Spotted Shags, Puponga

Woke to another wet and grey morning but this time, it didn't clear........just grey, mizzly weather all day.  Headed away from Golden Bay around 2.00pm.  Headlights on over Takaka Hill as I drove through fog and mist then, quite literally, immediately I got off the Takaka Hill on the Nelson side, the sun burst forth, clouds cleared and the sky was blue.  Amazing!

Before I left Golden Bay though I did a we look round Puponga. This group of Spotted Shags were spending their time primping and preening readying no doubt for the mating season ahead.  Lovely though they looked it was the whole scene that caught my eye - there's something utterly compelling about scenes of native New Zealand bush.......tall, wiry trees with a multitude of shades of green berets, all clinging to the hillsides at all sorts of angles, grasses and ferns popping up between them, and the fresh, earthy smell that goes with it all.  A perfect setting for a gathering of spotted shags to while away some time.