Bird Watching at the Estuary
Bird report 5 October 2005
 First 2 juvenile Bar-tailed Godwits of the season
94 adult Bar-tailed Godwits (no bands or flags)
12 Red Knot
1 Sharp-tailedSandpiper
1 Wrybill
Please note: Sav would be interested in anyone emailing him with sightings of birds found especially with Bands/Flags sav@wrybill-tours.com
25 September
65 Bar-tailed Godwits
1 Red Knot
1 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
1 adult Pacific Golden Plover
1 Little Tern
20 Cattle Egret
Bird counts from Sunday
15 May Census 2005
 Royal Spoonbill 45
Wrybill 24
Bar-tailed Godwit 3
Lesser Knot
White-fronted Tern 5
Caspian Tern 26
Variable Oystercatcher 1
SI Pied Oystercatcher 5
Pied Stilt 116
Banded Dotterel 58
NZ Dotterel 1
Shoveller 300+
Black Shag 62
Little Black Shag 14
Red-billed Gull 56
Black-backed Gull 124
Other species noted:
Kingfisher x 2 Chaffinch Paradise Shelduck x1
White Faced Heron Skylark x 2 Black Swan x 120+
SpurWing Plover x17 Goldfinch x3 Canada Geese x200+
Australasian Harrier x2 Yellow Hammer x4 Grey Duck x 17
Welcome Swallow Fantail x 2
Update on Sunday 31st October 2004
From Ian Saville (Sav)
Seen at the Manawatu estuary were:
Bar-tailed Godwit - 290 no flags visible but Roger Slack had an orange flag (Victoria) there on Thursday
Red Knot - about 130 with only one orange flag seen but birds arranged to keep their legs mostly out of sight. On Friday there were 2 orange flags, the Chinese white/black flagged bird and one white (Auckland) flag.
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - 1
Curlew Sandpiper - 1
Red-necked Stint - 1
Wrybill - 12
Seen on 2nd October 2004 - bird monitoring at the estuary.
From Ian Saville (Sav)
The migratory waders are returning to New Zealand for the summer after wintering over in Siberia and Alaska.
Bar-tailed Godwit 268 (170 last weekend)
Red Knot 26 (10 last weekend)
Pacific Golden Plover 1
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper 0 (1 last weekend)
The Wrybill’s are heading off for their breeding season in the South Island. There were only nine seen on 2nd October.
Summer - Thursday January 8 2004
Ian (Sav) Saville, of Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ and Jim Moore found a first winter COMMON TERN at the Manawatu estuary. It is a very dark bird, with a brown cast to the dark wing feathers (a little like a juvenile WWBTern). It is also markedly smaller than the accompanying White-fronts and so not at all hard to pick out.
Click below to see photos of a Common Tern
http://www.wrybill-tours.com/rarities/commtern.htm
Other birds sighted were:
Pacific Golden Plover - 17
Wrybill - 20
Red Necked Stint -1
Sharp-tailed Sand - 2
Pied Oystercatcher - 77
Red Knot - 200+
Bar-tailed godwit - 300+
Little Tern - 1
Banded Dotterel - 36
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