Crazy ducks! They were quite high up in this tree by the Avon River near Barbadoes Street. They seemed quite happy up there and not too worried by me taking their photos. The one with the white head is the female. Guess the view up there was pretty good!
You can learn more about Paradise Ducks at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Shelduck
I went down to the pond at Ferrymead Park to photograph the paradise ducks and ducklings. Turns out the pair of ducks on that pond are down to just one duckling. They are guarding it pretty closely. Fingers crossed it makes it to adult hood. The ducks were understandably a little shy and ignored the bread I’d left out for them, however the seagull was very happy to swoop in and out with it.
These two ducks provided us with quite a bit of entertainment this afternoon. They were hanging out at the cafe on Worcester Boulevard (opposite the Arts Centre). They happily wander under the tables waiting for food to be dropped for them, and drank out of both of the dog water bowls located at the entrance to the cafe. We watched as the female duck tried to get every last morsel off a muffin case and then not satisfied with that, dipped it in the water bowl and swallowed it whole. Looked like she’d done that before!
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This is one of the white ducks that lives on the canal that runs along Humphreys Drive by Charlesworth Reserve. The ducks are very well fed – in the 10 or so minutes I was photographing them at least two groups of people stopped to feed them from the bridge that goes over the canal.
As for the Pukeko, I was trying to get a close up, but it wasn’t too keen about this photo opportunity and kept taking off. So instead I got this mid flight shot of it which I was quite happy with as it sort of shows just how awkward these birds are when they fly!
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We went out to Rangiora today and on the way back took a drive around the new Waitikiri subdivision. It’s still a lot of vacant lots waiting for houses to be built but there is a big pond with plenty of resident ducks. They are obviously used to being fed as when we approached they can eagerly swimming from all corners of the pond over to where we were. There was a lot of green algae on the pond which parted as they swam through and was also providing a tasty snack too.
Michelle is back tomorrow so that’s me over and out. You can see more from me on my website www.kapcha.co.nz or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kapchatheworld – Bye for now – Katherine
