{"id":9233,"date":"2018-08-26T09:15:23","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T21:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=9233"},"modified":"2018-08-26T09:15:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T21:15:23","slug":"spotted-shags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233","title":{"rendered":"Spotted Shags"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spotted<\/a>
Spotted Shag in non-breeding plumage. As this bird matures into breeding colours the facial skin turns green, the black and white on head and neck become more obvious and two crests develop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spotted Shags were another subject I hoped to photograph during our trip to the southern South Island and I was pleased to find a group of mainly young birds on the rocks at Kaka Point. There are small colonies in the north and I occasionally see them on the Coromandel Peninsula but they are a lot more common in the South Island. Worldwide there are 36 species of Shag (or Cormorant) and of these New Zealand is home to 12 so is a world hot spot for this interesting group of birds. <\/p>\n

A recent internet-free holiday gave me the opportunity to read The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson<\/a>. The chapter on Cormorant and Shag highlighted how they have suffered prejudice as “the most evil bird in English literature”. I had never really been aware of this and have always been quite fond of Cormorants with my first childhood memory of them being in relation to the Chinese fisherman<\/a> that use their Cormorants to catch fish. To a child enthralled by birds and obsessed with fishing this seemed like an idyllic career option. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Spotted Shag dorsal view showing the black spots on grey wing coverts from which the name derives. The front crest is visible with a few fibres from the second posterior crest beginning to show.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shags comfortably live on both sides of the air\/water interface moving in both media with ease. To achieve this they have unique plumage  (that they share with their close relative, the Darter) that has looser edges and soaks up water rather than remaining waterproof. This reduces air trapping which would cause too much buoyancy for their shallow hunting habits. The drawback to this approach is that they need to sit and dry their wings after hunting. Seeing them sitting on rock with outstretched wings facing to the sun is a typical pose.<\/p>\n

\"Spotted<\/a>
Spotted Shag startled by a wave crashing on the rock and throwing up a wall of spray<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Zealand Shags are loosely divided into 3 groups by foot colour. Black- footed, pink-footed and yellow-footed. Spotted Shags and Pitt Island Shags make up the yellow-footed group. As can be seen from the photos this is quite an obvious and useful identifying feature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pied Shag, one of the blacked-footed shags, in typical plumage drying pose. Mount Maunganui.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Spotted Shags here are in non-breeding plumage and develop more dramatic colouring with green facial skin, more defined plumage colours and double crests when breeding. I am hoping to find some in breeding plumage during an upcoming spring trip to the South Island.<\/p>\n

\"Juvenile<\/a>
Juvenile Spotted Shag coming in to land<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For more information on New Zealand Shags see Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand<\/a> and for more on Spotted Shags with images in breeding colours see   NZBirdsOnline<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos with Nikon D500 and Nikon 500mm f4VR lens with TC14 teleconverter, except Pied Shag with 300mm f4PF lens + TC14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spotted Shags were another subject I hoped to photograph during our trip to the southern South Island and I was pleased to find a group of mainly young birds on the rocks at Kaka Point. There are small colonies in the north and I occasionally see them on the Coromandel Peninsula but they are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,29],"tags":[26,25,473,461,144,218,194,190,153,472,474],"class_list":["post-9233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-new-zealand","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds","tag-cormorant","tag-endemic-bird","tag-new-zealand","tag-nikon-d500","tag-photo","tag-photography","tag-seabird","tag-shag","tag-spotted-shag","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nSpotted Shags - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spotted Shags - WildLight Photography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spotted Shags were another subject I hoped to photograph during our trip to the southern South Island and I was pleased to find a group of mainly young birds on the rocks at Kaka Point. There are small colonies in the north and I occasionally see them on the Coromandel Peninsula but they are a […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WildLight Photography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-25T21:15:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tony\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tony\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"tony\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5cf44f50ed633ae6f6256fd8d79241f0\"},\"headline\":\"Spotted Shags\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-25T21:15:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233\"},\"wordCount\":559,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"bird photography\",\"birds\",\"cormorant\",\"endemic bird\",\"New Zealand\",\"Nikon D500\",\"photo\",\"photography\",\"seabird\",\"shag\",\"spotted shag\"],\"articleSection\":[\"birds\",\"New Zealand\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233\",\"name\":\"Spotted Shags - WildLight Photography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-25T21:15:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5cf44f50ed633ae6f6256fd8d79241f0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1\",\"width\":960,\"height\":640,\"caption\":\"Spotted Shag in non-breeidng plumage. As this bird matures into breeding colours the facial skin turns green, the black and white on head and neck become more obvious and two crests develop\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/archives\\\/9233#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Spotted Shags\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/\",\"name\":\"WildLight Photography\",\"description\":\"Nature Photography by Tony Whitehead\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tonywhitehead.com\\\/wildlight\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5cf44f50ed633ae6f6256fd8d79241f0\",\"name\":\"tony\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/fcc09a0c3018fb7aab77c8bc477d9f59884f7573178b1a329fb88b10779b4f62?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/fcc09a0c3018fb7aab77c8bc477d9f59884f7573178b1a329fb88b10779b4f62?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/fcc09a0c3018fb7aab77c8bc477d9f59884f7573178b1a329fb88b10779b4f62?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tony\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spotted Shags - WildLight Photography","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spotted Shags - WildLight Photography","og_description":"Spotted Shags were another subject I hoped to photograph during our trip to the southern South Island and I was pleased to find a group of mainly young birds on the rocks at Kaka Point. There are small colonies in the north and I occasionally see them on the Coromandel Peninsula but they are a […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233","og_site_name":"WildLight Photography","article_published_time":"2018-08-25T21:15:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"tony","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tony","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233"},"author":{"name":"tony","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/#\/schema\/person\/5cf44f50ed633ae6f6256fd8d79241f0"},"headline":"Spotted Shags","datePublished":"2018-08-25T21:15:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233"},"wordCount":559,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","keywords":["bird photography","birds","cormorant","endemic bird","New Zealand","Nikon D500","photo","photography","seabird","shag","spotted shag"],"articleSection":["birds","New Zealand"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233","url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233","name":"Spotted Shags - WildLight Photography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","datePublished":"2018-08-25T21:15:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/#\/schema\/person\/5cf44f50ed633ae6f6256fd8d79241f0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","width":960,"height":640,"caption":"Spotted Shag in non-breeidng plumage. As this bird matures into breeding colours the facial skin turns green, the black and white on head and neck become more obvious and two crests develop"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/9233#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spotted Shags"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/","name":"WildLight Photography","description":"Nature Photography by Tony Whitehead","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/#\/schema\/person\/5cf44f50ed633ae6f6256fd8d79241f0","name":"tony","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fcc09a0c3018fb7aab77c8bc477d9f59884f7573178b1a329fb88b10779b4f62?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fcc09a0c3018fb7aab77c8bc477d9f59884f7573178b1a329fb88b10779b4f62?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fcc09a0c3018fb7aab77c8bc477d9f59884f7573178b1a329fb88b10779b4f62?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"tony"}}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/SpottedShag_DSC5679-2-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3ThZJ-2oV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5940,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/5940","url_meta":{"origin":9233,"position":0},"title":"Enderby Island hike – East shore","author":"tony","date":"March 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Leaving our lunch spot at Derry Castle Reef we continued our Enderby Island hike by turning south and moving down the eastern shore. Being more sheltered from the wind the vegetation became taller with tussock rising from calf to waist and chest height, dracophyllum and Macquarie Island Cabbage becoming common\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/SouthernRata_D819422-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/SouthernRata_D819422-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/SouthernRata_D819422-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/SouthernRata_D819422-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13911,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/13911","url_meta":{"origin":9233,"position":1},"title":"Hauraki Gulf Spotted Shags","author":"tony","date":"March 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographing Hauraki Gulf Spotted Shags on the western Coromandel","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of a Spotted Shag in flight","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/HaurakiSpottedShag-D85_4381-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/HaurakiSpottedShag-D85_4381-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/HaurakiSpottedShag-D85_4381-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/HaurakiSpottedShag-D85_4381-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17846,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/17846","url_meta":{"origin":9233,"position":2},"title":"Spotted Shags in the Hauraki Gulf – GPS tracking","author":"tony","date":"April 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"GPS tracking reveals interesting and distressing data about individuals of this threatened species of seabirds.","rel":"","context":"In "biology"","block_context":{"text":"biology","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/biology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Hauraki Gulf Spotted Shag\/Kawau tikitiki with GPS backpack","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SpottedShagGPS-20231109-NZ9_0940-NEF_DxO-6x4logo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SpottedShagGPS-20231109-NZ9_0940-NEF_DxO-6x4logo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SpottedShagGPS-20231109-NZ9_0940-NEF_DxO-6x4logo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SpottedShagGPS-20231109-NZ9_0940-NEF_DxO-6x4logo.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11899,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/11899","url_meta":{"origin":9233,"position":3},"title":"Campbell Island Shag","author":"tony","date":"March 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographing Campbell Island Shags in Perseverance Harbour. Another endemic bird found only in this remote location.","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"photo showing a Campbell Island Shag resting in some driving light rain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/CampbellShag-D85_5851-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/CampbellShag-D85_5851-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/CampbellShag-D85_5851-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/CampbellShag-D85_5851-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2187,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/2187","url_meta":{"origin":9233,"position":4},"title":"Beagle Channel","author":"tony","date":"March 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An early morning wake-up call had\u00a0us breakfasted, bussed to Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery \u00a0and onboard our 4 hour flight en route to Ushuaia before the heat of the Buenos Aires day had set in. Finally, it seemed, our Antarctic adventure was really under way. From the window we looked down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antarctica"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/BeagleChannel_D810745-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/BeagleChannel_D810745-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/BeagleChannel_D810745-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/BeagleChannel_D810745-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2525,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/2525","url_meta":{"origin":9233,"position":5},"title":"Akaroa Harbour","author":"tony","date":"July 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For the next few weeks we are going to have a short break from the Antarctica travelogue and posts are going to be devoted to the South Island trip we did over Easter 2015. There is even an Antarctic link with this first post as Akaroa was home to Frank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/White-cappedMollymawk_D810779-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/White-cappedMollymawk_D810779-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/White-cappedMollymawk_D810779-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/White-cappedMollymawk_D810779-web.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}