Birds of Christchurch and Canterbury

Julia and I were in central Christchurch yesterday (29 August) and were surprised to see a family of 5 Paradise ducklings on the Avon River – HANZAB indicates laying in early August with incubation at 30-35 days – the ducklings were probably 5 days old so presumably laid in late July. David

20+ Swallow, Small movement of Migration. 1 Pheasant

5 Wrybills 12 Bar-tailed Godwit 1 Kingfisher 1 NZ pipit

In our garden yesterday in Halswell, chch, a female bellbird [nice to see] had a feed from the flowers of a tree Echium. I think it is native to the Canary Is and probably a noxious weed here. Silvereyes like it too. Last Friday, 30th July, Sheila and I watched a Male bellbird working over [...]

Departures of SIPO from the Avon-Heathcote Estuary in CHCH have been evident over the last week or two. Early SIPO are now on inland sites, doing display flights etc. Spring is just around the corner. AC

Yesterday, 9th June 2010, there was a bird sitting in a paddock down Kennedys Bush Road, Halswell, Christchurch, attended by a partner bird. This was in a paddock where a pair reared chicks last year, but much later in that year. Anyone else got dates for early nesting S-W Ps?

Small numbers of Silver-eyes still flying overhead just befour dawn

1 Arctic skua chasing terns in the estuary. 12 Pied Shags Feeding together. Birds were diving together and seemed to be working together to catch fish

Hi, all- It’s been a busy few months for the tui group as we prepared for the capture and arrival of the second wave of translocated tui. This followed a summer of monitoring by our intrepid summer scholar Karen Middlemiss, who finished her work in February having monitored several nests and resighted several of the [...]

The local population of Little Black Cormorant has increased to 10 this year following the second successive succesful nesting by a pair – the only breeding by this species known in the South Island. The birds move about quite a bit but can usually be seen either at Lake Kate Sheppard (off New Brighton Road [...]