Previous photos of fairy terns have come at great cost - a trip to north Auckland, a 5 km walk along a beach, only to find a bird who favoured us with his presence for 30 seconds. That all changed yesterday at Foxton where a fairy tern had been reported the day before. A female bird, about 18 months old, (according to the bands she wore) put on a great display and genuinely seems pleased to see us! With a slow low approach we were able to get within three metres, that gave us great pictures of a bird so small. She was in the company of a little tern, and a good number of white-fronted tern. With only about 40 birds living (NZ sub-species), the chance of seeing one down this way is very very small, a truly rare rare bird.
