The white herons had an incredibly successful breeding season and by early January we had juvenile birds joining the adults on the lagoon.  Swade took this marvelous photo of an adult bird with a small eel while on a morning trip.

Royal spoonbills were also around in huge numbers and entertaining as always with their animated feeding habits.  We also had spotted shags, good numbers of pied stilts and oystercatchers, white fronted terns, caspian terns and some lesser knots. 

The godwits arrived early in the spring, then vanished for a few weeks when the lagoon water levels were quite high.  They returned as the water levels retreated and then all summer we saw them feeding on the tidal flats.  They looked rounded and rosy before heading back to Alaska for their breeding season just a few weeks ago – we wish them well on their arduous journey.  There remains a grouping of juvenile godwits here for the winter.

We are now having a “mast” year with fruiting of many trees including the tall kahikatea trees which are absolutely loaded with bright orange berries.  These are very sweet and another great source of food for tui’s and bellbirds.  We also have a large number of fantails around right now and have had some incredibly good sightings of Australasian bitterns! very exciting to have these birds around, both in the village and up the Okarito River.

Our tours will be operating with regular hours until the end of May when we will be readying to leave for Canada for the next few months (June-August)  and will resume our trips in September.

Royal Spoonbills at Okarito River

The weather here on the coast has been spectacular these past few days, and although we may have a wet spell tomorrow, the rest of the week is looking fine. 

 The flax flowers are becoming much more apparent and, being a predominant food source for the tui’s, these birds are really putting on some shows in the forest for us with their fast flying manoevres and complex calls.  They actually have two voice boxes and can make sounds too high pitched for us to even hear.  Tui’s breed in September and October and some of the young should be getting ready to test their wings. 

You can see the best of both wading and forest birds on our two hour Nature Tours – hope to see you soon!