Shaking off excess water

Got home early enough to go to Western Springs for a walk by the lake. It was a good time to be there as there was a mix of birds returning to roosts for the coming night, and others still feeding fast and hard. 

Today’s blip is an example of the latter. A male Papango (the New Zealand scaup) was close to shore with a couple of ducklings. Diving and browsing on the weeds. After one rather longer dive, he almost stood in the water and flapped his wings to shake off the water. 

As an extra I have posted a photo of a tree with a colony of Kawau  tui (little black shag) settling for the night. The bird on the right, above all the others is black, but it’s beak is yellow. It is a juvenile little pied shag, the Kawau paka. The Kawau tui on the left appears to be warning off the juvenile Kawau paka. I then watched an adult kawau paka fly down and at the interloper. It left. The new arrival appeared to settle down for the night. 

These two species of shag often share space whether for roosting or feeding. The kawau paka seem more assertive