Shoal Bay

Shoal Bay
By Celia Walker

Shoal Bay, on the inner Waitemata, is the muddier side of the Devonport peninsula, without the sun-soaked beaches that tend to be the focal point – but to birdwatchers it is a much more exciting place. The constant flux of temporary avian visitors doesn’t come close to the wing-to-wing jostling of Miranda, but in rarity and diversity the arrivals at this essentially urban area can be impressive, with wrybills, spoonbills, godwits, dotterels and stilts making regular appearances.

The many official ecological designations are owing to the rare shell bank formations and tidal flats that provide feeding and roosting habitat for these threatened shorebird species. Although few birds are bold enough to nest in this area, each year a few pairs of endangered New Zealand dotterels try their best to fledge chicks. These vulnerable birds have a habit of nesting in insecure locations around the whole expanse of Shoal Bay, including unlikely locations such as the edge of the Northern Motorway, the Warehouse carpark near the Esmonde Road offramp, as well as the shell banks on the Bayswater side that are subject to storm and king tide inundation as well as predation. Dotterel chicks are basically tiny balls of fluff that are vulnerable to rats, cats and even other birds, recent trapping and baiting programmes are helping increase chances of success.

The more transitory migrants that visit the area are what really make it special though, birds that make the most of the tidal mudflats to fatten up. The most far-flung visitors are the godwits – those long-haul travellers that journey to Alaska and back every year, disregarding restrictions of weather that might see our own journeys grounded. The other quirky traveller that sometimes appears is the wrybill, taking an annual winter holiday from its breeding grounds on the braided riverbeds of the South Island. Various places along the walkway are good birdwatching spots, including the far end of the Bayswater peninsula at Beresford Street, and along the stretch that leads around from the end of Kawerau Ave.

Rejuvenation of the footbridge from the cemetery over the estuary a few years ago has made it an easy walk to link up with the end of Northboro Reserve (which has an excellent slide at the playground), and cutting up one of the side tracks leads up to the end of Eversleigh Road, passing through the current no-mans-land of redevelopment and infill housing construction will get you the enticements of Little and Friday, a brisk walk might justify a cream doughnut. This not quite so little anymore café started as a one day a week operation (hence Friday), and has expanded to 3 locations across Auckland and a small empire of baking related goodness. Although operating in what seems like the middle of bland suburban nowhere in a block of neglected shops, this is now ‘the mothership’, where all their baked goods are made.

Part of the green route, this walking/cycling route meanders along the eastern edge of the length of the Devonport peninsula, hugging the coast most of the time and avoiding major roads.

Image Credits: Celia Walker