Daily Yaffle: New Zealand Part 4

New Zealand Trip Report Part 4

Thursday Feb 13^th

We did a pre-breakfast walk and saw another family group of Takahe as well as Rifleman, Stitchbird, North Island Saddleback and a covey of Brown Quail.

Mmm, tasty, grass root!

Takahe

Brown Quail

NZ Fantail

NZ Pigeon

Red-crowned Parakeet

Tui

We left the island by water taxi at 10.00, loaded the van up and headed on south leaving Auckland behind for the final time.

water taxi

My last view of Auckland, some of the group flew home via here.

First stop was at Wattle Farm Lake where we connected with a long-staying vagrant White-winged Black Tern that was hanging out with some Black-billed Gulls.

Black-billed Gull

White-winged Black Tern

Next was Ambury Regional Park where there were NZ Dotterel, Wrybill, Pied Stilt, both Oystercatchers and Royal Spoonbills.

Knot with a Bar-tailed Godwit behind

NZ Dotterel

Assorted waders

Tyred looking Wrybills

At another estuary there were more waders including a few Sharp-tailed Sands and a Pectoral Sandpiper plus Banded Dotterel. There was also our first NZ Scaup and Black Swan.

Black Swans and Pied Stilts

Grey Teal

Royal Spoonbills

Friday Feb 14^th

We started at Taramaire Wildlife Reserve where we had our first Skylarks and some more Wrybills. At Robert Findlay Wildlife Reserve a Buff-banded Rail showed briefly and we saw several Pacific Golden Plover and another long-staying rarity – a Red-necked Stint.

Bar-tailed Godwits colouring up before their massive migration north

Pied Stilt

South Island Oystercatchers

Sharp-tailed Sandpipers

White-faced Herons

Wrybill, this time showing their asymmetric bill

We went back to our cabins, packed up and left at 9.30. Our journey took us through Middle Earth, where the base was for filming The Lord of the Rings, particularly Hobbit country.

Here be Hobbits!

At the next stop was an Australian Tern, a recent split from Gull-billed Tern and a single Eastern Cattle Egret roosting in a distant tree with some Royal Spoonbills.

Australasian Tern

Swamp Harrier, the only true breeding raptor in NZ

We had lunch at a forest and then walked along a trail seeing Yellow-crowned Parakeet and climbed up a wooden tower where a Kaka was feeding in an adjacent tree, then eventually got onto our main target here as a Long-tailed Koel flew past.

butterfly sp

Common Copper

Kaka

The last stop was at a swamp where we had closer view of NZ Scaup, NZ Dabchick and a Eurasian Coot as well as having our first try at finding Blue Duck.

NZ Scaup

Looking for Blue Duck

Saturday Feb 15^th

We left at 6.45 for a pre-breakfast excursion. The main target was to find Blue Duck on the river that runs through the town. Fortunately, we managed to locate a distant pair on the rapids. They are New Zealand’s version of Torrent Duck and only live on fast flowing rocky rivers. Their plumage is the perfect camouflage and when they sit still either in the water or at the edge they blend into their surroundings by looking just like another rock.

Blue Duck

There was also Pacific Black Duck on the river. Some of these breed with the introduced Mallards but this one looked like the real deal.

Pacific Black Duck (left) with probable x Mallard hybrid

We went back to check the swamp again and got lucky again when an Australian Bittern flew over the back of the reed bed. Spotless Crake was seen briefly and a Fernbird fed just on the edge of the reeds.

We went back to the motel for breakfast then packed up and left the motel at 9.00. We tried the river again and saw a pair of Blue Ducks fairly close and then saw another three juveniles further downstream. We drove south, heading up into a montane forest for lunch where we saw a Tomtit.

At another estuary there were more wetland birds including seven Marsh Sandpipers, a scarce bird in NZ. There was also Banded and Black-fronted Dotterel and another Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.