Boat Harbour, Cooks River

Where are the boats? Long gone now. This small harbour was built for the Sea Scouts' use in the 1960s, but quickly silted up and was abandoned. When I first started biking up and down the Cooks River Cycleway, you'd see plenty of fishers on the harbour arms, eagerly awaiting their toxic catch. Waterbirds would congregate on those arms too, but move off quickly as the fishing folk arrived. The displaced waterbirds would settle on the floating litter boom, which quickly became crowded. Then somebody in Canterbury Council had a very good idea. Fence off one of the arms to create a Waterbird Sanctuary. Great for the birds, but what about the fishing fraternity? Well, those fishers with a death wish could still reel in their polluted tiddlers from the other arm. And that's exactly what happened. The sanctuary went ahead. Result? A great spot for counting waterbirds. Some on the boom, some on the fenced off harbour arm, and, at low tide, some patrolling the mudflats.

Great Egret on the harbour arm

Start counting. Not just thirty-three Little Black Cormorants (think Beggars Banquet) this time, but plenty of Australian Pelicans, Great Cormorants, Pied Cormorants, Little Pied Cormorants, White-faced Herons, Great Egrets, Little Egrets, Masked Lapwings, Dusky Moorhens, Eurasian Coots, Purple Swamphens, Pacific Black Ducks, Chestnut Teal and more.

Australian Pelican and Great Cormorant on the litter boom

Australian White Ibis just beyond the fence boundary of the Water Bird Sanctuary

White-faced Heron and Magpielark on the Water Bird Sanctuary fence

Masked Lapwings inside the Sanctuary

Little Pied Cormorant

Litter boom holding back as much of the plastic tide as it can