Little Black Shag

Following on from last week’s Okareka photowalk, this week we are on a Rotorua lakefront photowalk to explore bird photography opportunities there.

Little Pied Shag

The Rotorua lakefront offers plenty of opportunity to photograph birds with a steady population of shags, scaups, gulls and less numerous but regularly seen NZ Dabchicks. Little Pied Shags breed in the trees and regularly commute with food for their growing chicks.

Welcome Swallow hawking a midge

The rich supply of aquatic insects often has clouds of what are locally known as trout flies (non-biting midges) which Welcome Swallows target.

Sparrow having just plucked a midge from a spider web on a tree trunk

There a good numbers of Scaup so plenty of opportunities to photograph them at rest and in flight around the point. We were lucky to encounter a little flotilla of ducklings which put on a good show of their diving skills.

Female Scaup and ducklings

Scaup duckling diving

Male Scaup wing flap after preening

There is also a good resident population of Pukeko, the challenge being to locate one in a photogenic position and pose.

Pukeko

A very different range of birds compared to our trip to Okareka but another great bird photography location just a few minutes from home.

All photos with Nikon D500 and Nikon 500mm f5.6PF lens