Tuesday, October 16, 2018

All Shagged Out While Feeding the Eels

Still wanting to be able to work up to a afternoon with the grandfolks I endeavoured to try more time out for a bit.  An opportunity presented itself when Mum dropped by some freshly caught snapper & kahawai, (from a celebratory work trip), two common NZ staple fish with strong distinct flavours.  Kahawai is more commonly smoked while snapper is used for the classic non battered fish & chips.  We were lucky with the portion of kahawai Mum shared with us already having been gutted & bled on the trip.  Which left the snapper to be gutted & filleted at home.

Tasty snapper, chilli lemon pesto and 'chips'
Hubby worked out a grand plan to crumb bite size pieces of kahawai with chana, (chickpea) flour, fresh sage and orange zest.  So post filleting he crumbed and fried the kahawai to eat that night, (as it normally does not keep well hence it is more often smoked).  While we could have some snapper in later days.  We kept the guts, skin etc to feed to the local longfin eels in the nearby creeks and ponds, (much like feeding the ducks except you are less likely to get bitten with eels).  Hubby prepared a lovely herb, lemon zest, ginger and chilli pesto to sit on top of the cooked snapper and we swapped chips for green long beans, (a cheaper & healthier option at the time).

View of one of the ponds, pink Chelsea factory, beach & sea from one of the estate's park areas
We waited for a good day to head out to some local ponds.  The ponds are right next to the coastline in the pink Chelsea sugar factory estate grounds.  Established in the 1880's with classic style houses (prior for some local workers but now rented privately), plenty of manicured garden & natural bush, walking tracks, beachfront and large ponds that are home to several wild species and some waterfowl & carp.  The grounds are open to the public but seeing more than 5 people in the area at a time is busy, (unless it is a shift start/end at the factory), and it is a lovely quiet park were locals can sneak off to eat lunch in peace away from crowds.  In the winding & wide estate there is always a quiet corner.  In this case there is a carpark right next to the pond so all I needed to do was stand and hold onto the car or sit on the hood, which I can maintain for a few minutes (with the trade off with energy later on).

We noticed the eel population had suffered recently from public interactions when we arrived.  I had heard people had illegally been killing them around the area, completely wiping some creeks out altogether (an action that carries a fine).  Where previously groups of large very curious eels, often decades old, (as some can live to over 100 years), would come up to greet newcomers to the ponds there were only a few small eels very scared and unsure of humans.  Probably a good attitude to have given the recent events.  We got the fish guts & tasty tibits out to feed the few there, hopefully they survive the other humans so they can get to the end of their lifetime to breed at least once before death.

We then got to feed some of the ducks including a very excitable muscovy duck which appeared to respond extremely well being called for oats.  Hubby would call to feed ducky some rye oats and when he ran out I would call to feed him some of mine.  This duck knew the deal and was attentive to our moves and which human had the food.  The other grey ducks hung back and waited for the muscovy to finish.  They probably had their fill from another earlier set of duck feeding public as we had come post the lunchtime, er rush.

See if you can spot all the visible shag nesting perches
I got to take photos of the local pied shag colony. In other countries other subspecies in the family are also known as cormorants.  The colony has around 30 pairs which gather & build a nesting colony in the trees on the other side of the pond to the factory.  They still get their sea views and often will fly out en masse, (even though in general the pied shag normally forages alone), before breaking off around the harbour to feed before coming back the the Chelsea estate to nest in the sheltered spot.  I remember it was so strange seeing them fly into the colony as a group, normally you might only see 1 or 2 out in the wharf & beaches by themselves.  They will be rather quiet compared to other birds but will often be sleeping, drying out after swimming & diving for fish and grooming.  However with a colony this large there is bound to be one or two birds calling, but less of a din than if the whole colony was battling to be heard.

They form monogamous breeding pairs and the colony will build up nests over time on the ground or in trees which they seem to share on a first come first nested basis.  I found a breeding pair which were grooming each other and sleeping together often on many days.  They stand out from the crowd a bit and you can see their back feathers are black their undersides are white, the skin in the front of the eye is yellow, the eye ring is blue and the base of the beak is a pink.  Whereas non breeding juveniles have lighter back feathers, more of a black brownish tone, they have some brown mottling on their undersides and there is more grey around their eyes than distinct colours.

Shags & cormorants have a more well known set of distinct postures.  Especially well known is the posture where shags are seen sitting on poles with their wings outspread to dry in the wind.  But there are also several distinct neck & body moves, (say pre-dive and pre-jump), and you can see the expansion of the head in one of the later photos.

All shagged out ourselves we headed back home to finish off the snapper for the night. Well worth the fishy treat. We were so lucky as it had been a couple years since we last had some at home. Hubby will remember the pesto & crumb recipe for later. Definitely a keeper.

I can't look at the rocket launch
The trophy wives of the astronauts
And I won't listen to their words
'Cause I like
Birds

I don't care for walkin' downtown
Crazy auto-car gonna mow me down
Look at all the people like cows in a herd
Well, I like
Birds

If you're small and on a search
I've got a feeder for you to perch on

I can't stand in line at the store
The mean little people are such a bore
But it's alright if you act like a turd
'Cause I like
Birds

If you're small and on a search
I've got a feeder for you to perch on

If you're small and on a search
I've got a feeder for you to perch on
I've got a feeder for you to perch on
If you're small and on a search
I've got a feeder for you to perch on
I've got a feeder for you to perch on

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