I have written previously about Pāteke/Brown Teal and Tāwharanui Regional Park being a great location to photograph them. A trip up North in June gave another opportunity to visit and some nice images to add to my archive. The place we have stayed is near the entry to the park and has a small wetland on the drive from the main road. This is an excellent spot with a little flock of Pāteke and a number of Kōtare/Kingfisher as well. I have had some luck using my car as a hide as shown in the above and following image.

Starting the day with a couple of decent images even before getting out the car is a bonus but the main target for the day was Tāwharanui to look for Pāteke and then wander through the ecology walk with a hope for Tīeke/Saddleback.

The stream mouth at the beach seems a reliable spot to locate the Pāteke and they seem quite relaxed as long as you use a slow and low approach monitoring them for any signs of unease. Using my tilting LCD and holding my camera low to the ground I managed a number of images in the morning sun. If my only aim had been to shoot at this spot it would have been an ideal situation to use my groundpod.

A little further up the stream there is more vegetation cover which creates darker backgrounds but the topography prevents extreme low angles. If you are lucky to catch the birds in the sunlight the dark background gives some nice water textures

A visit to Tāwharanui if worth it even if you’re not obsessed with birds as the walks and views are stunning. The birds add an extra element and the opportunity to photograph some of our rarer species is icing on the cake.

Photos with Nikon D850 and Nikon 500mm f5.6PF lens