Dropping in with fish

After leaving S at a cafe in Dominion Road where she was having a poetry group meeting, I went to Wynyard Quarter as I had read that there are gulls, dotterels, and terns nesting in small colonies in and near a 'working wharf'.

I had an enjoyable half hour walk around the end of a finger of land pushing out into the Harbour. I saw a pair of Masked Lapwings ina large fenced off area. They were amongst scrubby vegetation, quite some distance away and my photos were additionally ruined by hving to point the lens through the fence. I also saw the colony of Tarapunga (red-billed gulls) on a smaller area also behind a wire fence. I think they were mainly juveniles. The two Karoro (black-backed gulls) were by themselves and their two chicks couldn't be seen.

I had just about given up on getting my blip in thiss area, when I saw a couple of terns circling overhead, saw where they were coming down, and found myself watching the activity in the Tara (white-fronted tern) colony. Birds were landing with food for their young.

The birds were being paid no attention by the wharf workers, even though the colony appears to be based around the large pipes featuring behind the Tara in my blip. The birds seemed unfazed by the presence near their nesting site of humans, machinery and noise.