המועדפים של shona_t

Totally stoked to spot this little beauty as I was wandering back home.

It was grazing on common coraline out of the water in the mid intertidal zone. After a couple of photos that had big drips on them I moved it into the water on the common coraline so I could get better photos. Once it realised that it was safe, it carried on grazing.

Amazing day today - 3 different nudibranch species :)

Yesterday Liverwort was just a "word" to me. I knew it was a plant
Courtesy to info from a couple of kind people I had seen one and had some info in the brain by lunchtime.
Thanks :)
Thanks to Google today I now understand even more about these cool little plants.
If your interested in learning more Wiki was the best source of quick info.

This little group of thallose Liverworts were growing in a pot with a young Harakeke that got liberated this morning and is now finding it's place in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchantiophyta

Edit: 2 new images added May 20

@jacqui-nz highlighted for me these that were found down on the west coast at Karekare and wondered if they had been spotted at Otaipango - Henderson Bay. Seeing as these were spotted on the west coast I figured that the best place to find these were the Tohe - 90 Mile Beach and as I was going there that day, I kept an eye out for them and found them.

The photos that I have taken are mainly of ones still alive. I choose these photos as they highlight different parts of the animal - although somewhat blurry.

They are under 10mm in diameter, usually around 5 - 7mm. I also observed them swimming by closing the bottom and opening it, similar to how a jellyfish swims.

As we do not have an ID yet for this obs with it being a true jellyfish or maybe a Hydrozoa decided to go with Cnidarians initially as that encompases both Hydrozoa and Scyphozoa.

So here are a few more photos @clinton that may help with an ID or a difinitive class, if these in fact are the same that @jacqui-nz highlighted for me :)

Last photo (have to click the view all) shows them as blobs on the beach.

The location name is not accurate - Reason

Senecio elegans
Not Michaelmas Daisy (Aster novae-angliase)
Trial - looking for a way to quickly find a collection of observations again List and Journal not do.

fish http://naturewatch.org.nz/taxa/55535-Sardinops-sagax
pig's ear http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/945996

Found lots of these washed up on the beach at low tide this morning , some inside the cases along with plenty of empty cases. Look like mini transparent lobsters

I also made a short video on Youtube here https://youtu.be/ikoJm2_YtFI

Or Epiactis thompsoni I think (yes I do realise the 'horn' is not part of the anemone ;-).

Three different specimens found in wide shallow area, not quite a rock pool as it wasn't cut off from the sea at low tide.

Self introduced from Australia to Southland in the 1930’s the Spur-winged Plover is now found throughout New Zealand in open country pastures, wetland margins and estuaries.
This noisy large plover has a black crown, hind neck and shoulders in front of the bend of the wing. The back and wings are brown with a dark trailing edge to the wings, the rump is white and the tail is tipped black. The under parts are white and the legs and feet are reddish. The bill is yellow and the bird has a yellow facial patch and prominent wattles. The call is a loud staccato rattle ‘kerr-kick-ki-ki-ki’.
The eat earthworms and insects and their larvae, crustaceans and molluscs and also seeds and leaves.
Breeding is between June and late November with the peak in August. Several clutches are laid each year. The nest is a scrape in the ground, unlined or scantily lined situated in rough open pasture, a flat wet area or on stony ground. The clutch of 1 – 4 khaki eggs with brownish, black blotches is incubated by both sexes for 30 31 days. The fledging period is 7 – 8 weeks.

Photographed soaring over the wetlands at Lake Ellesmere.
Harrier hawk or swamp harrier. A bird of the open country. It is often seen soaring and looking for prey, or eating dead rabbits or possums on the road. Also occurs in Australia, New Guinea and many islands of the southern Pacific. In New Zealand it is found from the Kermadec Islands in the far north, to the chilly subantarctic islands and the Chatham Islands.
Fossil records show that it came across the Tasman Sea from Australia, and became established in New Zealand less than 1000 years ago. At that time Eyles’s harrier (Circus eylesi), four times larger, was also present.
At 850 grams, fully grown females are 200 grams heavier than males. Both sexes are the same length, about 55 centimetres. The oldest known age for a harrier in New Zealand is 18 years.
Australasian harriers hunt in open country. After Europeans arrived in New Zealand and cleared land for farming, the birds’ numbers increased. They catch small birds and mammals up to the size of rabbits, as well as lizards, frogs, fish and large insects. They also eat carrion, including road kill and dead lambs. Since the 1950s, successful rabbit control has meant less food for harriers, and their numbers have fallen.
The harrier is an adept hunter when flying, as ornithologist Edgar F. Stead observed:
One day I watched a Harrier beating over a stubble field, when it flushed a Skylark, which flew away some distance and settled. The Harrier carefully marked the spot, and flew swift and low towards it; saw the Lark, and struck at it on the ground. The Lark dodged the blow, ducked out from beneath the Hawk, and settled again about two yards away; but the Hawk, with a rapidity of movement with which one could scarcely have credited it, rose and swept back on its victim and flew off with it in its talons.
I had a similar experience just recently, when driving past a field of winter brassica of some sort near Hakatere Conservation Park (an area known for its harriers and the native falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae). The brassica was mobbed with vast numbers of finches (I couldn’t work out what sort). Several harrier were hawking over the field driving the birds to ground where they were plunged upon. Of course some of the birds were scared into flight in dense mobs and I was amazed to see a very rare native falcon streak in at very high speed and take a bird mid-air from a mob, clearly taking advantage of the confusion and panic created by the slower flying harriers.
When looking for food, harriers hold their large straight wings in a shallow V to soar on thermal winds, circling effortlessly until they dive for prey. In their courtship ritual, the male performs steep dives and loops, and the female turns on her back in mid-air to greet him.
The breeding season starts in June, when males establish territories of several square kilometres. Females build nests in tall grass-like plants such as toetoe. They usually lay three to five off-white eggs between September and December. The male does not feed the chicks, but delivers food to his mate while both are flying. Chicks are able to leave the nest at 45 days.
Māori knew older harriers as kāhu-kōrako, a reference to their pale feathers. As harriers grow older, they lose the dark plumage of youth, and some very old birds appear almost grey.
To Māori, the harrier was a symbol of victory and chieftainship.

New Zealand's largest raptor, this kahu (also known as hawk or swamp harrier) was photographed feasting on a significant find for a winter meal, the dead body of a Canada goose. The goose was almost certainly not killed by the kahu, instead it was probably shot, as it is a game bird, and has not been retrieved. But it was a huge bonus for the beautiful harrier and will probably keep the raptor in winter feed for several days.

Riroriro - grey warbler - Gerygone igata
A species of insectivorous bird in the Acanthizidae family endemic to New Zealand. Its natural habitat is temperate forests.

Weighing about 6.5 grams this 11 cm long bird is grey-brown (tending to olive green tint) above and has a pale grey face, throat and breast and has an off white abdomen, tinged with yellow. The tail is white underneath and dark brown on top with white tips visible in flight, it also has a distinctive ruby-red eye. The female has similar plumage but is smaller in size. The young are paler with no hint of yellow and have brown eyes. The male's song often starts with a series of three squeaks and builds into a distinctive long plaintive wavering trill that rises and falls. They sing throughout the year but most vigorously, when nesting, during spring. More commonly heard than seen.

Common throughout New Zealand main islands and many off-shore islands, absent from open country and alpine areas. At home in native and exotic forests it may be found almost anywhere there is some tree or shrub cover.
Riroriro are the only host to shining cuckoo on the New Zealand mainland. First clutches often escape parasitism because they are laid before cuckoos arrive, but often shining cuckoos replace an egg in the second clutch with one of their own and, eventually, the bigger and faster growing cuckoo chick expels all other eggs or chicks.

Myliobatis tenuicaudatus - nz eagle ray. Often see eagle rays in the shallows around Tiri. They are often found around the jetty which gives you a great view of them. They are often dug into the sand or mud but sometimes you see them swimming, which is amazing.
They eat things like oysters, worms and hermit crabs and in their turn are eaten by orca.

The Hauraki Gulf is one of the best spots around new zealand to find sardines or pilchards (mohimohi in maori). One of the fave foods of whale, dolphins and gannets. Here you can see the fish leaping out of the water trying to escape the dolphins. View photo large for good view of fish.

New Zealand's elegant sand binding sedge, pingao. One of its last strongholds is here at Kaitorete Spit. Throughout most of New Zealand it has been largely cleared and/or replaced by the European marram grass.

(060712#029)

Is it a fish? Is it a slug? Is it a fishy anemone? I do not have a clue what this is!

It is about 30mm long and there were a few of them in the sand - outgoing tide nearly on the turn. Most were buried and only the "fan fin" was showing.

Resting on the wet sand, when the sand collapsed it arched it's face upwards (2nd and third photos) and seem to spawn capsule from somewhere - there are 2 floating in the 4th pic.

Totally hypnotic, by the time my sister-in-law and I carried on the brother had walked 2kms away from us!