Waekanae Estuary
On our list of "must visits", we planned a trek to Waekanae Estuary. About a 46 minute drive from Wellington, we headed towards the ocean once again!
Around the world, any fresh water meeting salty ocean water is a great place for unique water birds. 
Pied Stilt
Every place has its difficult birds to ID. The cormorants and oystercatchers were my focus. During winter, there are 2 oystercatchers around Wellington, the Variable Oystercatcher and the South Island Oystercatcher. A full black Variable Oystercatcher is easy to ID, but one that has white underneath can look similar to the South Island Oystercatcher. With these two species, there are a few field marks to look at....one of them being their bills.
South Island Variable-note the dark tip
The Variable has a lighter yellowish tip while the South Island Oystercatcher has a darker tip. Also of note is a white wing patch on the shoulder of the SI Oystercatcher that is lacking on the variable plumage of the Variable Oystercatcher. Did you get all that?:)
a Variable Oystercatcher in....variable plumage
I also noted that there were MANY Variable Oystercatchers along the coast with a smaller population inland around wetlands. From my limited observations, the South Island Oystercatchers seemed to prefer the wetland area because that's the only place I saw them. It may be different on the South Island.
It was a lovely walk along the estuary with many birds nearby. We were looking for some smaller species in the plover/dotterel category. We went slow scanning the beach with our eyes looking for moving brown dots.
Pied Cormorant
One of the most common cormorants I observed throughout my time around Wellington was the Pied Cormorant or as they call it, the New Zealand Pied Shag. During my time in Wellington, I wanted to know the differences between cormorant and shag.
a close up of a beautiful Pied Cormorant with that make believe blue eye:)
For me a shag is a bird that has a shaggy crest on the top of the head where a cormorant doesn't have that crest. Entering the info into iNat was a challenge. I'd put what I learned from my studies into the database and the bird specialists would correct it with their local names. Ebird and iNat operate on different identification systems so I'm always learning something new from the local expert birders . 
See no evil, Hear no evil, speak no evil
The estuary is surrounded by California style homes. The small coastal downtown is lovely with many places for dining and shopping. When the Wellington crowd wants to get out of town, they head here for a relaxing time at the beach.
As we neared the "spit" or tip where the ocean meets the stream, we saw a huge gathering of birds including better looks of the beautiful White-fronted Terns.
And in the mix, I saw 2 familiar characters from the US.....Caspian Terns. I completely forgot that New Zealand has a few Caspian Terns around their coasts. I had to research a bit to make sure it wasn't a similar cryptic looking species. It's always nice to observe "my birds" in new locations.
Caspian Terns
We slowly moved towards the hundreds of White-fronted Terns to get great looks. We stood on the cool breezy estuary tip enjoying the flight show of these birds.
There are only a couple raptors to worry about around the southern tip of the North Island. There's the New Zealand Falcon, which we saw several times during our visits to several hotspots. And there's also the very common Swamp Harrier that can be seen hunting along the estuary grounds.
As harriers do, they flushed many peeps and ducks from their feeding areas.
That's when we noticed small sandy nodules moving about the beach! The plovers!
Double-banded Plover
There were 3 that we were searching for....Double-banded Plover, Red-breasted Dotterel (or New Zealand Dotterel) and Wrybill. As our eyes adjusted, we could see many plovers at the spit.
New Zealand Dotterel
We saw a larger plover and I got excited. The New Zealand Dotterel is an endemic. We watched it forage along the beach with the other plovers.
Sadly, we didn't spot the Wrybill but that was okay. We saw 2 of the 3 cool peeps at the estuary. We spent several hours just watching them on the beach move from one area to another.
While not as common as the Pied Cormorants, we did encounter many Little Pied Cormorants along the water ways, especially near the piers of Wellington. Their shorter bills and more compact bodies with that flatter head are great field marks. However the juveniles can look like Little Black Shags. In our next post, we'll examine why they can be confused.
During our time at the estuary, it was often overcast which made our visit very comfortable.
In the above above photo, we see an easier to ID Variable Oystercatcher. Note that yellowish tip at the end of the bill. However, when they are all black like this bird above, the ID is a snap. We had so many on the beach during our walk. It's strange for me because oystercatchers in the US are not always seen easily along our coast. The American and Black Oystercatchers are said to have stable populations, but the truth of the matter is that their numbers are in decline in many areas due to oil spills and disturbance around nest sites.
To get to the estuary, find a place to park near the trailhead. And there are several.
This trailhead begins along a street with homes. A map is right at the start of the trail. Enjoy:)
It's no secret that I've taken a break from local birding. And I'm not sure that I will be as active in the community anymore. We have scheduled some amazing treks worldwide for the next year. Some will be to remote areas that have taken a few years to organize and plan. My heart has shifted to watching birds at home which I enjoy very much. This also includes improving the native vegetation in the garden. It brings me great joy. As I watch others go full on like I was as a beginning birder; I find myself stepping back from that community. I am still present, but enjoy the solitude. I can't explain it but the days for taking people all over are coming to an end. I feel like a new chapter in my birding life has begun. Next week, we explore a lagoon! Stay tuned for more.....
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