Watching me

Near the end of a walk around the edge of the incoming water at Southend, Snells Beach, I happened to see two Matuku moana, the reef heron. This is described as an "uncommon native", seen usually either alone or as a pair, and found in mangrove inlets, rocky shores, wave platforms and intertidal mudflats. This one (and its companion) were on rocks above intertidal mudflats.

It was seen at Queen Charlotte Sound in 1773 during Cook's second voyage to New Zealand, and described as Ardea matook, the second name reflecting a rendering of the Maori name, Matuku. Later a Captain Mair described seeing "some 30" on Whale Island. He found their nests in a cave, which is known as "the crane's cave".

The reef heron is quite widely distributed from Bangladesh to Korea, Japan and through the Pacific to Australia. They are now quite rare in New Zealand. I feel very lucky to have seen a pair of them. (I did also see (probably the same) two a few weeks ago, and managed a rather blurred photo.) The white variant which is common elsewhere in the distribution, is very rarely seen in New Zealand, as Pacific vagrant.

Rather good large