In the neighbour's kowhai tree

When we arrived at the beach house on Friday we visited S' mother. She told me that she has tui in the kowhai outside her bedroom window every morning (before breakfast) and I should look. I did; both yesterday and this morning and no tui to be seen. The bigger kowhai tree outside the neighbour on the other side also had no tui this morning.

However, when I headed down to the water to go bird hunting with the big lens, tui were noisily feeding, and scrapping, in the neighbour's kowhai. I had to do a bit of rescue work on the photo. And it became rather washed out. Less has become more, and this is a better version, even though the bird is a bit much in shadow.

Down at the beach, with the tide taking the water well out over the mudflats, I was able to get some good photos of kotare (kingfishers) and a juvenile karuhiruhi (pied shag). It would seem that it is in the process of getting adult plumage, as it already has black wings and only a bit of smudging on the chest. It is today's extra.