Wood Duck! Australian Wood Ducks in Tasman! Geuss what?! They have bred too! I had to check it out, WAY to good to miss. So after our shopping we headed to the Playhouse cafe. OK, a cafe is totally NOT where you would expect to find our newest native, but apperently the Australian Wood Ducks, or Maned Duck, don't care.
They appeared first in Mapua, where there seemed to be a adult male, mature female and three young males. Thoughts are these were their off-spring. One of these young males has been handed in (dead) to Te Papa.
On lawn when we arrived (btw he was sitting with a mallard pair) Headed toward water and swam toward island, headed around and hid in willows"
Not very good notes; I was SUPER exicted!
After seeing the male Maned Duck, we headed to Marahau Estuary for another lifer, Banded Rail.
The first birds I saw were California Quail and his mate. He landed on a bush and gave me great views.
Nothing else really worth mentioning other than a House Sparrow brood behind a metal box until we get to the, yep, Banded Rail.
calls when dad said: "Look! What's that?". I looked where he was pointing and there, on the wetland mudsand, was my first Banded Rail. Got to say, I was pretty pleased with that, but just then, from behind the adult, I heard two small calls answering the mature bird. So I think they could have been chicks, anyone know?