Sunday Stills-Corners

To go to Omaha bird sanctuary, you go down this many corner bridge to the beach.

A trap to catch rodents before they eat the chicks and the birds. Reminds me of an old fashioned school desk.


A sea gull was sitting on top of this 4 cornered bird sign.

This is a million dollar sight, the Godwits fly from another corner of the world, from Siberia to visit us.

The shape of this trailor attracted me, Pete of the Surf school stores his sails and boards.
Surf sails have lots of corners, and they don't shape the sa,me.


I had a great day yesterday at Omaha beach, and the coastal engineer went to see the sea wall, and I found the birds. It was a fantastic sight. Not something you see everyday. I wrote to the Omaha Shorebird Protection Trust and they replied the same morning. I had watched on TV about the Godwits, and never in my imagination would I think I will see them, especially when it wasn't a planned journey.

Ka Pai and Paki Paki to these lovely people at the bird trust who answered me so quickly.

Hello Ann,

The birds in your photograph are bar-tailed godwits, or kuaka. They are easily identified by their very distinctive beaks, which are clearly visible in your photo. We have a very large group (perhaps 600-700) that roost on the spit at Omaha at high tide from late spring to early autumn. They feed on the mudflats of the Whangateau harbour at low tide and rest on the spit for a few hours each high tide. Although the birds look black against the sky in your photo, they are in fact speckled brown. Towards the end of summer the godwits begin to develop their breeding plumage of dark orangy-red. This is a sign that they are preparing for their long migration back to the Northern hemisphere where they breed. You can find out more about these birds on line, for example at the following address.

http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/kuaka.html

In some cities in NZ the godwits are formally welcomed back to NZ in spring. It would be nice to have a similar ceremony for our Omaha godwits. They are sight faithful, with the same birds returning to the same feeding grounds year after year.

Best wishes,
Marie Ward
OSPT shorebird monitor


Sunday Stills-Corners
Posted in Helpful Hints?, Sunday Stills, Sunday Stills Challenge of the Week on January 9, 2012 by Linda

This weeks challenge it to photograph corners…..corners on buildings, boards, streets…..just find yourself a corner and play with light and shadows.

http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/