A recent week of leave was partly spent getting some work tidied up and then we had a few days free and the hope was for a trip to Auckland to visit Tiritiri Matangi and Muriwai with a stop at Miranda for a couple of days on the way. The weather forecast had been a bit pessimistic but we ignored it as the tides were perfect and, as it was, so was the weather. Miranda Shorebird Centre is one of New Zealand’s premier birding sites with waders being the main drawcard with plentiful Bar-tailed Godwits and Red Knots arriving for the summer before returning to the Northern Hemisphere to breed. Domestic migrants from the South Island include Wrybill and South Island Pied Oystercatchers. It is a good place to see Black-billed Gulls and Royal Spoonbills, and a White Heron is often present, along with copious Stilts. Introduced Eurasian Skylarks are abundant and fill the sky with their song. High spring tides fill the Firth of Thames and push the waders to the shellbanks and with a bit of luck they fly over to the Stilt Ponds giving flight shot opportunities with low evening light. I managed some nice flight images the first evening and then shot up to Auckland the next day to collect Edin after her morning lecture so that we could have the day together photographing. Flight opportunities were not as good on the second day, apart from Black-billed Gulls but we had a great time photographing the resident White Heron (Kotuku) hunting in the mangroves. On my final morning I managed a reasonable picture of a Skylark which was a first for me. They are quite wary and difficult to get close to and I have plenty of distant of flying shots but this was a nice opportunity to photograph one calling at ground level.
See the Miranda Shorebird Centre website for more details. Accommodation is available at the Shorebird Centre but we usually stay at the Miranda Holiday Park as their pool, tennis courts and trampoline provide activity for the less bird obsessed family members and watching the full moon rising while soaking in the warm pool after a day birding is great.
