So it seems some sleep more sound than
others, and luckily I slept pretty sound.
Our shared bunkrooms reverberated a little during the night with what I
think was snoring, but luckily most managed a good nights sleep. The dawn chorus started fairly early (outside
the bunkrooms) and this prompted a few to get up early and head out to see what
they could find.
Breakfast, cleaning of the bunkhouse, and
packing and we then all headed out to venture around the trails to see what we
could find. A pretty successful morning
was had, with stunning views of kokako, as well as views of most of the other
excellent birds – saddleback, Stitchbird, robin, bellbird, pigeon, tui,
whitehead, etc. What an amazing
place! We arrived down at the wharf bang
on 10am and with our water taxi waiting, loaded our gear and headed (sadly)
back to the mainland.
We repacked the van and then headed south,
grabbing lunch on the way before a quick stop to look for shorebirds. The tide was well out, and distant wrybill
were spotted, but it was decided to have a little lunch and then bird afterwards. At lunch we looked out over sewage ponds –
this is a birding tour after all – and then scanned some of the mudflats,
getting distant views of the wrybill and South Island oystercatcher through the
scope. We headed on south, with our
target being Miranda around the high tide.
We quickly checked into our accommodation, and then headed down to the
hide at Miranda. There were a good
number of other birders around, and we were quickly spotting things through the
scopes. Wrybill – check, black-billed
gull – check, South Island oystercatcher – check. Great views of everything, and then scanning
through all the Arctic waders to look for less common species. The tide was close to high, not a really big
tide, but big enough to push things in relatively close. So there were several thousand bar-tailed
godwit and red knot in front of us.
Before long we had seen a bunch of Pacific golden plover, ruddy
turnstone, and then managed to spot at least 2-3 sharp-tailed sandpiper, two
curlew sandpiper, two red-necked stint, and then a pectoral sandpiper flew in
and landed right in front of us.
Beaut! We chatted with some of
the other birders, and it was a great chance to enjoy the sunshine and spend
time searching through the waders.
Somewhere in there was probably a Hudsonian godwit, and perhaps a marsh
sandpiper, but we never di clap eyes on them.
Still it was a great few hours in a fantastic spot.
We then headed back to the accommodations
to freshen up and then head to dinner.
Day total – Seen = 63 + 3 heard (silvereye,
fernbird, grey warbler); new for the trip = 14; total for the trip to date = 106
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