Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

I was having my lunch when I noticed a Royal Spoonbill working its way along the Heathcote river (the estuary). They are such comical looking birds and very methodical in the way they scoop along the edges of the river for their lunch. I’ve seen large flocks of Spoonbills in the same spot, but today there was just this lone bird going about its business.

After spending a bit of time taking photos of the Spoonbill, my attention was drawn by the seagulls that were flying around – there were quite a few of them and they seemed very active – swooping in an out of the estuary.

A shag – they feed on the eels in the estuary. I’ve watched several shags have an epic battle over an eel before. They will actually grab each other around the necks with their bills and force the eel out of each other’s throats, snatching it away – this can happen over and over again until the final victor wins.

I’ve become quite fascinated with sea gulls – they are fantastic to photograph as they are so common you can get a lot of practice in!