Fairy Tern Day
The fairy tern was the winner of Forest & Bird’s inaugural Seabird of the Year poll. One of the campaign managers for the fairy tern, Wade Doak, writes with his wife Jan about the day he saw two fairy tern taking advantage of the short distance between the west and east coasts of the North Island to feed off two low tides in quick succession.
As part of our series of Kaipara Harbour expeditions Wade and I decided to explore another area: Okahukura peninsula extending from Wellsford out to Tapora and Journey’s End. Port Albert was our first stop. We drove down to the jetty and a little bit further on we parked near a boat ramp and grassed area. I noticed through a gap in the small mangrove trees a big flock of pied stilts. I said to Wade: “‘I’m going to see what I can photograph through here.” Wade went over towards the jetty with his camera, where he got pix of white-fronted terns lined up on the jetty rail.
I was so thrilled to see such a large flock of pied stilts. I had to walk out through thick mud to get closer to them. Using a tripod for steadiness and a twelve times zoom lens I took many shots before they flew off in a large flock- not because I had disturbed them but because the tide was coming in fast and getting too deep for them.
I heard a great commotion behind me. Turning I saw a black-back gull harassing two smaller birds. They looked like white-fronted terns from a distance. The mother had just fed its juvenile something long and wriggly and the gull stole the fish off it. They were screaming and protesting very loudly. The terns flew up into the air and the adult swept around and landed in front of me about 12 feet away. As it landed I noticed the forked tail and the bird seemed quite small.
It crossed my mind it might be a fairy tern. I got very excited and started to take pix. One minute later the juvenile landed and I got pix of them both together. I took eight shots while the tide rose
round my ankles and was edging close to the birds.
When the juvenile arrived I though it looked rather like the white-fronted terns I had photographed on the flats at Pahi. So in my mind I thought these could not be fairy terns because they are so very rare and thought nothing more about it until four days later. Wade and I were sitting in bed going through our New Zealand bird book. I rushed down stairs, turned the computer on and began comparing my shots with the book. I definitely had fairy terns!!! It was Wade’s birthday and he was saying “what a lovely gift”.
Then, looking closer at the computer screen, Wade noticed that these birds had bands on their legs. The adult had two bands on her left leg: one blue and one grey. On her right leg was a single grey band. The juvenile had one band on each leg. Blue on the left and a much wider grey band on the right. We were so thrilled and excited to get such clear pictures of fairy terns from side and rear angles. Wade started to phone round different people to find out the significance of the bands and where they might have been released. Could the chick have been incubated at Auckland Zoo and returned to its mother on South Kaipara Head?
