We ran into a very knowledgeable birder in the parking lot at the Seal Colony area, and asked him where we might go to see and shoot some of the local birds. He suggested an area just down the road back toward town, indicating that with an incoming tide, the birds tended to congregate on the rocks. Well, we headed back there toward sunrise, and we got lucky - beautiful, mostly clear skies, with the setting sun behind us, and an incoming tide in front of us. While planning this NZ trip, I had really debated bringing the 600L with us, because of its huge size and weight, and I thought that I'd mostly be using the 100-400, but I am extremely glad I didn't leave it home. All together, I think I only used it on 3 occasions on this 3-week trip, but it was definitely worth the hassle and weight dragging it around with us to get the shots that I couldn't have gotten without it.

There were a number of Oystercatchers of different species than I'd seen before, and I had a blast photographing them. These are among my favorite birds anywhere. It's not as obvious as I would have hoped, but in the shot above, he is actually in mid-air, having just hopped off the rock behind him.