After breakfast we headed down to the quay for another
pelagic. As we walked along the harbour to the boat a Broad-nosed Seven-gilled Shark was
seen.
We boarded the boat along with three other birders and left at 7.50. We
cruised slowly along the rocky shore, seeing Foveaux’s Shag and a few Fiordland Crested Penguins before heading to the open sea.
Fiordland Crested Penguin
Sooty Shearwater was the most abundant bird of the day with
maybe 8,000 seen. They were present all day, either flying past or in rafts
numbering up to the hundreds.
Sooty Shearwater
White-fronted and Black-fronted Terns were seen
feeding by islets and White-capped Albatrosses cruised by. A few Common Diving
Petrels were seen.
White-capped (rear) & Salvin's Albatross
White-capped (front) & Buller's Albatross
(Left to right) Salvin's, White-capped & Buller's Albatross
Southern Royal Albatross (centre)
Foveaux's Shag
We stopped the boat and created a chum slick and as the
birds came in our skipper started feeding the attendant albatrosses. We had
four species present around the boat: White-capped were the dominant species
with some Buller’s, Salvin’s and the larger Southern Royal. We spent several
hours in the area and pulled in a few other birds such as Fairy Prion, Cook’s
Petrel, Hutton’s Shearwater and White-chinned Petrel. Only the occasional Northern
Giant-Petrel came in, unlike our earlier pelagics.
Buller's Albatross (with mango-edged bill)
Cape Petrel
Salvin's Albatross
Southern Royal Albatross
White-capped Albatross & Cape Petrel
White-capped Albatross
At one point we were surrounded by over 150 White-capped Albatross and many followed us when we headed back. In the afternoon we had a Pomarine and two Long-tailed Skuas, a few White-faced
Storm-Petrels and a Mottled Petrel before it was time to head back to port,
arriving mid-afternoon. We had the rest of the afternoon to chill out and catch
up on notes and photos.
We left the motel at 7.30 with a long drive south ahead of
us. We swung by the Kiwi Centre where there were four Kea roosting on the roof.
We went back to the beach we were at yesterday for a second attempt at the
Sooty Tern that had recently been seen there. The wind had dropped to a gentle
breeze unlike yesterday so we didn’t get sandblasted this time but there was
still no sign of the tern among the White-fronteds.
Mt Cook
NZ version of Pisa?
Next stop was a short forest loop where we saw an obliging
Fernbird and our first proper looks at South Island Robin as well as the scarce
black-morph NZ Fantail (which represent about 5% of the South Island
population).
Fernbird
NZ Fantail (black morph)
South Island Robin
Tomtit
We stopped next at a popular tourist stop and walked up the
path to the viewpoint to see the Franz Josef Glacier. It’s shrinking every year
like most glaciers and was said to be noticeably smaller than last year.
Franz Josef Glacier
Lunch was taken at Monro Beach where we also saw a couple of
NZ Falcons, including good looks at a juvenile perched in a tree. We spent most
of the afternoon driving, just making the occasional stop.
NZ Falcon
Farmed Red Deer
"At the one lane bridge I leave the giants stranded at the riverside..."
Sunday Feb 23rd
We left the motel just before dawn at 7.00 and drove a short
distance to the lake in town where Great Crested Grebe was added to the trip
list. We spent the rest of the morning driving apart from the occasional leg
stretch and toilet stop so I used some of the time to reacquaint myself with
Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
We parked the van and walked up the road towards the road
tunnel then cut off over a grassy area and into a rocky area where we started
lunch. It didn’t take too long before food was hastily put down and bins picked
up as a NZ Rock Wren appeared. It bathed in a little pool of water on top of a
flat rock then disappeared into a bush to dry out. They’re an extremely small
version of a pitta and it soon came back out and bounced around on the rocks
giving us a good show.
NZ Rock Wren
A pair of Yellowhammers were nesting by the Rock Wren
We finished lunch and headed back to the van and continued
our journey, making a few stops for photos and the odd short walk in this
incredible scenic landscape with towering mountains and forested gulleys. On
one rocky stream we passed we saw yet another Blue Duck.
Weka
We had one longer walk in a beech forest late afternoon, our
last visit to this habitat. We had decent views of Rifleman as well as the
usual Tomtits. We checked into our motel and had a bit of chill time before
heading to a very nice restaurant in town.
Monday Feb 24th
We left the motel while it was still dark at 6.30 as we had
another long drive, this time to Bluff where we took the ferry to Stewart
Island. We took our bags on as foot passengers and parked up on the back deck
for the hour’s crossing to look for seabirds. Around 50 Sooty Shearwaters, a
White-capped Albatross and distant views of a few other birds were seen.
Ferry to Stewart Island
We had lunch overlooking the harbour and at 1pm took a water
taxi over to Ulva Island where we spent the rest of the afternoon.
Water taxi
Buller’s and
White-capped Albatross were seen on the crossing along with our first Fiordland
Crested Penguin resting in a cave.
Fiordland Crested Penguin
We walked around the forest trails looking
for birds. Kaka was sitting up in the trees and there was the usual selection
of NZ Fantail, NZ Pigeon, Bellbird, South Island Robin and Rifleman but we also
had our first Yellowheads and South Island Saddlebacks. The latter included a
pair feeding two juveniles which are known as Jackbirds as they don’t acquire the
chestnut saddle until they're adults, unlike their North Island counterparts.
NZ Brown Creeper
Kaka
NZ Pigeon
Yellowhead
Rifleman
South Island Robin
South Island Saddleback
NZ Sealion
We got a boat back at 5pm and headed for our accommodation. The
group was split into two as we had two houses to stay in due to the hotel
losing our booking. It ended up being to our advantage as we had a really nice
well-equipped house up on the hillside with great views overlooking the
harbour. We could see White-capped and Buller’s Albatross in the harbour while
we had a beer on the veranda.
We walked down the hill to the hotel restaurant where we had
dinner and later on went out looking for South Island Brown Kiwi with the local
tour guide. We’d only driven 20 metres when one was seen by the side of the
road so we all bundled out to watch it feed close by and totally unconcerned
with our presence.
South Island Brown Kiwi
After ten minutes we drove to a private site and walked
around for a while where we saw a pair feeding in the grass. Morepork was heard
and a couple of Possums were also seen.