An Oddity at the Estuary

Blipmate and I witnessed an odd sight that I had never seen before although she had just once, recently. A largish pack of small shags went swimming up the estuary and we wondered if it was a nursery of shags although we had never heard of such a thing before.

While browsing my bird book I discovered they are the little black shag which are rare in the South Island of New Zealand although common in the North Island. Among the information was the following:
"Little black shag sometimes work together in the water as a pack of up to 100 birds to herd a shoal of fish".
So that is what they were up to - not a nursery for shags.

The pack I saw was around 15 birds. We are located in the North of the South Island so I want to record this rare  sighting in my Blip Journal. They must be moving in on us.