Faced with a beautiful fine day that SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed is the Manager at TRM) had planned for her staff (me) to pick up more Autumn leaves, we decided multi-tasking was more important. This was after an inmate phoned to check if her American “birders” friends would find some Blue Ducks within easy walking distance of Turangi. She seemed surprised and disbelieving when I suggested there are families close, within an easy stroll, above and below the main road SH1 bridge. So the only way to prove it was to take our Blue Duck spotter walkies to confirm. This multitasking challenge involves spotting for trout, taking Juno walkies for my much-needed exercise, and spying for Blue Ducks as well. We were so busy.

These ducks are so clever. The moment they knew we were looking for them in the usual spots above and below the bridge, they stayed hidden. They must have seen my iPhone. So we kept on walking…

The photos above were in the town pools below the Hydro Pool and above Judges Pool. It is interesting to see how the Blue Ducks are so territorial and have chased out all the other ducks – except for Shags. Or is that more to do with the shooting season?

A resident family was also hiding somewhere in the above shallow tail-out of Kamahi Pool, but that might be too far for birders to walk.

The usual Stag Pool resident family were also missing – probably hiding from Juno. But what was more exciting was every pool and run and reach that we peered into had some dark shadows that waved back and forth. From the easiest spot – from the elevated bank above the wire in the tail of Major Jones Pool, fishos will know where I mean, we counted six trout waiting for anglers.

Unfortunately, the water was still too coloured up after the rain for our trout counting exercise, to penetrate through the strong current in the depths of the Admirals Pool, but I predict it was loaded. What a wonderful river… So that was our morning multitasking – over 16,000 steps later (counted by my iPhone thingy) I was too tired to pick up the Autumn leaves. They will wait for the wind to move them.