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Here's another family of baby birds from my travels this week. It's a female Pāpango / NZ scaup with seven ducklings (scauplings?).

I saw them on the Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River on my bike ride home from work yesterday.

I briefly stopped to get better photos and the longer I stayed the fewer scauplings there were to see. They're diving ducks, after all. 😀

inaturalist.nz/observations/32…

#birds #nz #ducks #iNaturalistNZ

The first in a sequence of photos I took of a female scaup (a small brown diving duck) with her seven smaller mottled brown ducklings, all swimming on the river.
The second of my photos of a female scaup (a small brown diving duck) with her smaller mottled brown ducklings, all swimming on the river. Now there are six ducklings, as one has dived underwater.
The third of my photos of a female scaup (a small brown diving duck) with her smaller mottled brown ducklings, all swimming on the river. Now there are only four ducklings, as the other three have dived underwater.
The fourth of my photos of a female scaup (a small brown diving duck) with her smaller mottled brown ducklings, all swimming on the river. Now there are only three ducklings, as the other four have dived underwater. The mother stayed on the water watching me. I let them be after this.

Pāpango (New Zealand Scaup) (Aythya novaeseelandiae) observed by Jon Sullivan

New Zealand Scaup from Christchurch including Banks Peninsula, Canterbury, New Zealand on November 21, 2025 at 06:36 PM by Jon Sullivan. Mother scaup with seven ducklings.
iNaturalist NZ
#birds #nz #ducks #iNaturalistNZ

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