It feels a little strange working with this set of images again. They were taken on my last trip to Lake Okareka before the New Zealand COVID-19 lockdown was implemented and were lined up for a blog post shortly after.

So much has happened in the interim and my blog posts have reflected that. We now find our selves in the position of the only cases of COVID-19 being those stopped at the border and no evidence of community transmission. Life is largely back to normal except for closed international borders and the impact that has on international tourism.

Every trip to Okareka is different. Little Pied Shags can be relied on and Great Cormorant are almost always present. Little Black Shags are less frequent, but on this visit there was a group of them hunting together.

Their emerald green eyes and plumage patterns are lovely and make good subjects for close-up images. In this case I enjoyed the interaction as one flew in to joining the other despite the rather unattractive manmade perch.

I have another image from this trip but it is so different from this series that it deserves a post of its own.

Photos with Nikon D850 and Nikon 500mm f5.6PF lens