gigacat's Identifications

This pukeko appeared to be building a platform of raupo. It was bending the leaves and stalks over until they 'crimped' and tucking them in. You can see how it has created a gap in the the reeds. Wrong time of the year for nest building. Perhaps practice ? I have seen white heron juveniles make apparent attempts at nest building in winter, playing with sticks and rearranging them, which seems to be a rehearsal behaviour. Might this be the same thing?

Quite a large number of loosely associating fantails at the Groynes all feeding along riparian planting by one of the streams. In a stretch of about 200m probably about 16 to 20 birds, all pied phase except for one black phase bird. The black-phased bird is pictured in silhouette. I've been observing fantails for a very long time and I'm starting to think that black-phase birds are not as bold as their pied kindred. In my experience they rarely come as close to humans or seem as inquisitive as pied birds. This is highly unscientific of course but it is consistent with many observations over the years.

A lone white heron in the Bexley wetland.
Other birds observed included:
bittern (1)
pied stilt (numerous)
pied/black stilt hybrid (2)
white faced heron (30+)
godwit (16)
SIPO (40+)
Grey teal (several hundred)
Royal spoonbill (20+)
Caspian tern (12)
Kingfisher (6)
Plus (not counted): pied and little shag, spur-winged plover, black swan, mallard, canada geese, red-billed and black-backed gull, and harrier.