New Zealand February - June 2015, Waikanae Estuary

After visiting Kapiti Island, it seemed to me like a good idea to combine the visit to the island with a short visit to the Waikanae estuary. It is located a couple of km to the north of Paraparaumu and I figured we could walk there. The area struck me as interesting as I found some old sightings of Banded Dotterel, Wrybill and Shore plover (probably stray individuals from the Mana Island reintroduction project) from this area.

The walk from the Paraparaumu boat club was much longer than anticipated and it was rather hot. As we arrived on the southern part of the estuary we checked out the sand bars and observed some White-headed Stilts, Variable Oystercatchers and White-faced Herons, next to the ever present Kelp and Red-billed Gulls. We could also see some Fluttering Shearwaters flying over the ocean. We entered the Scientific Reserve and followed the tracks, but did not see that many birds, but some Pukeko (Purple Swamphen) were entertaining. Once we reached the Waikanae River we saw that the northern side of the estuary looked more promising and so we went further inland to find a bridge to cross the river. On the Northern Side of the estuary we observed some interesting species like Royal Spoonbill, Paradise Shelduck, Australian Shoveler, Grey Teal, New Zealand Scaup and White-headed Stilt. However, I somehow imagined it to be a more interesting birding site.

White-headed Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus)

I would not recommend to go all the way here from Wellington, even though it is easily accessible, nor would I recommend to combine a visit to Kapiti Island with this site. The birds and the area were simply not that interesting. Manu Watu estuary sounds like a much more interesting place and might be a better guess when you want to see some shore and wetland birds in the south of the North island.