Luckily the rubbish weather of late, had
decided to take the day off, and it was actually a pretty decent day underway
in Auckland as we met, packed the van, and then departed for the western part
of Auckland. Spotted doves seemingly
sprang from every telephone wire and fence post as we headed west, and through
to a forested area. With a long weekend
in full swing (being Waitangi Day on Saturday and therefore a holiday Monday),
we soon found the carpark at the forest fairly full. However, the New Zealand pigeons and tui
didn’t seem to mind, with both putting on good shows. And even the rowdy Australians put in an
appearance with several sulphur-crested cockatoos flying around the native
forest.
We then headed on out to the coast, and to
a large Australasian gannet colony.
Everything was in full swing, including the surfers relishing the big
swells and beaut conditions on a holiday day.
The gannets had chicks of all sizes, and even some late eggs, so there were
chicks exercising and looking like they were about to fly, and others that were
only about two weeks old. Evidence of a
strange breeding season, with clearly a lot of failures and relaying. As it was so nice we spent a good while
enjoying the sunshine and watching the comings and goings.
We then headed back across to the east
coast, grabbing some lunch on the way.
Only two pies made it into the breakfast hamper, but I suspect that
percentage will grow and word spreads!
We had lunch by a lovely little wetland area, with nice views of New
Zealand grebe, scaup, and other waterfowl.
The best bird was a brown teal, perhaps the same bird (or another) that
was seen at a nearby sewage ponds back in November? Anyway, some good birds, and then nice views
of silvereye and grey warbler to round things off. We crept back past the sewage ponds, but
nothing out of the ordinary there, and so called at a small estuary area. There were several New Zealand dotterel – our
first chance to see these – and then several families of variable
oystercatchers. One family had two very
small chicks, and we watched as one of the adults ran up and fed them the meat
from a cockle it had just taken. Very
cool.
We then headed northwards, making our way
towards Dargaville for a supermarket stop (a good sign when these guys headed
straight for the beer and wine section), and then on to our accommodation for
the night. Nestled in a lovely
picturesque setting, we settled in nice and early, a chance to unwind and enjoy
an hour, before then heading out for dinner.
And what a great dinner at the Kaihu Tavern. Grant and Raewyn again turned on a beautiful
meal and great atmosphere.
And then it was off out for our first kiwi
mission. We headed out just before dark
to a local park area. A distant morepork
called on dusk, but couldn’t be persuaded to come in, and the Southern Cross
slowly burnt into the night sky as darkness fell. We then headed into the forest in search of
our near-mammalian quarry, only to find a brush-tailed possum almost
immediately. We heard and glimpsed a
kiwi scurrying off, and several times thought we heard one. Several pairs called off in the distance,
males responding to the calls of what sounded like a very grumpy female. But after doing a full circuit we hadn’t seen
a bird. We decided to head back in and
do the first bit of the track again, and then we heard what could only be a
kiwi. Shuffling in the leaf litter…we
waited, and finally were rewarded with pretty good views of a large female
feeding in an opening between the tree ferns.
Several minutes of feeding ensued and we all had her in the binoculars,
fantastic! We headed back to the carpark
happy, looking at the night sky now ablaze with stars. What a perfect evening!
Day
total – Seen = 45 + 1 heard (morepork); new for the
trip = 45; total for the trip to date = 45
No comments:
Post a Comment