Monday was a glorious day, blue skies and no wind.  I decided to have my daily exercise down at the estuary at Monaco, just south of Nelson airport.  Luckily I took my camera.

white-faced heron + pied stilt

There was a single Royal Spoonbill feeding in the shallows:

Royal Spoonbill

It seemed to get along OK with the heron, in fact they were all feeding away quite happily. 

Royal Spoonbill, White-Faced Heron

The pied stilt was quite cute, and very focussed:

Finally, this collection of spotted shags were happily preening and drying their wings (at least until some fishermen came along to launch their boat).

Local Nelson Mail columnist Matt Lawry said recently that residents of Nelson have a tendency to be “smug”. The woman sitting quietly watching these birds from the shore said she certainly was smug, and proud of it. I guess when we get a string of days like this in mid-winter, often when the rest of the country is experiencing gales and snow, it’s easy to see why.