Last Friday the weather forecast suggested a cloudy weekend without rain, promising the flat light I prefer for a full day of photography. At short notice a trip to Turangi was arranged to look for Whio on the Tongariro River with the hope of of some fresh spring ducklings.

The Tongariro River is now quite a reliable location for Whio and I have usually visited as a day trip or while passing. Every time I wish I could stay longer and had hoped to plan a weekend visit for some time. A fishing lodge we had previously regularly visited as a fishing base 20+ years ago is ideally situated with direct access to the river track. This allowed repeated visits to the duck spots I know without having to drive.

On our first afternoon I immediately found a pair at one the usual spots and got a few shots but the sun had peeked out and gave some harsh, high contrast light. We walked more of the river upstream but only found one other duck in an awkward location. Heading back downstream we staked out the initial spot from the opposite bank and just as we were about to give up saw a duck drifting downstream before climbing out onto a rock to rest. I stayed with him until the light went in the hope that he would fly back upstream. His plan was different and he ended up drifting downstream into the gloom. A few minutes walk past Kowhai in full bloom and dripping with Tui had me back at our unit.

Morning found a duck back at the initial spot after briefly seeing a pair bank in flight above the river. He was quite relaxed and co-operative resting in the light drizzle and tolerated a low, slow and tangential approach. We spent quite some time together until he decided to preen and drift downstream in search of breakfast when the light rain stopped. More walking and exploring found a group of 5 adults that I suspect were a brood of siblings from last season.

After lunch a quick walk up the river to one of my regular spots initially seemed to reveal nothing but after a while I noticed a pink bill amongst the rocks which materialised into a duck. Whio/Blue Duck plumage and shape is perfect camouflage amongst the rocks so I find looking for the pink bill rather than a whole duck can be a useful strategy.

Looking through my lens I saw there were a couple of little ducklings in the water near the adult and excitedly messaged Angela to let her know what I had found. Watching from a distance I noticed that they were feeding up the rocky edge of a fast deep run with no opportunity to get down close to water level. I moved upstream and got as low as I could but was still a couple of metres above river level with no opportunity for a clean back ground.

Sitting concealed among the rocks the ducks fed up and down along the edge approaching at times within my minimum focus distance so too close to photograph. Both parents were in attendance with 5 young ducklings. The adults were extremely attentive – continually scanning up and down stream as well as overhead. I have heard that a pair fledged 5 ducklings from this stretch of river last year so hope that success can be repeated.

Next week I will share some of the adult photos of the other ducks we found.

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