Rare birds keep ‘terning’ up

Since December, when new rules were introduced for dog exercising in our Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve, there has been a huge increase in the number of visiting and resident birds particularly at the estuary sandspit. Most noticeable have been the flocks of seagulls and white-fronted terns, the latter sometimes numbering hundreds of birds.

Trying to spot different tern species among the huge numbers of similar birds can be an almost impossible task, but amongst them this year we have seen the very rare black tern, the rare sooty tern, the common tern (despite its name, rare) the little tern and, every so often, the very attractive and rare black-fronted tern. So good has been the bird sightings here since the beginning of the year, that our estuary is now regarded nationally as an important birding hot spot with many enthusiastic camera-toting birders visiting from all over the country.

The black-fronted tern is a small grey tern commonly seen on the braided rivers, estuaries and harbours of the eastern South Island.

They breed on the braided rivers, dispersing to coastal areas after the breeding season. During the winter months, some birds travel to the southern part of the North Island. Totalling between 5000-10,000 birds worldwide, they are counted as nationally endangered in New Zealand.

Featured in these photographs is a juvenile black-fronted tern that was seen among the white-fronted terns a few days ago. By lying face-down on the wet sand, and crawling stealthily for a few metres I was able to get within 3m without disturbing it. It had been out at sea all day, so was busy cleaning itself and preening whilst I quietly snapped away capturing its efforts. I took about 150 shots, then pruned them down to the best that captured the moment. —