Busy birds

A slow start to the day, and then down to the mudflats of Snells Beach with the Pentax, about 1030. As I quietly walked through the still remaining water towards the herons I could see, one took off and flew in a large arc and then swooped at a heron in the shallows. I managed a reasonable shot of its spread wings.

About then I had got close enough to the scattered waders to recognise the distinctive body shape and long bills of the kuaka. They are very restless feeders, running almost constantly, interrupted by short pauses to probe the mud for food. By the time my eyes have got the focus right, they're on the move again. This pair stayed relatively still for long enough, and as the sun was behind me, this shows their coloration, the feather pattern, and the pinkness of the bill.

Scofield and Stephenson describe them as "a large wader with a long, pink, slightly upturned bill with a dark tip; legs long, grey-green. In basic plumage, upper parts a mottled brownish grey; eye stripe prominent, dark; rump and upper tail white, heavily barred with dark brown. Underparts dirty white." All clearly seen in this photo, so I am very pleased.

I may put some of the other shots I got today onto blipfolio, with a link.

Today I received a message from gpzero, who has sadly decided to withdraw from Blipfoto because of the connection to Polaroid. I wish him well.

ADDITIONAL:
I have managed to create a new category in blipfolio (by deleting one of those I already had), and have loaded four other shots from today. Three from my beach walk and the last from our place.
A heron in flight 
Our Beach
A gannet
A tui in one of the trees on top of the cliff