New Zealand Part 5

New Zealand Trip Report Part 5

Sunday Feb 16^th

As we left the motel at 7.30 light rain was falling but it didn’t last too long. We made a quick visit to Te Mata Peak where a confiding NZ Pipit vied with the scenic views looking down over the countryside.

NZ Pipit

Next stop was at Pekapeka where Dunnock was finally added to the list along with Yellowhammer and another Spotless Crake. At our lunch stop there were yet more Sharp-tailed Sandpipers as well as the usual Wrybills, Barwits and a few Pacific Golden Plovers.

Yellowhammer

Spotless Crake

Black Swan

NZ Dabchick

White-fronted Tern

Wrybill

We checked into our hotel and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon twitching Nankeen Night-Heron. They’re in the process of colonising New Zealand naturally from Australia and there was a pair breeding not too far away. When we arrived we started scanning the trees and then Bradley found one sitting right out in the open.

Nankeen Night-Heron

Back at our motel in the evening we had another BBQ and our only Rook of the trip flew over.

Monday Feb 17^th

Our last day on North Island. We left the hotel at 7.30 and drove a short distance to a sewage works where there was a small selection of waterbirds including NZ Scaup, Austral. Shoveler and NZ Dabchick.

NZ Dotterel

NZ Scaup

Paradise Shelduck

Next up was at Waikanae Estuary where Royal Spoonbills fed close by in a channel. We walked onto the beach to look for roosting terns but there was only a small flock of White-fronted Terns. 

Little Pied Cormorant

Pied Stilt

Royal Spoonbill

White-fronted Tern

We carried on south to Wellington and joined the queue for the Interislander ferry. While we waited on deck a Spotted Shag was seen by the harbour mouth. We left half an hour late at 13.30 and cruised across the Cook Strait. 

It was a very calm day, so much so that we saw several White-capped Albatross just sitting on the sea as there wasn’t enough wind to fly in. One of two did fly past the boat and later on, one of several Arctic Skuas was seen chasing a tern. A larger albatross, possibly a Royal was seen by a fishing boat but it was too distant to confirm its identity.

Arctic Skua

A few Common Dolphins swam in close to us and near South Island we saw our first NZ Fur Seal. AS we left the open sea behind and headed into the sounds of South Island, a King Shag and a few more Spotted Shags were noted. We docked at Picton at 5pm but it took almost 45 minutes before we could drive off as the ferry was packed with vehicles.

Spotted Shag

Our motel was only a few minutes’ drive and we quickly dumped our bags and walked down the road to a pub where we had dinner.

Tuesday Feb 18^th

We packed up the van at 7.30 then walked a short way down to the marina where we boarded a small boat for a trip around the Marlborough Sound. First up were a group of New Zealand King Shag that had split off from one of the larger colonies and allowed a close approach.

NZ King Shag

 Along the way there were a few Spotted Shag, a couple of Arctic Skuas and a NZ Fur Seal.

Moon Jellyfish

Spotted Shag

Fluttering Shearwater

Little Pied Cormorant

We headed over to Blumine Island and hauled up to the beach and clambered down a ladder to get off, fortunately it was a dry landing. 

Within two minutes we had seen our main targets: a Weka, a flightless rail that was wandering along the back of the beach, and an Orange-fronted Parakeet that fed down low in a bush just in front of us. Our luck continued as a NZ Falcon flew high over the forest edge.

Orange-fronted Parakeet

Weka

We had a little wander around, seeing the South Island race of Tomtit and a few other by now familiar birds then we decided to get back onto the boat early to look for dolphins. Once we’d managed to radio through to the boat which had moored in the bay we quickly climbed aboard and started checking out the bays. We spotted some in the distance so headed into the bay and after a while the Hector's Dolphins accepted us and came quite close to the boat. They are the smallest oceanic dolphin although they spend most of the time inshore.

Hector's Dolphin

We stopped a few more times on the way back to look at more shags then arrived back at 11.30. We raided a bakery for lunch and stopped to eat it Wairau Lagoon where there was a small selection of wetland birds. At some nearby saltpans we found a flock of roosting Black-fronted Terns.

Black-fronted Tern

Next stop was at Lake Ellerwater where Hoary-headed Grebes are breeding, a very recent colonist from Australia. There were also large numbers of Australasian Shoveler and some Grey Teal. 

Australasian Shoveler

Hoary-headed Grebe

We carried on driving south and stopped by a beach where a load of NZ Fur Seals were breeding and a Northern Giant Petrel flew past.

NZ Fur Seal

We ended up at Kaikoura and checked into our motel by the beach. We had fish and chips for dinner then went for a short drive towards dusk and saw a Little Owl. 

Little Owl