During a recent trip to Golden Bay, instead of magical sunrises and sunsets the dull overcast weather forced us to look for other subjects. There were plenty.
The rain eased off early on our first morning so I walked a 100 m or so to the estuary where I found a damp shag:
and some Royal Spoonbills feeding.
(That picture doesn’t look as if it was taken not long after sunrise on a dull, drizzly morning. Thanks to modern digital cameras, happy shooting at ISO 4000, and to the wonders of Lightroom!) Here’s another when it should have been too dark for a ‘bird-in-flight’ shot:
The next day we found a spot (Milnthorp Quay, at the entrance to Parapara Inlet) which gave us a good view of a favourite spoonbill hangout.
Lots of other birds there too. Pied oystercatchers (hundreds of them):
A kingfisher didn’t hang around long at one of his fishing spots, once he saw we were interested in him:
