So who is this weirdo?

Hi! My name is Liam and I am a beginner birder living in Glen Massey. I first became interested in birds after a 6-month missions trip to Papua New Guinea in 2016, and my interest grew from there! I am now a member of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Young Birders New Zealand (OSNZ and YBNZ respectively ). So now, I'm starting this blog so I can share my birding adventures with anyone who will listen ☺.

Thursday 11 January 2018

First 10 days of the year - wrap up.

As I am a lazy and apathetic teenager, I thought that instead of documenting each of my birding adventures (if you can call them that!) this month, I would instead summarize each day in a few sentences as I begin my year-long quest to see as many birds as I possibly can in a calendar year. 90% of you will probably be fairly relieved to have a break from my clumsy pseudo-journalism, and the other person won't mind too much either. So, here we go:

1st January - After New Years celebrations, I escaped the house and sat in the garden for a few minutes until a Morepork called. The next morning, I ticked the common garden birds including Shining Cuckoo and Ring-necked Pheasant. In the afternoon I made it out to Hamilton Lake, where I got both geese, Spotted Dove, all the black-footed shags (Black, Pied, Little, Little Black), any easy birds I had missed that morning, and all the regular lake birds (Mallard, Coot, Pukeko, Feral Pigeon etc).

2nd January - Went to Kauaeranga Valley in Coromandel Forest Park with the family, getting NZ Pigeon (Kereru), Tomtit and Yellowhammer, as well as Kelp Gull in Thames.

From the 3rd to the 7th I had the awesome privilege of leading at a holiday camp in Ngaruawahia, so needless to say that nothing interesting birdwise went on.

8th January - Popped over to Pukemokemoke Bush Reserve, where California Quail was the only new one for the year.

9th January - Got up at an ungodly hour to go to Mt Pirongia, where many many Riflemen flitted around me, along with a Kaka, Whiteheads, and a Bellbird. Sadly I dipped on Falcon, Yellow-crowned Parakeet, Long-tailed Cuckoo and Kokako, but hey, that's the name of the blog.

10th January - Taitua Arboretum in the morning yielded exactly zero Guineafowl, however afternoon birding at Ngaruawahia Wastewater Treatment Plant got me Black Swan, Paradise Shelduck, Australian Shoveler, Grey Teal, Dabchick, Caspian Tern,  and finally, finally, FINALLY Spur-winged Plover.

In 10 days time hopefully I will get off my butt and write some more, and until then, enjoy your holidays!

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