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The Manawatu estuary at Foxton beach is one of the best places in the lower North Island to see a variety of shore birds and waders. It's one of the places were our Arctic migrants can regularly be seen over summer including the bar tailed godwit, Pacific golden plover and lesser knots.The photos below are from a brief visit on my way down to Wellington at the end of March. All photos were taken with the new Nikor 500mm f5.6 PF lense fitted with a 1.4 teleconverter.A white fronted tern ( …

I was lucky enought to get some good photos of bar tailed godwit on our recent stay at the Manawatu estuary. Godwits are an amazing bird completing one of the most extraordinary migration patterns of any bird migrating from Alaska where they breed to New Zealand where they spend the summer restocking, building themselves up before returning to Alaska for the next breeding season.  They typically arrive here in September after an 8 to 9 day non stop flight and can be seen feeding in the …