________________________ SPRING IS SPRUNG ________________________

 Nest to the north of the jetty

'Spring is sprung, the grass is rizz, I wonder where the birdies is ? .......'

....... which is how the doggerel goes ............. and Christine answered the question when she came back from her walk at the Whangarei 'Loop Walk' to tell me about some beautiful little birds nesting on some old piles close to a jetty that juts out into the river from the walking path. There were three birds nesting on three different piles in the river, the closet bird defending her nest with loud squawks when I came too close. 

"The New Zealand fairy tern or tara-iti is a subspecies of the fairy tern endemic to New Zealand. It is New Zealand's rarest native breeding bird, with about 40 individuals left in the wild. It nests at four coastal locations between Whangarei and Auckland in the North Island."

Nest to the south of the jetty - (Te Matau ā Pohe - The Whangarei lifting bridge in the background)

Nest to the north of the jetty with the Hatea river in the background.