Bird-watcher snaps rare estuary visitor
Eagle-eyed bird enthusiast Elizabeth Taylor didn’t quite realise what she had spotted when she saw a distinctively different tern amongst hundreds of white-fronted terns during her walk around the Waikane estuary — a beautiful bird since positively identified as a black tern.
“Elizabeth was the first person to record — for the first time ever in New Zealand — this particular species,” avid bird photographer Roger Smith said.
“The reaction among keen birders everywhere has been great excitement, and many have travelled here from places as far away as Auckland and Christchurch just to see it and photograph it.
“We are really lucky to have such a special place in our locality where rare birds can be seen, and where they can live safely among us.”
Elizabeth first sighted it on January 14. It departed with a flock of white-fronted terns in the late afternoon on January 24.