Our Second Act- Tiny precious NZ Dotterels!!

This post is a long one because what you are going to see is truly remarkable and precious. Please enjoy when you have time to sit back and relax - I have tried my best to make this worth the extra time looking through this post.

Before we left for NZ I had read about the tiny New Zealand Dotterels. They are in the plover family and approximately the same size as our Piping Plovers. The NZ Dotterel, also known as the Red-breasted Plover, breeds only on beaches in New Zealand’s North Island - primarily on the east coast. I knew that Hawke’s Bay was one of the areas where we would have a chance, if we were really lucky, of seeing a Dotterel. By some estimates they are more rare to see than Kiwis because the population has so declined over the years. Thankfully there has been a huge conservation effort to try to help protect these precious little creatures and the North Island is seeing some nice success as the numbers are increasing but still have a long way to go in order to have a stable and thriving population. Just as an aside, Cape Cod has also thankfully seen numbers of the piping plover increase due to very intense conservation efforts.

I have tried for years to see baby piping plovers on the Cape. I have been fortunate enough to see and photograph adult piping plovers but have never had the privilege of seeing babies. Our piping plovers are 7 inches tall as adults (slightly bigger than a chickadee) and a fraction of that size as new borns. Full grown they weigh between 1 and 2 ounces. I have seen them sit on a nest - nest is being very generous. They nest on the sand in a slight indentation in the sand - like if you took out one scoop of sand with a tablespoon. Needless to say there are many reasons why the survival of plovers is so perilous.

I had arranged for a wonderful guide Amy to take Lorraine and I out in an ATV one afternoon at Hawke’s Bay. I wanted Lorraine to see the gannet colonies and for us to spend some time down on the beach at Hawke’s Bay exploring. I mentioned the possibility of seeing a NZ dotterel to Amy and she said she knew of an area where she has very occasionally spotted them - so off we went!

Come along with us as we relive our incredible afternoon adventure with you - we were out with Amy for over 5 hours! Luckily you won’t need 5 hours to look through these! :)

Amy and Lorraine checking out where we are heading to! Then they hopped in the ATV and I did too after I shot this of the two of them!

We hung on and up and over we went!! Believe me when I say our stomachs were doing flips - but what a thrill!

Now we are down on the beach looking back up at where we went just came down from…

As soon as we hopped out of the ATV I spotted these gorgeous Pied Stilts!

The Pied Stilts were quickly out of my line of vision and I then saw this spectacular Variable Oystercatcher! These are endemic to New Zealand…

And one more to my left!

Then Amy said let’s get back in the ATV and see if we can find some Dotterals…. We hopped in and she said- hang on we’re going on the beach! First, she scouted the beach ahead to make sure there were no birds etc or any kind of wildlife and off we went - what a blast!

Wow!! That was a thrill!! Nothing Lorraine and I have ever done before - well, then again, none of this has been!! We parked the ATV above the tide line and no sooner had we caught our breath when at the same time Lorraine and I spotted a Dotteral!! We pointed it out for Amy and she said - Yes, it is!! We quietly got out of the ATV and spread out well beyond where we had seen the Dotteral so that we wouldn’t disturb it…. We had lost sight of it when all of a sudden Lorraine whispered - there it is again! So I set up low behind some huge boulders on the beach and hoped I had picked the right spot to get some shots… well, I did!!!

Here is my first shot - this is an adult in breeding plumage!

And then a dream came true - we spotted a chick - between 24-48 hrs old!! A dream!!! There are no adjectives for just how precious these are!!

And then another chick!!!! Generally there are 2 eggs and they hatch approx. 24 hrs apart… So Amy’s best guess (which we totally agree with based on photos we have seen) - was that one of these was likely 24hrs old and the other 48 hrs old!! We struck gold!!