This is a continuation from the previous article, which you can find here: sea, trees and volcanoes. Today, we are in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. We’ll be watching planes and birds at the airport, and we’ll lie in the mud to shoot grebes and rails. In the end, we’ll spend one fantastic sunset around the gannet colony in Muriwai, a delightful ending for a great one-year adventure in kiwiland.
Welcome!
Plane and bird spotting at Auckland Airport
Common myna (Acridotheres tristis) 
Common myna 
Common myna 
Silver gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) 
Puketutu Island
Puketutu is a small island in South Auckland, linked to the mainland at all times by a causeway. There, I discovered a pond with lots of birds: spoonbills, ducks… and New Zealand grebes (Poliocephalus rufopectus), a species I wanted to photograph better. Signs along the lake warned against touching the water (let alone swimming!), as it was a discharge pond for the local wastewater treatment plant… urgh, icky. Let’s say it moderately scared me, but didn’t prevent me from lying on the rocky shore to take pictures of birds at eye-level! Both times I biked from my residence in Mangere Bridge, both times I got soaked, but both times were worth the effort, as I made some interesting images 🙂
New Zealand grebe (Poliocephalus rufopectus) 
New Zealand grebe 
New Zealand grebe 
New Zealand grebe 
Australasian shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis) 
New Zealand grebe 
Grey teal (Anas gracilis) 
Welcome swallow (Hirundo neoxena) 
Welcome swallow 
New Zealand grebe
Western Springs
A popular park in the city, with many tame birds. Lots of problems with people giving bread to birds (don’t do that), but lots of opportunities to approach birds closer than in usual circumstances.
Australasian swamphen 
Australasian swamphen 
Australasian swamphen 
Australasian swamphen 
Australasian swamphen 
Australasian swamphen 
Australasian swamphen 
Song thrush (Turdus philomelos) 
Australian pied cormorant (Phalacrocorax varius) 
Black swan (Cygnus atratus) 
Australian pied cormorant 
Australian pied cormorant 
Australian pied cormorant 
Australian pied cormorant 
Australian pied cormorant 
Australian pied cormorant 
Eurasian coot (Fulica atra) 
Eurasian coot 
Kelp gull (Larus dominicanus, young) 
Black swan 
Black swan 
House sparrow (Passer domesticus, male) 
House sparrow, female 
Royal spoonbill (Platalea regia) 
Welcome swallow 
Welcome swallow 
Welcome swallow
North Shore
Australasian grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) 
Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) 
Masked lapwing 
Masked lapwing 
Masked lapwing eggs 
Sacred kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) 
Pied stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) 
Buff-banded rail (Hypotaenidia philippensis ) 
Buff-banded rail 
Buff-banded rail
Last sunset in Muriwai
So there we were. My last days in New Zealand. Could I think of a better place to spend them than Muriwai? Hmmm, probably not. Thank you Carol for taking me there ❤
Australasian gannet (Morus serrator) 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Variable oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor) 
Variable oystercatcher 
Variable oystercatcher 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
Australasian gannet 
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Wow. Gros coup de coeur pour ta serie Pied Cormorans.
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Merci Francis, il était vraiment pas loin !
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J’adore les photos des fous 😊 Bisous Mum
>
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Ils sont beaux ❤
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Fabulous captures, Samuel, some are truly breathtaking. I love the closeup of the black swan preening.
Those metal birds at the beginning are a different species than you usually feature. 😉
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Thank you Eliza, I know they are a different kind of “bird”… but I’ve always been fascinated by planes! Not that I feel completely at ease up there, but there something magical about them. I hope you don’t mind me including them here 😉
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Of course not! 🙂 Anything you photograph is interesting to me, you are most talented!
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