New Zealand Part 3

New Zealand Trip Report Part 3

Tuesday Feb 11^th

Today was another pelagic day. We checked out of the hotel at 7.45 and drove to the harbour and boarded our boat at 10.15. There was a similar range of species to the first pelagic with Buller’s, Flesh-footed, Fluttering and Sooty Shearwaters; Little Penguin, White-faced, Black, Cook’s and NZ Storm-Petrel but there were a couple of new species: Pycroft’s Petrel and Grey Noddy.

Black Petrel

Just spotted a tasty morsel!

Buller's Shearwater

Cook's Petrel

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Grey Noddy

Pacific Reef-Egret (awake this time!)

Pied Cormorant

White-faced Storm-Petrel - here looking like Sea Ballerinas

Wednesday Feb 12^th

We left the motel at 6.30 and drove straight to the harbour. We left the van with our main luggage and boarded the ferry as foot passengers, carrying just an overnight bag. 

South Island Oystercatchers - note the white shoulder which Variable lacks

Welcome Swallow

the ferry to Tiritiri Matangi

Despite the short crossing of 25 minutes we still saw three species of shearwater (Buller’s, Flesh-footed and Fluttering) plus Little Penguin and Australasian Gannet. 

A young Australasian Gannet

We landed on Tiritiri Matangi Island and walked up to the bunkhouse where we’d be staying, seeing a few birds and insects along the way.

The bunkhouse

The lighthouse - all the way from Pimlico!

Giant Weta

After sorting out our rooms and having lunch we had a walk around the trails seeing Red-fronted Parakeet amongst others. 

Bellbird

Brown Quail

Common Copper

The North Island Robin is totally unrelated to our 'garden' Robin but behaves in the same way

North Island Saddleback

Red-crowned Parakeet

Female Stitchbird at a feeder

Male Stitchbird at a feeder

Tui - filling the role of a woodpecker

The island reminded me of St Agnes with the lighthouse and Pittosporum bushes

Bradley did a BBQ for dinner which was washed down with beer and a fine NZ wine. After dark we went out looking for our second species of Kiwi and pretty quickly found a Little Spotted Kiwi feeding just inside the forest.