Western Springs Lakeside Walk.

Welcome to Western Springs Lakeside walk. I am your guide Athena. Thank you for joining me on this walk.

On this walk, you are going to meet a lot of feathered friends, see some beautiful sights, and experience what is an Auckland institution. It is also my favourite place in Auckland.

If you seek the cold hard facts about this walk and less about me writing sonnets about the birds, then jump to the end of this post.

First and foremost, let their be old dusty tales.

Western Springs has an interesting history.

Before European arrival, the Western Springs lake was a significant site to Maori for eel hunting. It was known for its clear and clean spring water, and the lake was named Te Wai Ōrea, which means the waters of the eel.

Post-European arrival, this was land-so it needed to be made productive as is the traditional colonisation way. The land was made into farmland by a Scottish settler by the name of William Motions (Fun fact: Motions creek and Motions road in this area is named after this guy). Progressing from its time as farmland, it become a key source of water for the ever expanding Auckland population. But, after better water pumping facilities were established in the Waitakere, the site sunk into a time of ruin being used as an illegal dumping ground by the public.

The roaring fifties arrived and the council put its foot down, enough was enough, this was land with promise, we are no longer going to use it as our trash can, they declared. So, an idea to build a fun park was suggested. Which was quickly rejected because money was an issue. Then, an idea was put forth to redevelop the land into a park with a focus on enhancing its natural features. And this is what you will encounter today; a wetland reserve which is the home for many birds and a place of refuge for many Aucklanders from the hustle and bustle of the fast city.

Now that you know the old bones of this place. Let’s begin the walk.

You enter the park on the Great North Road entrance. Cross a railroad track, look both ways as the Motat tram likes to ramble down here, and enter the park. As you walk into the park, what do you hear?

Can the piercing cries of the pukeko be heard on the wind? Or the duck like laugh be heard from the water? There are many birds on this walk and I would love to introduce you to some.

As you walk down the path, you come across a seat. A seat overlooking a lovely willow tree. Have a seat while I introduce you to someone.

The pukeko. This native bird unfortunately has the reputation of being a few singers short of a barbershop quartet. It gained this reputation from its habit of having nasty run ins with cars. But this is an idea perpetuated by the less informed as, this bird is pretty special. It has some very interesting social dynamics not to mention unique features.

The first thing you will notice about this bird is most likely their legs that go on for days and their huge red feet. They have four very long toes, each ending in a very sharp talon. They use these long toes to pick up grass, or leaves and eat them while holding them in a similar way of a parrot.

They have blue iridescent feathers on their chest, black feathers on their wings and face, and white under feathers. They have a red beak which extends to a frontal shield on their face. This frontal shield is not hard like their beak, but fleshy and can grow as well as shrink. Their social dynamics are interesting as they live in groups belonging to a certain areas. In this group, there will be several female and male pukekos, with normally an alpha female and male, some betas, and some non-breeding fellows. What is very interesting is that when they lay eggs, all the birds in the group take turns incubating and when the hatch, they all look after the chicks. Kind of like a commune situation. Or as a friend said, pukekos are the free loving birds of the animal kingdom. Are they not an interesting bird? I have written more on this bird in another blog post, so hop on over there if you are interested.

Getting up from the park bench and marauding down the hill, take a left. Walking a little further on, you will step onto a peninsula of sorts. The view is very beautiful with the lake opening up. Here is where two special birds like to hang along the water edge. The black swan and the scaups.

Black swans are the ballerinas of the bird kingdom. Graceful, romantic, and performers. They mate for life, and there mating dance is quite the show. With each of the pair continuously dipping their long necks in the water and crossing over their necks.

They even bend their necks to make a heart shape on occasion. It is undeniably cute.

Swans have a little bit of a reputation in New Zealand of being mean. Their is an old wives tale that swans can break your arm with their necks. One, I do not know how this is physically possible. Two, I have not meet a single person who has had this happen to them. I think the fear comes from their size and the fact that they hiss at people who come close to them. Humans like their own personal bubble spaces; so swans are kind of like that. They just like their space.

Bonded swans raise their young together. These are called cygnets. These cygnets are grey and very fluffy and have the quintessential long necks of their parents.

Scaups are……. um…….. well to be honest I do not know overly much about these diving ducks. They are small dark coloured ducks, the males have iridescent colour on their heads and glowing yellow eyes (think werewolf of the bird world), while the females have brown eyes. In breeding season, the female gains white feathers. As I have mentioned, they are diving birds. They dive at great depths. You will typically spot them going down under the water and then just a lot of bubbles surfacing. It is amazing how long they can hold their breathe for.

Let’s move on. Walking past some tall bamboo, you will come across what I like to call; the geese grove. Their are a lot of geese here that call this patch of grass their home. Now, how many of you are scared of geese? Maybe you had some traumatic childhood incident where you were mugged by a goose. And I acknowledge that was scary, but let’s not vilify the birds. Geese are groovy, didn’t you know? Let me introduce you to them.

Here we have a type of goose called the greylag goose. They were brought over initially by Captain Cook, and later by other European arrivals. You may notice that there are white and grey types around you. The all white are males, and the ones with grey on them are females. They both sound quite honky, and the male will potentially hiss if you go to close. This is not something to be scared of, just respectful of. Just walk a little away from where you are. You get a little titchy sometimes when people are in your space; the same with geese. This birds are very social; as you can see there is a whole flock of them over to the right.

Continue along and you will come across another peninsula lookout. If you come in Autumn, the trees will be slowly losing their fiery leaves as they drift down to the ground. A table here is the perfect spot for a picnic as the sun goes down. If you look out to your left, you will see a stark naked tree. Naked expect for a bunch of birds residing on the limbs. These are royal spoonbills.

Royal Spoonbills are vistors to the Western Spring Lake. You can not really predict their movements. If you see them, you see them. The first thing you may notice about the spoonbills, is their rather spoon like bill. It is large black spoon like bill. It is very long, and flat at the end. They have white feathers and long black legs. During breeding season, both the male and females grow white feathers out the back of their heads. Like a crown of sorts.

The courtship dance is complicated. They will fly in circles or figure eights over a breeding sight. They will nod a lot with their bill open and their crown feathers fanned out all alluringly like. Once paired off, they remain monogamous until after breeding season ends. They lay their eggs November to February in nests, which are often in trees by the water. Both parents incubate and then look after the chicks, before going their seperate ways.

(Image loading……………I actually haven’t managed to get an image of a spoonbill yet. My camera lens is not good enough for that distance….)

If you see a spoonbill, then congratulations. They like you.

Continue on your path, you will sees may see something waddling along. Can you guess what this bird is. It is a duck. A mallard duck to be exact. This is the bird you will mostly likely be familiar with. That time as a kid when you threw the breed into the lake, and you were swarmed by many of these delightful birds. First thing. Ducks do not like bird. They are gluten free. I jest. But seriously, do no feed the ducks here breed. As it makes them ill, either giving them nutritional deficiencies and can even contribute to then dying. So please do not open that bread bag here. Save it for some bread and butter pudding at home.

Continue walking and come across a red bridge. Make your way over this and have a look down below. Do you spot some slithery eels, or some whiskery catfish. The water here is filled with eels, hence why the Maori called it the water of the eels. both New Zealand’s native species of eel call Western Springs home, the shortfin and longfin eel.

The New Zealand longfin eel is a declining species, and continues to decline as it is commercially fished. The can live for a very long time, with the males living until 20-30, and the females up to an amazing 100 years. They only breed at the end of their lives; where they make an epic odyssey to Tonga. The shortfin eel lives upto 15-30 years and can grow up to 90cm long. Have a look down, and then continue on your way.

Walking around the bend, you may see a rabbit or two hop along your path. There are a lot of rabbits in the area. Continue over another bridge, with even more eels and you will come across another picnic area. Here are some ducks resting. Paradise shelducks.

The male and females look slightly different. The female has a white head, while the male does not. They mate for life. And you will often hear and see them fly over. They make an interesting sound; very hard to describe in writing but it sounds like a honk honk, while the female sounds more shrill.

Walk past a child’s playground. This is often busy and you will hear the delightful screams of children in this part of your walk. If you like children. Great. If you do not, then put some earphones in at this point. Walk down the path, surrounded by giant trees. If you stop and look left, you can sometimes see Auckland Zoo’s elephants through the fence. This area is perfect for making giant leaf piles, and jumping into them.

If you continue walking some more, you will be at the other side of the lake. At this side their are public toilets. These are scary and seem like they have not been cleaned for an eon. But, if you need to go, you need to go.

Continue along the path, you will see a huge tree unearthed. The roots dangling covered in concrete. This tree was knocked over in 2018 when a big storm hit Auckland.

And there we have it. Western Springs Lakeside Walk. A place to find peace from the noise of Auckland, and enter into the noise of birds. It is a fabulous place.