Virginia Lake Birds with Dad

I'm sure you are tired of reading that I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, but it continues to be true. This week was very busy, full of lots of different responsibilities and early mornings, so blogging never quite got to the top of the list. But here I am.

As you might remember, there is a lake in Whanganui called Virginia Lake, and it is very beautiful. I took Dad there in the hopes that we would be able to see a pūkeko, because they are my favourite Kiwi bird so far, and I managed to see one when I went with Kirsten back in October. Little did I know what avian adventures would find us this time!

There were so many birds! I have just posted an excerpt, but I think I got the exciting ones. I apologize in advance - I am not knowledgeable about birds in any part of the world, and certainly not in NZ. I have tried to find out what kind of birds these are, but I may be wrong!

I believe that this is the biggest goose I have ever seen! Fortunately, they seemed comfortable with people, because Dad and I agreed that we would not want to get in a fight with one!

A Cormorant, a.k.a. Shag, a.k.a Kawau drying its wings.

 Front view. Funny, for a bird that lives and fishes in the water, its feathers do not look like they appreciated getting wet. It would be exhausting to hold your wings like that!

A coot, out on land investigating a seed that I dropped. They float in the water like ducks, usually. Notice its feet - not webbed like a duck's but waves of flat "fins" sticking out from each toe, and a very pretty blue. Also, it's a bit hard to tell in the picture, but they have bright red eyes that are quite startling and very beautiful!

I'm not sure, but I think there are some cormorants/shags/kawaus on these branches, as well as one that I just don't know what it is...

This is zoomed in on the bird to the far left of the picture above - anyone know what it is? When we saw it, Dad and I both thought that its beak looked like a pelican, but it's hard to tell that in this picture.

Black swans. I had never noticed the beautiful waves in their feathers that make them look ruffled before! I was embarrassed to find that I wanted to compare them to potato chips - sorry, swans!

Okay, you get three pictures of pūkekos for three reasons...

#1 - They are my favourite Kiwi bird.

#2 - We saw about 15 of them, including one time when they had us surrounded!

#3 - As we were admiring their extremely long toes, Dad said, "I bet with those feet, they could walk on water lilies!" I scoffed and said I couldn't imagine that they were light enough for that. Then we rounded a corner and came upon a stunning little lake covered in water lilies with... you guessed it... a pūkeko walking right across them! WOW!!!!!! It was worth being wrong just to be that impressed and to see how beautiful it was walking on the lovely lilies.

Last, but not least, we stopped and had lunch by the water and shared some with the ducks. This one made friends with Dad, even jumping up (like this) to grab the food before anyone else could. (Also, I'm very proud of this action shot.)

After a while feeding the duck, the geese decided that they needed to get in on this action. They came as a whole group, jumping out of the water and sending the ducks scurrying, until there were only geese. This particular goose leaned right up against me, and would have taken food out of my lap if I had let it.

Unfortunately, we learned later that you are not supposed to feed the birds. Oops. At least it was an innocent mistake!