greatly through the 60s and 70s until now they are very common throughout New Zealand.

If you look closely you can see that the mud is collected on the top of the bill, they sort of head-butt the mud pushing the bill through so it mounds up on top, which is much faster than trying to peck at it and carry it home. They would also collect a lot more doing it this way.

And as most would know that have tried to catch the swallow in flight, it’s a very hard thing to do. They are tiny and extremely fast flyers weaving and ducking and diving. I did have the advantage of knowing that they would be leaving or arriving at the puddle but it was still very hard to lock the focus on them as they flew in and out. Most of these photos were taken at a shutter speed of 1/2000 to 1/2500 and still the wings are a little blurred. Still blurred wings gives a sense of movement so I’m happy with them.

Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge, if you want to have a closer look.

The Birds of Ohau Canal

OK, back to the backlog of blogs. I hope you can keep up with all this toing and froing, it’s a little difficult when I’ve been talking about the same place- before the snow and after, and  just a couple of weeks apart. Anyway this is the last blog post from the MacKenzie Basin…….that is until I process the remainder of the snow photos.

While David fished I was able to take my time exploring the canal, the hillock behind and the surrounding lakes looking for birds to photograph.

On the very first afternoon I couldn’t believe my luck, when I walked to the beginning of the canal where it leaves Lake Ruataniwha and there, right in front of the rocks and below me, was an adult Australasian Crested Grebe/Kamana. I’m not sure who got the biggest fright, it took off fast towards the centre of the lake but I managed to get a shot before it dived and disappeared. Those that have been following the blog will know that I’ve been trying for quite some time to get close up photos of the incredibly shy grebe. Still not perfect but getting closer….

Along the canal, around the salmon farm and in the small lake behind the farm which is called the Wairepo Arm, there were the usual mix of hybrid mallards and grey ducks and a handful of Australian Coots (I love that name- I’m not sure if it’s the coot part or the fact that it has Australian in front of it).

Australian coots are slate-grey with a white bill and frontal shield, and red eyes. They also have large grey feet with lobed toes which help with swimming and diving as they spend nearly all their time in the water. Coots are a member of the same rail family that our native Pukeko & Takahe belong to, they arrived in NZ from Australia around 1958.

This is a male New Zealand Scaup (aka ‘Angry Duck’). NZ Scaup/Papango are also known as Black Teal- so many names for a little duck! Scaup are small diving ducks, they are sociable birds and can be found in large flocks bobbing about on many lakes.

Males are dark black-brown with an iridescent blue-green head and yellow eyes. The females are a duller chocolate brown with white feathers at the base of the bill and brown eyes.

I was pleased to locate half a dozen grebes scattered about in various places while I was exploring the canal,and ponds. They all kept their distance but at least I knew I had a chance of a close up shot if I managed to creep up on one. Every day I’d watch one grebe swim very fast down the canal past our van but out in the centre of the flow- I’d watch him out our window- but every time I stepped outside he shot off over to the far bank where he’d spend most of the afternoon poking about in the amongst the grass overhanging the water. Then he’d swim back past in the late afternoon, hugging the far bank and the edge of the salmon farm, heading back to the lake. I managed to get a slightly closer shot but still not a great one.

Surprisingly enough, aside from the waterfowl, there were quite a number of smaller birds feeding in the grasses along the canal banks and up on the hillock behind us; goldfinches, chaffinches, green finches, sparrows, dunnocks, NZ pipits, yellowhammers, blackbirds, thrush and silvereyes. A wild apple tree growing on top of the small hill provided plenty of food for the silvereyes and blackbirds which was just as well when the heavy frosts coated the ground for most of the day.

The Silvereye/Tauhou were a little cautious and tended to stick to the half eaten apples on the inside or on the far side of the tree. They also spend more time chasing each other than feeding as they are quite territorial. I always wonder why, when there’s plenty of food, they don’t just tolerate each other and get on with eating instead of wasting energy and time. In the end I decided that I had waited long enough in the cool wind to get a good shot so  I took matters in hand and took a bite from an apple myself (in situ), so I could get some shots on the sunny side   They were tasty enough but with a hard skin. All in the name of a good shot of course! And no that’s not what you think on the apple, it’s frost.

This Dunnock (aka Hedge Sparrow) all fluffed up against the cold, was resting near the van and warming up in the weak morning sun.

A New Zealand Pipit/Pihoihoi foraged for seed and insects along the canal bank every day including  the morning after our first snow fall. Pipits resemble skylarks but they have longer legs and walk rather than hop like the lark. Being a member of the wagtail family, pipits flick their tail as they walk, they are also less likely to fly when approached.

Late one afternoon I was looking out the window when I caught sight of a Grebe further down the canal and on our side. I quickly grabbed my camera and ran along the track out of sight of the canal edge until I thought I was about opposite where I’d seen him. I crept up to the edge and there he(or she) was! But it was only a juvenile.

I shouldn’t say ‘only’ because it was still thrilling to see him but I was after an adult. I already have a juvenile photo that I took last year when we visited the lake front in Queenstown.

Grebes have very strange legs, they look like they’re hinged onto their butts. Grebes spend all of their time in the water, only coming out to nest on floating rafts of vegetation that they build. Their strong legs are set way back on their bodies to help with diving.

Juveniles are a lot more confiding than the adults and more inquisitive. This fellow initially got a fright to see me pop up but once he sussed out I was no threat he just went about his business. You can see the beginnings of his adult crest forming on his head here.

After this initial encounter I didn’t see him again, I think he was encroaching on a prime piece of real estate (salmon farm=food) and the adult may have chased him away.

The Grey Warbler/Riroriro is a tiny endemic songbird that usually stays up among the canopy foliage so it’s often heard but not seen. Unless there is no canopy. Scrubby briar bushes and the native spiny matagouri  both grow along the side of the ponds behind the salmon farm and this is where I found numerous warblers working the bushes from one end of the pond to the other, looking for insects.

The warbler with it’s distinctive red eye is the only New Zealand bird that hovers while searching for food, making them identifiable by behaviour from a long distance.

And finally I nailed it! A close up of the elusive adult Australasian Grebe. I spotted him (or her, male & female look the same) in close to the canal bank and working his way down towards the salmon farm way across the otherside. I grabbed my gear and headed quick as I could to the road and over the bridge keeping a careful eye on him feeding.

Every time he dove down to feed I’d break into a run, then pull up fast when he bobbed back up, creeping along low behind the bridge rail and then the bushes on the edge as I got closer. A couple of fishermen were casting off the bank nearby and quietly cursing the grebe for scaring away their fish. 

I managed to get a few close shots before the grebe decided I was too close and took off through the water, heading into the salmon farm. He obviously feeds under the nets too.

A few days later I found him floating about in amongst the salmon farm, it wasn’t long before he decided I was stalking him again and he was gone. I had to post this photo though, not because of the grebe but because of the drums that are being used as floats at the farm. These aren’t just any old drums, although old and faded they are. These are very special Devan Plastic drums, made in Tauranga at our old business. It’s amazing the weird and wonderful places we keep finding Devan products on our travels.

Spoonbills & other birds

After exploring closer to home we drove right around to the other side of the harbour, directly across from our campsite but about 15kms by road. David had seen a vehicle parked up on the beach a few times and wanted to check out what was there (we think they must have been gathering paua (NZ abalone) as there was a large area of flat rocky outcrops & pools jutting out into the sea). It was with great surprise that in amongst the usual shore waders feeding in the low tide rock pools we found a flock of eleven Royal Spoonbills very resplendent in their breeding plumage of yellow breast patch, bright yellow spots above the eyes & head plumes.

Spoonbills are quite rare in New Zealand although there are quite a few pockets of birds around the country including a large flock of about 30 birds that spend a lot of time in & near the Ahuriri Estuary in Napier. Having only seen these ones before and out of the breeding season it was great to see the changes in their plumage.

That's the sealion beach off in the distance.

The eye spots are a little bit creepy, they are iridescent yellow & give the impression that they're looking at you all the time. Which I guess they are if you could see their black eyes underneath.

The bird below on the left had a lot of bling on her legs; banded, & female because she was noticeably smaller.

We later saw another half a dozen or so spoonbill feeding on the mudflats further up the harbour & over the other side on our way home so is probably a good sized flock in the area. When we come back we'll have to explore more.

And back we'll definitely be coming. This time we concentrated mainly on seeking out the sealions but the area also had many birds that I would loved to have got some great shots of. As it was these were "just in passing". 

A Bellbird (Korimako)- feeding on flax flowers

That big fat Wood Pigeon (Kereru) again

We passed this family of variable oystercatchers ( Torea-pango) on the way to the sealions

This Welcome Swallow had a nest under the foot bridge below our camp site, it & it's mate flew out distressed every time somebody walked over or near the bridge. On one occasion we watched as a stoat ran across the bridge then down onto the rocks and along the edge of the stream. The swallows flew along dive bombing it all the way. We knew there were stoats in the area as the day we arrived a stoat was caught in a cage trap at the end of the garden just above the bridge. The campground has an active pest control programme & it seems to be working. I know they are terrible predators on our birdlife but I couldn't help thinking about the kits the caught stoat would have had back in the nest wondering when Mum was going to get home. I figured it was Dad out looking for her the next day!



And this is a dunnock (with a moth in its bill) also known as a hedge sparrow. They are not so frequent up north although we have seen a few around the Central Plateau area, they have a wonderful song & like to sit right on the tip of a tree & sing their heart out. They are an introduced species and seemed to be quite plentiful the further south we move. They are quite shy & like to keep to the undergrowth although this one was searching around the rocks for dinner. A number of them were feeding on the grass seed.

And finally, not a bird but a bug. A huhu beetle that took up residence for a short while in our outside shoe box.