New Zealand Part 9

New Zealand Trip Report Part 9

Tuesday Feb 25^th

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.

View from our accommodation