On the go

This morning was the hardest frost I've seen in many years. And up here at Snells Beach! I felt the cold air and retreated to the warm bed for a later rise, and only saw the frost from the inside of the car as I went for the Saturday Herald.

Like a week ago, later in the day I went for a bird spotting jog on Southend, Snells Beach. It had been raining from mid morning until mid afternoon. Even when I went out, the wind was still strong and cold from the east, coming hard into Snells over the water of Kawau Bay. At times I had difficulty standing still, let alone hold the camera still because of the chilling and strong wind. At least it wasn't wet.

Keeping steady hands was important, as I saw a band of Tuturiwhatu; the New Zealand Dotterel. This is the northern subspecies (Charadrius obscurus aquilonius) which with somewhere between 1500 and 2000 birds in the northern part of North Island is of conservation concern. As an aside there are estimated to be only 250 of the southern subspecies, mostly on Stewart Island; their status is described as critical.

This energetic bird is in breeding plumage; this is probably a male as this is much more extensive and darker ("rich rufous") colouring than the females have. There were others which were most likely females, and also some without colour; either juveniles or non breeding birds.

As I already have photographed (and blipped) a tuturiwhatu (in February) I do not increase the number of bird species photographed this year.