Thursday, August 26, 2010

Bittern foot print


Note- length of hind claw ( voice recorder is 10 cm in lenght)- so an impressive footprint. Found deep insidea raupo bed in the Lake Ellesmere region on 22 august 2010. So next time you are around any wetlands have a look for this type of print. Perhaps a useful way, at times, of monitoring the presence of bittern.

2 comments:

  1. We saw some like those in Okarito and thought they were pukeko. How do the two compare? Do you know how long a pukekos toes are? (Shorter, I'd guess). Alas, we didn't measure them so I can't say now if they were pukeko or bittern. It was right by a pond just over from the estuary beach, which had a lot of raupo and I heard frogs croaking in it.

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  2. Hi LK - Pukekos have a much shorter hind claw ( in proprtion to their front claw, and in overall size). I have a dead pukeko in my freezer so will measure foot dimensions and post as a comparison. I would be confident from the site details that the bird was most likely a bittern. Okarito Lagoon is a stronghold for the birds on the central section of the West Coast. Thanks for comment. If an open environment kotuku would need to be considered.
    Regards
    Peter

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