I’m on my way from Twizel to Wanaka, picking up little bird spots along the way. It’s a low grey day, with lances of sunlight every now and then. A meandering road down the length of one of the many canals peters out into a rocky delta at the edge of Lake Benmore. As usual, I’m completely alone. The morning is chill and quiet, but I can hear birds all around, in the willows lining the river, and out on the marsh, hiding amongst reeds and low islands of rock and grass.

Wandering around reveals a single young speckly kakī hanging out with a bunch of poaka – pied stilts. Large black shags are drying their wings on a rock bank in the distance. Spur-wing plovers screech overhead, their rattling cry disrupting an otherwise quiet scene. In the trees redpolls and dunnocks chirrup and buzz, and the occasional trilling song of a riroriro – grey warbler cuts through the bare yellow willow branches.

I’m wandering back to the car when I hear a characteristic peeping. It’s sporadic and I struggle to locate its source. The reason is that tuturiwhatu – banded dotterels, are very well camouflaged in the gravelly ground. There are two grumpy males chasing each other around, displaying their rusty breast-bands and calling.

After a few shots from afar I duck down and knee-crawl towards the action. These two are preoccupied with each other, but I still don’t want to disturb them in any way. At the 30 meter mark I lie down and wait. Often in wildlife photography, if you’re unobtrusive and patient enough, the action will come to you. And because these two are busy fighting over this little territory, they zip around and past where I’m lying, completely ignoring me.

I flatten myself completely into the stones. The lower I get, the better the foreground and background of the images is. The blue of the hills in the background melts into tan grasses that blur into a creamy foreground. It’s a struggle to get sharp birds in blurry grasses as they dart around, constantly moving. I seem to spend a lot of this birdventure lying down…

They get closer and closer, eyeing me up occasionally, but always distracted by one another. It’s such a nice moment to share with these two birds, watching them frantically trying to establish their territory for the breeding season. It’s still winter but spring is approaching rapidly, and all the birds are preparing to start raising young.

Eventually they get themselves in such a flurry that both of them fly in a rapid zig-zag chase down towards the delta, peeping wildly. They look so serious. I guess it is serious business for them, every year. The fight to establish a territory, find a mate, raise young. Keeping away from invasive mammals that think you and your eggs are a tasty snack. It’s a tough life being a bird.