Going “Down Under” (NZ #2)
(click on a photo to enlarge)
January 19, 2011 – North Island
Anxious to start exploring North Island, we left Auckland on the morning of our second day and headed south. Along the highway, not far from the city, we saw a sign for the Auckland Botanic Gardens so decided to stop there.
Entrance, Auckland Botanic Gardens
The gardens were beautiful, meticulously maintained and reflected the tropical feeling of this area.
Auckland Botanic Gardens
We couldn’t help but notice that so many of the plants here were familiar ones to us having grown up in Northern California. In fact, other than the tree ferns, we had the strange feeling we were in California. Obviously the climates are similar and the same plants and trees do well in both areas.
Best of all, the gardens provided habitat not only for plants but birds as well. Several lakes provided us with an opportunity to view some native waterfowl. The endemic New Zealand Grebes or Dabchicks entertained us while they dove and came up with small fish to feed their young. They reminded me a lot of our Least Grebes (Tachybaptus dominicus).
New Zealand Grebe (Poliocephalus rufopectus)
Juvenile New Zealand Grebe
It was hard not to notice an extremely beautiful duck at another lake. So beautiful that I thought it must be some kind of domestic duck. Wrong. Enter the endemic Paradise Shellduck.
Paradise Shellduck (Tadorna variegata), female
Female birds usually have duller plumage than males but in this case the female of the species is actually much more attractive than the male — he is mostly black. I actually neglected to take a photo of one — should have consulted my field guide!
The highly gregarious native gull, the Red-billed Gull was also present at the lakeside. What a beauty! In the following days we would see them in many places. Red-billed Gulls nest in colonies of up to 5000 pairs on sand spits, shellbanks, gravel beaches and rocky headlands.
Red-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus)
The introduced Common Chaffinch was common in the gardens and gave us a few photo ops that we missed at Manukau Harbor the day before.
Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
To ensure we wouldn’t leave New Zealand without seeing a Kiwi (and it turns out we didn’t), we drove on to the Otorohanga Kiwi House and Native Bird Park. As we entered the nocturnal Kiwi enclosure (no photos allowed), we were not disappointed as the two Kiwis were running all around and actively probing the litter for insects. It was fascinating watching them and we had the whole enclosure to ourselves. The facility here breeds Kiwis for release and also houses some of the rarer native birds, primarily waterfowl and shorebirds.
To be continued……..
February 21st, 2012 at 3:32 am
Hi Arlene,
Great post on the New Zealand bird. the Shellduck is beautiful. Beautiful bird and lovely photos from your trip.
February 21st, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Love the Shellduck and grebe but that gull with matching legs and bill, that’s style!
February 29th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Is the Red-billed Gull the same or similar to Silver Gull? Neat looking bird!