The work camera was grabbed this morning when a very rare Kotuku, White Heron, was seen in a car park in Porirua.
This website: gives you a lot more detail about this very special visitor.
Perhaps it was en route to Okarito, the only place in New Zealand where these birds breed. The breeding season begins in August.
Maori (New Zealand’s indigenous people) have this saying:
He Kotuku rerenga tahi.
A Kotuku’s flight is seen but once.
And this paragraph off the above website describes beautifully how exceptional this lovely, lovely bird is to us.
“In Maori oratory, the most telling compliment is to liken someone to Kotuku. It symbolizes everything rare and beautiful. It was said that Kotuku is an inhabitant of the nether world, the spirit land of Reinga, and that an old funeral chant ends with these words to the departed: “Ko to kotuku to tapui, e Tama e – Kotuku is now thy sole companion, O my son!”
So seldom does Kotuku appear in any locality that “rare as the Kotuku” has passed into a proverb among Maori.”
And this sunset completed a lovely day, which had offered a significant event.
ordinarygoodness 