In September I flew to Dunedin to join Edin on the northward leg of her #birdventurenz. We spent a couple of days on the Otago Peninsula before heading north to Kaikoura and then across Cook Strait for home. I have a lot of images to work through but jumped ahead to the Hoary-headed Grebe we were lucky to see just south of Blenheim. We had got a tip from a friend in Kaikoura that a pair were on Lake Elterwater and the time was perfect for us to stop with the last light of the day. We saw  plenty of Shovellers, Grey Teal and a Great Crested Grebe. The excitement was seeing a New Zealand Dabchick which is rare in the South Island and were about to give up when Edin spotted the pair of Hoary-headed Grebe sneaking in amongst some flooded trees. 

Photography options at Lake Elterwater are very limited with the only easy access being a small viewing platform with close railings that prevent a good low shooting angle. Light direction is perfect for the end of the day and the Hoary-headed Grebe gave a great performance swimming across right in front of us in the warm light before turning back and giving us another opportunity. The icing on the cake was when one began calling and I managed some shots of what is a relatively unusual behaviour as they are generally quiet birds.

My reason for processing up theses file was to submit to nzbirdsonline as Hoary-headed Grebe are unusual in New Zealand. These were the first of the species that I have seen here. My only other images have been taken in Australia and the nzbirdsonline images were largely of Australian birds so I was keen to add some local photos to the archive.

For more information on these rare vagrants see the Hoary-headed Grebe page on nzbirdsonline which now features these images.

Photos with Nikon D500 and Nikon 500mm f4 VR with TC14 teleconverter.