B1RDER: The birding blog of Brent Stephenson

Three Kings here we come!

2012-02-28T06:36:00.003+13:00

Well I have been rather quiet on here of late. Have recovered relatively smoothly from the wisdom teeth extraction. Not the most pleasant of ops and looking forward to not having gaping holes at the back of my mouth! Had another quick stint up at the Rena ICC (Incident Command Centre) with the release of our final rehabilitated little blue penguins, and tidying up the last of the Wildlife operations. Standing in as Wildlife Manager this time, and happy to be able to help out and finalise a few things as the Wildlife Response draws to a close.
Have also had the displeasure of transferring everything over to my new iMAC...they make it sound like a migration from a PC to a Mac is so simple! Ha! Perhaps it is if you don't have any files of email! Spent approximately 24 hours transferring my entire email file over manually because Mac Outlook 2011 import function doesn't actually work...it seems to decide randomly which 40% of your email file you might want and doesn't transfer the rest. Oh well, gives us something to do on summer weekends I guess!
So now up early and I'm off northwards to start our annual Three Kings pelagic - we do a four day liveaboard in the Far North from Houhora up to the Three Kings. Last year was an absolute MEGA trip with a NZ first record (collared petrel) as well as a bunch of other good stuff (Tahiti petrel, sooty tern and wedge-tailed shearwater), so we are hoping for good things again this year. Obviously a blog and photos to follow, but for last years trip report take a look at our Trip Reports section. The blog from last year is here also.

Birding Buenos Aires with Alec Earnshaw

2012-02-09T09:21:00.000+13:00

So I got home just over a day ago and slowly getting back into a 'normal' routine. This afternoon I get my wisdom teeth out, so might be out of action for a few days...not looking forward to that!

However, my final day in Argentina was an absolute cracker! Alec Earnshaw, a birding guide based in Buenos Aires (visit his website here), picked me up from the hotel at 0430 (yes the time is correct, that is not a typo!), and we headed north out of the city to a place just up out of the Plana River valley called Ceibas. This was to be our first stop, with it being dark most of the way, just getting light as we got to the area. However, on the way lightening flashed in the sky, and with a not so good weather forecast we were a little anxious.

We made our first stop, and within minutes were racking up the species, almost all of which were new - three spinetails, a conastero, a couple of doves and pigeons, black-capped warbling-finch, etc etc. Even in the half light we were managing some great views of the birds, and even better the rain was holding off. Alec was extremely sharp with bird calls and was picking up and identifying birds I was struggling to even get a whisper of, knowing the calls and having good ears really is the key to successful birding in many parts of the World.

We headed down the road a little further and had very close views of several scissor-tailed nightjars (unfortunately no breeding plumage male, but these birds are beaut anyway), and then further down the road to some areas that used to contain wetlands. With the drought over the last five years, many of these areas are now dry or hold only remnants of what used to be significant wetland areas. However, there were still plenty of giant woodrails around, a strange bird with beautiful orange and green bill, and as the name suggests quite large. As the rain started we managed a few other local specialties, including another spinetail, but unfortunately no firewood gatherer (hows that for the name of a bird?!). We did find some Southern screamers, another lifer for me and a bird from a family I had long wanted to see. These things are related to ducks, but look more like a large long-legged turkey vs goose. Weird and wonderful at the same time, and quite the fliers too.

We decided to get to some better roads as the rain came down heavily, for fear of getting stuck, but we were still able to bird along the way and gradually pick up a few more things. Steadily the rain eased, and after an hour or so had completely stopped. We picked up wattled jacana, plumbeous rail, curve-billed reed-haunter, rufous-capped antshrike, scarlet-headed blackbird and a few other good birds, with another couple of stops for two more species of spinetail. Cattle tyrant, dark-billed cuckoo, and blue and yellow tanager were seen along the way, and as the sun started to shine, the camera came out a little more often.

Before long it was time for lunch, and we had a quick lunch stop, where amongst others we found a glaucous blue grosbeak singing from a perch, very nice bird. We then headed out into some drier country, and started to see some more different birds, although a couple of wetland/stream stops had South American snipe, black-backed water-tyrant, and finally a stonking male vermilion flycatcher (after having seen a few juvs and females). The drier country gave up things like a juv savanna hawk, American kestrel, burrowing owl, and a saffron-cowled blackbird, plus a couple of grey monjita. It was here we also managed the bird with definitely the weirdest name of the day - a firewood gatherer! Nice little fella and a member of the family Furnariidae, to which so many of the birds seen today belong.

As the sun started to get lower in the sky, we decided we should head back towards the city...missing my flight back to New Zealand was not really on my wish list, so with the potential for a slow drive in heavy traffic after the end of holiday season, we started to head back. On the way we made a few quick stops, and found what I feel was the bird of the day - yellow-billed cardinal. A stunning bird with blood-red head and black and white plumage. Perhaps it was the warm evening light, or the success of the day, so far, but several nice views of this bird made it stick in my mind as the best of the day.

We slowly headed back into the city, traffic was not actually too bad, so we made reasonable time, getting back to the hotel around 2100. All in all a fantastic day with Alec, and I thoroughly recommend him as a guide. It was great chatting throughout the day, and as he had just bought a new SLR we got to talk camera gear and practices. In total we got 106 species for the day, which was pretty good considering the dearth of waterfowl/wetland species due to many of the wetland areas being dry. Of these 106, 47 were lifers, and counting the 118 species seen during my three days in Buenos Aires I managed about 52 lifers in total. Thanks for a great day Alec!

Rufous-capped antshrike

Southern screamers

Freckle-breasted thornbird

Double-collared seed-eater

A roadside hawk...beside the road

Chalk-browed mockingbird

Cattle tyrant...without the cattle

Patterning on an Uturu pit viper Bothrops alternatus

Ha, and you thought I was so brave to get the above photo! Dead Uturu pit viper Bothrops alternatus, one of four snakes we saw during the day, three of which were unfortunately road kill.

Fork-tailed flycatcher, a species seen commonly throughout the day

Burrowing owl in flight

Pair of burrowing owls perched

Juvenile savanna hawk perched on a fence post

Pampas cavy (or guinea pig) Cavia pamparum

Costanera Sur

2012-02-05T08:28:00.001+13:00

Had another good morning at Costanera Sur in Buenos Aires this morning. There at 0800 as the gates opened and shortly after met up with a couple of local birders - Javier and Norberto. Ended up seeing some great stuff as we walked much of the park, with 46 species and 8 lifers. Many thanks to them for their conversation and bird finding and identification skills! Nice to also have my identifications from the previous day confirmed! ;)

They directed me to the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve website, which might be of interest to others

http://www.reservacostanera.com.ar/en

Lots of great photos and information on the place.

Also, just to note that I posted 300 images to my Eco-Vista: Photography & Research Facebook page. You don't have to be a member to look at any of the images on there.

A Century and a half...what an Antarctic cruise!

2012-02-04T15:53:00.001+13:00

So, I see this is to be blog post number 150! Rather apt considering this follows one of the best cruises I've ever done, and certainly the best Antarctic/South Georgia/Falklands cruise I have ever done. We were so spoilt with the weather I almost got sick of saying to people "Man this weather is awesome, you guys don't realise how lucky you are!".

We set out from Ushuaia and headed up to the Falklands. Pretty smooth sailing and some nice sightings of cetaceans, with some bow riding dusky dolphins as we left the Beagle Channel, then a close pod of hourglass dolphins which allowed some photography, and then we hit the Falklands. It was my first visit to Bleaker Island, but what a great place. A couple of freshwater ponds with breeding black-necked swans, some tufted and silvery grebes, and a bunch of white-rumped sands and two-banded plovers. Nice start! The rockhopper colony was fantastic, with half grown chicks running around and creching, and massive Imperial shag colonies. All made for some great photos. Stanley in the afternoon gave us a chance to walk around from the wreck of the Lady Elizabeth to Gypsy Cove.. A great walk with some botanising and birding along the way. I tried to discourage everyone from looking at the disheveled lone King penguin moulting on the beach at Gypsy Cove..their first King penguin - it should have been 1 of 60,000 breeding pairs in South Georgia, but oh well! I got a few minutes back in Stanley to run up and catch up with Kay McCallum who we had stayed with for many weeks back in 2004 when we were married in the Falklands. Was great to see her and chat, even if only for half an hour!

Then it was on to South Georgia where we completed something nine landings (inc zodiac cruises) in three days. We managed every landing with weather being stunning almost throughout, something that is very rare on South Georgia. A zodiac cruise at Elsehul was first up, but of course the highlights for me were Salisbury Plain (with 60,000 breeding pairs of king penguins), my first visit to Prion Island with breeding wandering albatrosses, St Andrew's Bay with even more King Penguins, Gold Harbour, and Cooper Bay. South Georgia is a stunning stunning place, and if you ever get the chance to go to Antarctica, make sure it includes at least a few days in this absolute jewel.

Then it was down to the South Orkney Islands where we made a landing on Coronation Island. Massive chinstrap colonies, and I managed to find a leopard seal as well. We had five seal species during the two zodiac cruises I did, so pretty awesome, again in pretty sunny conditions. Looks like a pretty rugged place, and can't even imagine spending the winter there as my good mate Rick Price has done on more than one occasion!

Then on to Elephant Island, where as with the rest of the trip, the seas were flat, the winds light, the skies blue, and we made a landing on Point Wild! I venture to suggest the weather was not much like that day for most of which Shackleton's men spent camped there! Absolutely stunning to land there and see the place up close. Those guys were damn tough, it's hard to believe they all survived, but they did, and Point Wild can't have been the most relaxing of places to spend the best part of a winter.

We then headed down to the Antarctic Peninsula, with a sneaky day in the Weddell, including a landing at Brown Bluff (where the wind got up to 90 knots as we got people back to the ship in the zodiacs...needless to day a few people - inc me driving - got a little damp!), Devil Island, and some cruising in Antarctic Sound. Very nice day. Then back up and around to a few spots with a stunning pod of killer whales in the Gerlache, beautiful humpbacks and calves, before an absolutely stunning day at Neko Harbour and Paradise Bay, with an evening cruise in stunning conditions in the Le Maire Channel. Wow! Just doesn't get any better. We then rounded off with a great day at Port Lockroy, Cuverville and then onto the South Shetlands. The last day was a big one with Bailey Head (YES- my first landing here at this legendary place and driving too!), Whalers Bay, and Pendulum Cove, and the Hannah's Point...whew, four landings! After all that, we did something like 27 landings, and really needed a rest on the Drake on the way back, and it was the Drake Lake! Fantastic.

So I am now in Buenos Aires, having had a day wandering around Costanero Sur birding. Looks like I will head there again tomorrow and then may get a day with a guide on Sunday, before heading home.

Hourglass dolphin busting through the surface

Chilean skua on Bleaker Island

Rockhopper chick testing its wings

Adult rockhopper amongst the creche

Comin' to get you...

Goose feather on Bleaker

Pembroke Lighthouse

Ferns near Gypsy Cove, Port Stanley

Magellanic penguins near Gypsy Cove

Wandering albatross at sea

Macaroni penguins to scared to get in the water

King of the hill!

Leucistic fur seal pup

Kings, kings everywhere!

Looking from the top of Salisbury Plain

Kings

That kid don't need no more food!

Wandering albatross stretching its wings on Prion Island

Crash landing!

The colony at the top of Prion Island

Wandering albatross on the nest on Prion Island

Preening

Fur seal pup nursing

South Georgia pintail at Stromness

Stromness Whaling Station

Reindeer at Godthul

Gentoo chicks stretching it out

Chasing for food!

Giant petrels cleaning up a penguin

St Andrew's

Courting kings

Chubby

King in snow

King with a rainbow

About to mate

St Andrew's

Looking out over the colony

North meets south

The embrace

Boisterous sub-adult elephant seals

Giant petrels tearing apart a carcass

King penguin running through the colony

Feeding the chick

Arriving back at the colony

Skua with a scrap of penguin

Running

Courting

Gold Harbour

The egg

The beach at Gold Harbour

Leucistic fur seal checking out a king

Leucistic fur seal

Macaroni having a shake

Coronation Island, South Orkneys, massive chinstrap colony

Cape petrels following the ship on the way into Elephant Island

Against the light

Elephant Island

Across the bay from Elephant Island

Chinstrap swimming

Monument to the Capt of the Yelcho, Luis Pardo Villalon, who took Shackleton back to Elephant Island to rescue his men

Bergs in light

A closer berg

The bluffs of Brown Bluff

Adelie still building with stones

Adelie colony at Brown Bluff

Rick Price poised like a coiled spring

MV Clipper Adventurer, just before the 90 knot winds!

March of the penguins

Devil Island

View from the top

Adelie chicks on Devil Island

Fluffy Adelie chick

Chasing for food

Bergs and light

Big tabular berg

Female killer whale

Breaking the surface

Big male killer whale

Nice sunset!

Bergs and sunset

And more

Last one...

Awesome zodiac cruise

Cape petrels feeding on krill beside a berg

Big cave archway

They left their mark...whale bones

Weddell seal scratching

Gentoo and chick panting in the heat

A humpback dives

Dive dive

With a berg in the background

Stunning close views of a humpback calf about to break the surface for a breath

The calf

And again

Exhale...

Inhale

Stunning

Early morning light

And again

Humpback breaks the surface

Bergs and sun

Flat calm coming into Neko Harbour

Neko

The ship at Neko

Gentoo surfaces

Gentoos heading out to sea

A visit by a minke

Castellated bergs

Crabeater sleeping

Berg reflections

Young Antarctic shag

Young Antarctic shag diving

Ctenaphore or comb jelly

on the way into the LeMaire Channel, ah Una!

Lots of ice in the LeMaire

But we went in anyway

Light on the hills in the LeMaire

Gentoos at Port Lockroy

Antarctic shag

Skua about to land and harass penguins

Not on my watch buddy!

Go ahead make my day!

Oh dear!

Part of the gentoo colony on Cuverville Island

Humpback right by the ship

Just round the corner from Bailey Head, Deception Island

More chinstraps than you can shake a stick at!

Coming back to the colony

The rocks etched by penguin claws on Hannah Point

Skuas make short work of a dead gentoo chick

A giant petrel killing a giant petrel chick, a very strange and disturbing thing to watch

Humpbacks, oh humpbacks

2012-01-16T03:57:00.000+13:00

Just into Ushuaia from our first Zegrahm Expeditions trip to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands. Internet is fairly slow on the ship, so unfortunately I have been unable to post regular updates on here. However, we had a great trip, although one of the toughest I have had. I'm not going into details here, but we made the best of the situation we found ourselves in, albeit with a slightly adjusted schedule. As always with Zegrahm we had a fantastic team onboard.

Overall the weather was pretty kind to us, with a windy but fine day on the Falklands (Carcass and Saunders Islands), then close to three days on South Georgia, and three days on the Antarctic Peninsula. Probably the highlight of the entire trip for me was locating three lunge-feeding humpback whales, and with enough time we were able to get everyone out in the zodiacs to see them and had the whales at times surfacing and lunging at the surface right beside the zodiacs... It's all very well keeping your distance from the wildlife, but when they come to you, wow!

Below are a few of the 'highlight' photos. I have posted a whole bunch more on my Eco-Vista facebook page, so take a look there.

Lamb, beautiful lamb!

Black-faced ibis

Male kelp goose taking off

Life is so boring as a dolphin gull!

Fuegian storm-petrel

Tussock bird

Crested duck

The beach on Saunders Island

Sunset leaving the Falklands

Black-browed albatross

Southern giant petrel taking a closer look

Antarctic prion

Beautiful light-mantled sooty albatross

Mr Macaroni

Black-browed taking off

Antarctic fur seal pup

South Georgia pipit

Black-bellied storm-petrel against the waves

Reindeer on South Georgia

Curiosity

Gold Harbour king penguins

Giant petrel against the rock

King penguin stretching

Playing in the surf

Adelie having a stretch

Big yawn

Full frontal

Cape petrel

Gorgeous snow petrel at the nest

Antarctic tern in a spin

Porpoising Adelie

All three species - Adelie, gentoo, and chinstrap

Spot the dog

Lunge-feeding humpbacks

Against a berg

Spectacular

Filling the mouth

With a 400mm coming right at us

Blue-eyed shag

Smile!

Summers over?!

2011-12-27T18:45:00.003+13:00

Well summer isn't quite over, but having packed all my warm stuff and wet weather gear for the Antarctic it almost feels like it is...for a bit anyway. Haven't had a lot of updates lately. December was busy completing my bird survey work at Napier Hill and down at Porangahau, part of a Hawkes Bay Regional Council contract. That went well, with mostly good weather allowing it to be completed within the time frame I had hoped.

This then meant that we could head away for a week or so relaxing at Wharekaho (Simpson's Beach), just north of Whitianga. Was an awesomely relaxing time with friends Phill and Bex and John and Claudia, plus there littles. No a lot of activity...just nice to sleep, relax and even read a book.

Xmas in Auckland with Adel's whanau and now I'm sitting at the Auckland Airport about to head to Buenos Aires and then to Ushuaia for two awesome cruises onboard the Clipper Adventurer with Zegrahm Expeditions. Both incorporate the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica, so really looking forward to them. There will be regular posts with photos here, so make sure you check out the blog regularly...

Wharekaho pohutukawa

Happy penguins

2011-12-03T16:09:00.001+13:00

Well not much blogged recently. I've been back and spent another 10 days with the Wildlife Team at the Rena spill and just got home on Thursday. Long days and some rewarding moments, including being there for the first little blue penguin release, as well as a couple of the smaller ones. We released 38 penguins a just under a week ago, and really rewarding to see the birds heading back out to sea.

Now home for a few weeks trying to get my local bird monitoring done before some rest and relaxation in Whitianga...can't wait!

Songs about rainbows

2011-11-19T22:09:00.001+13:00

Well had a great day out with Scott and Carolyn from Memphis today. We spent most of the day at Cape Kidnappers, with some off and on weather (and off and on car!), but the photographic results were superb and I hope Scott got some great images too! Late afternoon light, rainstorms, and rainbows made for some awesome photographic subjects. This is one of my favourites from the nearly 4000 images taken today...as if I don't already have enough photos of gannets! ;) I great day.

Pot of gold, a gannet at the end of a rainbow

The pud

2011-11-18T21:53:00.001+13:00

Well, an awesome two days with David Tipling and Roger Tidman here in Hawkes Bay (more in the next few days). Yesterday at Cape Kidnappers with a few thousand gannets and other bits and bobs, and today with falcon at Boundary Stream. Fantastic couple of guys and lots of fun and photos. Taken around 5000 images in two days, and this one has to be one of the best...

Male New Zealand falcon

WIIIIILLLLLSOOONNNNNNNNNN!

2011-11-13T07:29:00.001+13:00

So up and packed and off to the 0800 ferry where we had tofarewell the beautiful Stewart Island. It was another lovely sunny day with almost no wind today, and the sealooked flat calm..and it almost was! Very smooth conditions and it really didn’t bode well for a goodcrossing birdwise. We had a couple oflittle blue penguins as we left Halfmoon Bay and of course some Stewart Islandshags, before getting out towards the Muttonbird Islands. A few sooty shearwaters drifted past, andsome good views of common diving petrels. In great contrast to the day before we had one Salvin’s and onewhite-capped albatross and a Northern giant petrel crossed our wake, but shewas looking pretty quiet...until I spotted a small black bird flying towardsand with us. All dark, white rump, lowto the water, WILSON’S STORM-PETREL! Thecall went up (sounding a little like something from Castaway, the other passengers must have though me mad, but what's new!) and everyone ran to the port side to get a look as it flew withthe ferry for probably more than a minute going in the same direction asus! Fantastic, a cracking little birdand really good views.

The birds pretty much thinned out after that with just acouple of white-chinned petrels, before getting in to Bluff. We grabbed our gear, reloaded the bus andthen checked out Stirling Point and some of the tern flocks, but nothingdifferent spotted amongst them. So weheaded north, up through the very scenic Catlins. We stopped at a couple of places to takephotos, before grabbing some lunch and then heading to a beach to check outsome New Zealand sealions.

Way down the beach we could see a few people near a sealion,so we started to head down there, realising part way down there was actuallyanother animal tucked right up against the hightide mark that everyone else hadmissed and walked straight past. So wespent some time admiring this big boy, still a sub-adult though. He seemed pretty happy dozing and flickingsand over himself.

We left him in peace and then headed off further northwards,with the aim of getting to Oamaru late afternoon, which we did. We headed straight for a beach to seeyellow-eyed penguins coming ashore, and although after an hour or so we hadn’tseen any come ashore we had heard them and had scope views of a bird only 20mor so away. So fantastic views of this veryrare penguin.

We then checked in to our accommodation, had dinner, caughtup on the checklist and off to bed!

Bird of the day – Yellow-eyedpenguin x7

Day total – Seen= 56; new for the trip = 1; total for the trip to date = 162 (163 inc bittern)

Fat and happy...young New Zealand sealion

Yellow-eyed penguin up close

Having a stretch

Records breaking

2011-11-11T22:40:00.001+13:00

Well what an unbelievable day! Nobody ate a single pie today...not evenMarvin! No it wasn’t just unbelievablefor that, we had an absolutely incredible day out on the water, and bagged awhole bunch of great birds as well.

We grabbed some lunch and then headed to the boat, theAurora, skippered by Ty and Colin, and ably assisted by Matt. We headed out just on 0830 and it wasovercast and a little drizzly, but this didn’t dampen our spirits as we headedout to the Muttonbird Islands. Firstcall was Bench Island to try and find a few yellow-eyed penguins, which wemanaged pretty easily with two on the rocks not far off. They gave nice views and we savoured themoment and then headed off, getting a couple of distant brown skua shortlyafter. We however got great views of acouple of brown skua that came in to be thrown a few blue cod frames, before weheaded off and around towards Wreck Reef.

This was our first chumming spot, and on the way the birdsstarted to come in with albatross numbers increasing as blue cod frames wereslowly fed (mostly, thanks Ty!! ;) over the side. Therewere literally thousands of sooty shearwaters around and we had great views ofthese plus the odd common diving petrel and Cape petrel. At Wreck Reef we chummed for a bit andnumbers of albatross steadily increased, with most being white-capped and Salvin’sthe odd Buller’s and a good number of Southern Royals of varying ages, showingvarying amounts of white in the upperwing. We also managed at least one, possibly two immature Campbell albatrosswhich are always nice to see.

We then felt it was time to head south further towards PortPegasus, stopping at a few spots along the way to see Fiordland crestedpenguins both swimming and feeding and up on the rocks, and checking all thetern flocks we could find. The scenerywas stunning, even in the sometimes drizzly conditions, and the wind rose alittle, but was never too uncomfortable.

Near Port Pegasus we finally managed to find one Antarctictern feeding with a group of white-fronteds, but it gave us the slip, as did asecond bird found shortly after. Wenever got great views, but enough to see the darker plumage and red bill. There were however a lot of Fiordland crestedpenguins around, with rafts of up to 7 or so birds.

We then made a run out towards the Northern traps, where thewind had picked up and there was perhaps 1.5m swell, but still prettycomfortable. As we neared the chumminglocation we suddenly started to see mottled petrels, and after a handful hadpassed decided to stop and chum for a bit. We had a few more come past, and then decided to continue. At the traps there were thousands of sootyshearwaters and small numbers of fairy prions, and a lot of albatrosses. Same mix, although we had a nice adultCampbell albatross, but a lot of white-capped, Salvin’s and Southern Royalscoming in for the chum. The starshowever were mottled petrels that just kept coming past singly, with probablyclose to 100 seen during the course of the day. Fairy prions were carefully checked, but all seemed to be fairy until notlong before we left when we suddenly had a couple of broad-billed come past givinggreat views. Just prior to that afantastic little grey-backed storm-petrel came in and spent a few minutes outon the slick feeding, allowing everyone to get onto it and see it – awesome! With pretty much everything we had expectedand more in the bag, and a long way to home, we decided to head back, stayingout wide for quite a bit. The result wasa steady stream of mottled petrels and some really great views of perhaps 10 ormore broad-billed prions. Fairy prionswere also still coming past, and I’m absolutely sure a couple of prions thatcame past were neither...perhaps Salvin’s prions, but too tricky to nail in theconditions and whilst moving...another day!

Clearly the day had been a hectic one and had taken its tollon all involved (some more than others), and whilst they snoozed a black-browedalbatross snuck up the wake and had a brief look, being seen by just the wilyBruce and some of the others onboard, but not the main party. We made it back into Halfmoon Bay just before1800 in time for dinner and a relaxing few drinks. What a spectacular day in an incredible partof New Zealand! Even better is the factthat this is tied with my record for a 21-day trip list, and is dangerouslyclose to Sav’s 165 record!

Bird of the day – Fiordlandcrested penguin x2, Antarctic tern x3

Day total – Seen= 38; new for the trip = 7; total for the trip to date = 161 (actually 162 incbittern)

One of the many Fiordland crested penguins seen during the day

Southern Royal albatross underwing

Southern Royal

...and landing

White-capped albatross and a sooty shearwater in the foreground

Grey-backed storm-petrel skipping along

Fairy prion zipping past

Broad-billed prion, one of several seen really well

Another fairy prion

Another broad-billed prion

It was a long day...

Sunny Stewart

2011-11-11T00:45:00.004+13:00

So it was earlyish morning, leaving the accommodation justafter seven and heading back to Miles Better Pies for another round ofpies...apple pie this time for breakfast and damn was it good. It was an absolutely gorgeous clear blue skyday so of course all eyes were on the scenery. We drove through to Bluff making one quick stop along the way to have alook over a wetland area. There were afew scaup around, plus shoveler and paradise shelduck, but nothing special sowe were on the road again.

We arrived in to Bluff, checked into the ferry terminal andwaited for the ferry to depart. The sunwas still shining and the sky was clear blue. As we cruised out of Bluff and into the first part of the Foveaux Straitwe could look back on the Southern end of the Southern Alps...something I havenever seen before from here as normally it is overcast, raining, or both,perhaps with a little hail mixed in for good measure! So we had an awesome crossing with lovelyconditions and a bit of wind to keep the birds flying as well. We encountered good numbers of sootyshearwaters, with a few rafts mid-Strait, and had nice views of them and commondiving petrel. We saw a couple ofStewart Island shags at either end of the trip, plus the odd Northern giantpetrel, white-capped albatross, and Cape petrel. There was one possible white-chinned petrelfollowing a fishing boat into Bluff also.

As we came in to Oban we kept an eye out for penguins, butnothing seen. We got off the ferry andgrabbed our gear making the short walk to the Hotel and checking in. We had a short break and then headed up andover to Golden Bay and grabbed a water taxi to Ulva Island...still with the sunshining...can’t believe it! At Ulva ourfocus was very much on saddleback, having missed them on Motuara (only hearingthem anyway), so we walked the first part of the track very slowly and keptlistening out for calls. There was the oddone distantly, but our attention was quickly diverted to the flowering spiderorchids along the side of the track. They were pretty much all over the place, with one of the species beingin full flower. It kind of looks like Singularybas oblongus but seems to bemore round in shape and doesn’t have such a prominent floral bract beneath theflower and the leaves weren’t normally veined and flecked. There were a couple of other species ofspider orchid we found just finishing flowering and a heap of greenhood orchidsmost of which were not yet in full flower, but I managed to find one that was.

Meanwhile we had nice close robin, red-crowned andyellow-crowned parakeet, brown creeper and stonking yellowhead. Eventually we had fantastic views of asaddleback and then managed to find a few other bits and bobs, plus kaka, soeveryone was happy! Yellowhead wereactually surprisingly common, and despite the poison drop it was nice to findsaddleback, robin, etc. We didn’thowever see a weka, and apparently they are pretty thin on the ground at themoment.

We did a short loop around to Sydney Cove, and then gettingback to the wharf just before 5pm, enjoyed the sunshine, before heading back toOban for a quick break before dinner. Fantastic dinner as usual at the South Sea Hotel, and then out withPhillip Smith to search for Southern brown kiwi.

Lots of little blue penguins on the way in beautiful calmconditions, and then we headed over to Ocean Beach. We took the long-way around and halfway alongthe trail I heard something behind me and turned to see a female kiwi run upright behind me, pause, then run right up to me and tap my boot with herbill! Ha, that’s a first! Most of the group got great views of her, andthen a short way on we had another smaller male. Once on the beach we had stunning views of abird feeding on the beach in the open. We watched it in the dim torch beam for a good few minutes, simplyawesome! What a night to remember. We headed back to the boat and then back fora fast sleep before tomorrows big pelagic.

Bird of the day – Southern(Stewart Island) brown kiwi x6, rest TBA

Day total – Seen= 57; new for the trip = 3; total for the trip to date = 154

Leaving sunny Bluff

Sooty shearwater on the crossing

Common diving-petrel

Ulva Island and Post Office Bay on a sunny day

Spider orchids on Ulva Island, possibly Singularybas oblongus

Up close

Amongst the moss

Up even closer

Same

A different spider orchid

Same as above, very long stalk and much bigger

Rimu leaves

Greenhood orchid sp.

Up close

Most were not fully open except this one

Ponga covered with spider orchids in flower

Amongst the moss

Tree fern frond

Kelp balls on the beach

Crown fern

Crown fern frond

Moon on the way to kiwi spotting

A beautiful evening on Stewart Island

Big ol' moon

Southern brown kiwi (prob imm female) feeding on the beach

Same bird...fantastic!

What a day!

2011-11-10T06:29:00.002+13:00

Awoke to a dreary sky and threat of drizzle, but the sun wasshining at Miles Better Pies again this morning. With another truck load of pies andsandwiches we lurched back up the road towards Milford Sound, this time withthe aim of going right through to do a Milford cruise.

The drizzle started to fall as we got along the road, but wewere still on the lookout for falcon and other things as we headed through. So spotting the pair of blue duck on a coupleof rocks in the river was a definite bonus, and we had a couple of minutesthere watching them preening and standing in the river. Excellent!

At Milford Sound the cloud was pretty low, but we couldstill make out the top of Mitre Peak, and we boarded our boat and headed out at10:15am. It didn’t take long and Marvinpointed to a bird in the sky near the walls of the fiord, and it was quicklyapparent it was a falcon! A really darkindividual and we had really nice views of it circling above the fiord beforewe got too far away. A great start. A few minutes more and the first of theFiordland crested penguins were spotted in the water a wee way off, and thenshortly after a small pod of four bottlenosed dolphins cruised past givingreally good views quite close by.

The scenery was of course stunning and we soaked it all in,literally under a couple of the waterfalls, and with a couple more Fiordland crestedin the water we were pretty happy. Towards the end of the Fiord we had a penguin up on the shore and theboat skipper took the boat nose in on the beach and we had great views of ithopping around the rocks. Then shortlyafter another bird up on the rocks a bit further down.

We neared the end of the Fiord and circled around, andstarted to rack up a few more penguins in the water, some pretty close andgiving great views as they swam about. Then a few fur seals on a regular haulout, and more penguins. Then more penguins in the water, then more,then more. As we neared the end of thecruise by Lady Bowen Falls we were still seeing more penguins, and the lasttally was 28 (!) Fiordland crested penguins during the cruise. Awesome!

So we headed back to the vehicle and made our way backthrough to Homer Tunnel where we dropped a few more pie crumbs, watching keathrough the windows in light drizzle, and then continued on through. I spotted another ‘ducky’ shape and turnedaround to find a beaut male blue duck on a rock. We had absolutely stunning views of it withina few metres, calling, preening and falling asleep! Stunning...another couple of photos for the holidayalbum! Just cracking birds up close.

Heading on through to Te Anau we had a bit of spare time,before some great local wild venison fried up for an entree before dinner. Lovely!

Bird of the day – Fiordlandcrested penguin x4, rest TBA

Day total – Seen= 37 + 2 heard (dunnock, brown creeper); new for the trip = 0; total for thetrip to date = 151

Fiordland crested penguin on a rock

Blue duck calling

Little stunner!

A relaxed duck

Just keeping my eye on you...in between snoozes!

The beautiful Milford Sound with Mitre Peak in the centre

A wren on a rock

2011-11-09T21:17:00.000+13:00

We were on the road and heading towards Queenstown with thesun shining yet again...let’s not jinx it, but we have been damn lucky so far! We headed through the scenic Cardrona way toFrankton, even stopping for more scenic photos, but with eyes constantly peeledfor falcon. No luck on the falcon, andwe skirted through Frankton and up the shores of Lake Wakatipu towards Te Anau.

With no steam train fanatics there was no need to stop in atthe ‘Kingston Flyer’ and as we started to get onto the more open farmland areaswe started to encounter small numbers of black-billed gulls and the oddblack-fronted tern. Of course South Islandoystercatchers were seen out in the paddocks as well.

We cruised into Te Anau, grabbed some lunch (predictablymore pies at Miles Better Pies!), and then headed out towards HomerTunnel. The sun was still shining, andit was just too great an opportunity to get to Homer Tunnel and look for rockwren in lovely conditions. We made a fewstops along the way, checking previously successful falcon spots, but nothinguntil a pair flew out and up the valley and off into the distance. Nice flight views for most people, and wealso had lovely red admiral butterflies playing in the sun, kaka, tomtit,etc. At the Homer Tunnel we had a rockwren within about 30 seconds (which has to be a record for me), as a male flewdirectly behind and within metres of Marvin, Bruce and Dwight. Of course they were all standing admiring thedamn scenery as it flew right past them! With me yelling and gesticulating wildly they quickly put their camerasaway thinking I was berating them yet again for admiring the scenery, and luckilythe rock wren decided to watch the spectacle from a few metres away andeveryone ended up with superb views, only to have the female appear and hangabout for a bit before also disappearing off uphill with the male. Awesome!

We decided that with the sunshine and beautiful conditionswe may as well hang around, and about 45 minutes later they both reappeared andthis time showed themselves off even better. Worth the wait! We then spentsome time watching the kea playing in the carpark, chasing the cars around andtrying to pull bits of rubber off hire vehicles, before heading off slowly backtowards Te Anau. No sign of any blueduck during the day despite spending a little time searching...they have to behere somewhere! On the way back we founda dead long-tailed cuckoo on the side of the road, obviously struck by acar. A sad end for such a beautiful birdthat has travelled so far!

Back in Te Anau we checked in to our accommodation, had abit of a break and then headed out for dinner. What a spectacular day!

Bird of the day –Rock wren x7

Day total – Seen= 43 + 1 dead (long-tailed cuckoo); new for the trip = 1; total for the trip todate = 151

Hollyford River

Looking from Homer Tunnel

Waterfalls at Homer Tunnel

Male rock wren...what a stunner!

Male rock wren calling

Kea in its native habitat...a carpark

Look at me!

Up close and personal

Whitebait fritters

2011-11-09T07:01:00.001+13:00

So it was up and off to grab some breakfast before headingup to look at Franz Josef glacier, still with the calls of the male kiwi lastnight reverberating in our heads. We dida short walk seeing a few birds along the way including a stunning shining cuckooand a couple of tomtits. We also managedto find some greenhood orchids (Pterostylissp.) which had just started to flower, in fact most had not fully opened butwith a little persistence we managed to find one fully open. Some nice mosses and lichens and even someTmesipteris!

We then headed south down the coast, making a few quickstops, and stopped at Knights Point to check out the views. The sea was pretty calm and no real seabirds,but we did have NZ fur seals and a single large Southern elephant seal on oneof the beaches visible from the lookout. Very cool. Then it was a quickstop into Curly Tree Whitebait where the more adventurous of us has aspectacular fresh whitebait fritter on white bread, man was it good! Highly recommend this as a quick stop!

We then headed further down the coast to Jackson Bay andchecked out a few areas, finally finding a Fiordland crested penguin swimmingalong the shore. We had reasonable scopeviews of the bird swimming along before it disappeared. We had lunch looking out over the ocean andthen enjoyed a few other stops, before refinding probably the same bird andgetting more good scope views.

Heading back up the coast we made a couple of stops forbrown creeper and tried unsuccessfully for another fernbird, before heading upthe Haast Highway towards the Pass. Stunning scenery and mostly clear skies made it a really nice drive, andwe made a few more scenic stops. Justbefore Pleasant Flat I thought I saw a yellowhead fly up off the road (yesyellowhead not yellowhammer, and we were in beech forest), but in turningaround we found nothing. But pretty sureit was! Eyes peeled for falcon, but noluck, but at another stop we hadn’t gone more than 40m from the van when wespotted a beautiful yellowhead. We allhad stunning views of it feeding in the canopy for 15 minutes or more, withyellow-crowned parakeets around, kaka flying over, rifleman, grey warbler, itwas a really birdy spot and we had excellent views of everything.

We then cruised the last part of the road through to Wanaka,very nearly not making it the last few kilometres when some knucklehead pulledout right in front of us in a 100km area. Luckily the brakes work well and we managed to narrowly avoid a prettyserious accident. A beer at the motel afew moments later helped to ease the frayed nerves, and we then had a nice Indianmeal.

Bird of the day –Fiordland crested penguin x1, yellowhead x6

Day total – Seen= 44 + 1 heard (long-tailed cuckoo); new for the trip = 2; total for the tripto date = 150

Lichens

Mosses

Greenhood orchid (Pterostylis sp)

Franz Josef glacier

More mosses

Tmesipteris

Caught photographing the orchid

Curly Tree whitebait fritters! Yummy

Marvin making short work of his!

Death to pies!

2011-11-08T22:08:00.000+13:00

So after two great nights in Kaikoura it was up and on theroad. The sun was still shining and thewind had eased and we found a stunning male cirl bunting sitting on sometelephone wires singing away! Love itwhen a plan comes together. We then cruiseddown along the beautiful Kaikoura coast, with fur seals and red-billed gulls beingpretty common, and then we headed for the hills, heading up and over to towardsthe start of Christchurch. On the way westopped at a small lake and managed to find several pairs of Cape Barren geeseand had great views of them, scaup, and managed to get some perched redpollsfor a change...even Bruce saw one!

We then headed towards Arthur’s Pass and of course withbellies rumbling from HOURS since breakfast we made a stop at the famousSheffield Pie Shop. It was never goingto be a quick stop, but by the time we swaggered out of the place the floor waslittered with pie crumbs and the pie warmer was looking considerably more emptythan when we arrived. We headed on uptowards Arthurs Pass and made a few scenic stops along the way...yes I’mdefinitely losing my edge. I might evenenquire about a job with Scenic Circle after this tour!

At Arthurs Pass there were quite a few kea at the trainstation so we made a quick stop to see them in their native habitat (ie.carparks). Never mind they are damn coolbirds anyway. Then heading to the top wecheck out a few places for blue duck with no success, but made another stop forkea, before then wrapping over onto the West Coast. A couple of weka were spied as we drove, sowe stopped to admire these before stopping at the Hokitika Sewage ponds. You’ve just got to check them, but apart fromthe feral pair of Cape Barren geese nothing else of interest, except a coupleof sacup (not hardhead!), and mallards. We then made another stop for a forest walk to see brown creeper, andthe other common forest birds, before getting in to Franz Josef in time for anearly dinner.

For once it wasn’t raining (much) and in talking with IanCooper it was fine out towards Okarito, so we headed out there after dinner andcaught up with South Island tomtit and robin, and a fernbird before meeting upwith him and heading out for our Okarito kiwi adventure. With the usual skill and experience Ian hasnow amassed we had stonking views of both the male and female of a pair of Okaritobrown kiwi at literally spitting distance, and had the male call from right infront of us as well. A really specialnight, and the ‘Bird of the Day’ reflects this! Three out of three kiwi so far...

Bird of the day – Okaritokiwi x7

Day total – Seen= 53 + 2 heard (morepork and long-tailed cuckoo); new for the trip = 6; totalfor the trip to date = 148

The death of another dozen pies!

You can almost hear the pies screaming!

Lovin' Kaiks

2011-11-07T23:20:00.001+13:00

We headed off with the wind still pretty strong from thesouth-west, and with a little time up our sleeves before the pelagic startedheaded for the Seal colony. We checkedout the loafing seals and there were a few ruddy turnstone and even a couple ofgodwit on the rocky platforms. We couldsee hundreds of Hutton’s shearwaters streaming past at sea, and even one or twoalbatross...

A quick scenic stop (unbelievable on a birding tour!) at theLookout, and then down to South Bay to meet Gazza our skipper and jump on theboat. We were in one of the largerboats, and the wind was still honking, but we hadn’t even hardly got out of theSouth Bay harbour and there were albatross and Cape petrels around us. We headed out into the wind and it wasn’tactually too bad, with the masses of birds making up for it. We got a little way out and one of the local fishingboats was working with an absolute swarm behind it, so we headed towards thatand started chumming. There were birdseverywhere and it was truly one of the best Kaikoura pelagics! At one stage as the fishing boat went pastthere were literally 50+ Westland petrels behind it. Many of the birds came over to us, and Gazzastayed at the helm and guided the boat slowly into the swell, and then weturned and motored with the swell slowly so the light was in the rightdirection. We had both Northern andSouthern Royal albatrosses, at least 20+ New Zealand wandering, mostly Northerngiant petrels, but at least one very hungry Southern Royal, and good numbers ofSalvin’s albatrosses. Westland petrels werepicked amongst for the odd white-chinned which ended up showing really well,and although it didn’t show particularly well we had a very late in the seasonAntarctic fulmar. Surprisingly therewere also a lot of sooty shearwaters, with 20+ birds.

The photographers were clicking away and we had anincredible time. Despite the livelyconditions, nobody was sick...there were too many birds to keep everyoneoccupied! We headed along to anotherpoint on the canyon edge and chummed a bit longer, with a similar assemblage ofbirds. Just magic stuff. We then headed in towards Barney’s Rock andpicked up good numbers of Hutton’s shearwaters, and as we headed over there anArctic skua showed itself well. We alsohad a couple of dusky dolphins head past us, and as we headed back for themarina a small pod of Hector’s dolphins showed really well – a nice finale tothe trip.

We arrived back into port and then had a great lunch at theEncounter Cafe – great food thanks guys! After lunch it was free time, an opportunity to take a break, checkemail, get some washing done, etc. Myselfand Steve Wood decided to head back out on the water for the afternoon trip,with the wind having dropped it really was like another different day on thewater. Numbers of birds in general haddropped, but we still had some great photo opportunities and picked up a youngblack-browed albatross and grey-faced petrel that hadn’t been seen during the morning. We also had massive flocks of feeding Hutton’sshearwaters just off the peninsula which was fantastic.

Dinner was at a local restaurant, and then an early night(for some!) before another big day.

Bird of the day – Hector’sdolphin x1 (does it have feathers??!!), Cape petrel x2, New Zealand albatrossx3, Salvin’s albatross x1

Day total – Seen= 45; new for the trip = 7; total for the trip to date = 142

A couple of NZ wanderers have a go

Northern giant petrel coming in to land

Taking off

Southern Royal albatross flying past

White-chinned petrel coming in

White-chinned

Salvin's albatross about to land

Salvin's albatross

And again..love 'em

Antarctic fulmar

Salvin's albatross with coast i nthe background

Salvin's headshot as it flies past

New Zealand wandering albatross coming in to land

Sooty shearwater flying past

New Zealand wandering albatross coming in to land

Salvin's treading water

Westland petrel against the blue

Sooty shearwater against the blue

Sooty shearwater

Headshot of a New Zealand wandering albatross

Sooty shearwater coming in to land

Hector's dolphin coming for a look

Immature Northern Royal albatross coming in

Northern giant petrel calling as it lands

Westland petrel

Cape petrel banking

Hutton's shearwater zipping across the waves

Big flock of Hutton's shearwaters

Feeding frenzy of Hutton's shearwaters

Windy Sounds

2011-11-05T17:45:00.000+13:00

A late start this morning to enjoy the beautiful scenery ofWaikawa Bay. The sun was shining but thewind was still blowing. We headed downto the Picton Marina head out on the Dolphin Watch Ecotours trip out onto QueenCharlotte Sound. We headed out into thestrong winds, but due to the narrow Queen Charlotte Sound the waves weren’t toobig. We headed past a couple of likelyspots of King shag, our target bird this morning, but nothing, so kept headingout. As we got out a little further wespotted a King shag in the water and had really nice close views of him sittingin the water.

We then headed off out further and spotting a few flutteringshearwaters and gannets, decided we would head on out to White Rocks. It was pretty bumpy and a lot of spray, butwe made it out to White Rocks and had great views of about 40 King shagsroosting on the rocks. Having satiatedeveryone’s need for good views, we headed back into Motuara Island where we hada short walk up to the watering hole. There were a few saddleback calling around the place, but with a howlingwind nothing made itself obvious, although we did get nice views of pigeon,bellbird, and South Island robin. Lotsof onion orchids in flower on the sides of the track.

We then headed slowly back up the sound, spotting probablythe same King shag on the way, as well as a bunch of spotted shags, and otherbits and bobs. We had a nice shelteredscone and coffee watching a nesting colony of pied and spotted shags, before headingback in to Picton.

We then hit the road and headed south, and checked out theWaihopai Valley. We ate our lunch on theside of the road searching for the resident black kite (having not heard anynews of the bird being around for a while). There were plenty of harriers around the place, but no sign of the kitefor a while...until it spiralled up over some trees near us and then right overthe top of us. Brilliant! Fantastic views of the bird as it headed offup the valley.

We then carried on to Lake Grassmere where we had greatviews of a couple of wrybill and several stonking male banded dotterels, thenoff towards Kaikoura. Brief stop at OhauPoint for spotted shags in breeding plumage and on nests, plus a few furrymarine mammals on the rocks, and then checked into the accommodation. Fish and chips for dinner and then out tolook for little owl on the local roads. Success with great views of a bird on a fence ahead of us for a minuteor so. Great!

Bird of the day – TBA

Day total – Seen= 50 + 1 heard (peafowl); new for the trip = 7; total for the trip to date = 135

Onion orchid on Motuara Island

The whole plant

Black kite!

Bruce taking photos of birds!

Planes, trains, and automobiles...and ferries!

2011-11-04T23:00:00.000+13:00

So it was an easy start to the day...but that was to beabout all that was easy today! We headedto a bakery and grabbed breakfast and lunch and then off through to LakeHorowhenua near Levin. The wind was fairhonking, so we found some shelter and scanned the lake edges for anythinggood. Got a nice flock of little blackshags, plus most feral mongrel ducks known to man, but nothing of great note.

We then made a trail towards Wellington making a quick stopat some local sewage ponds on the way. Always worth a quick look at a sewage pond! We had great views of black-fronted dotterel,dabchick, and then headed further south. All was still looking good for the day...except as we drove I got a textmessage to say our Interisland ferry was cancelled! Clearly a NZ$53 million refit hadn’t quiteincluded any engine maintenance! Quicklymaking a few calls we thought we were booked on to a midday-ish ferry withBluebridge, so with a little time up our sleeve we thought it was worth a quicklook at Plimmerton as a shore plover had been seen at there yesterday. We pulled up and as the tide was nearly in,headed along the shoreline thinking it couldn’t be too hard to find it if itwas here. Well several hundred metresdown the shore there was still no sign! After several drives and stops we ended up conceding and heading for theferry.

Arriving at the Bluebridge checkin we sat and waited, andwaited, and waited, and then as the luggage truck headed for the ferry we werefinally told that it was full! Whatthe!? So more hurried phone calls and avisit to the Interisland ferry found that we should have definitely had a placeon the Bluebridge ferry but they had obviously done the dirty and over sold andbumped us. So there was nothing left butto wait for the 6:25pm Interisland ferry which was running at least an hourlate!

So we headed back to Plimmerton to look for the shore ploveragain...but same result. We checked inearly for the ferry, saw a few spotted shags and fluttering shearwaters, andthen finally departed on dark for Picton, arriving in just after 11pm. What a day!

Bird of the day – TBA

Day total – Seen= 36 + 1 heard (dunnock); new for the trip = 1; total for the trip to date = 128

Ah, nothing quite like sewage ponds

Searched and searched, and this was the only sign we saw of shore plover...ha ha ha...I kill me!

I said great knot (not great Scott)!!

2011-11-03T20:08:00.001+13:00

We were up at 0540 (yes! 05401!!) and headed out in the rainto try our luck with bittern. We headedto an area on the southern shore of Lake Taupo, and as we slowly headed down aroad I spotted one moving quite quickly for cover. Unfortunately, due to the rain on the windowsit wasn’t possible to see the bird from the back and within seconds it had disappearednever to be seen again. We did hear atleast 3-4 different males booming which was a real treat, but didn’t manage tofind one despite checking a bunch of different places. We were so close to one male booming that youcould hear the inhale before the boom which was pretty cool.

We then headed back and packed the vehicle, and headed on toa site to find fernbird. We hadfantastic views of a bird for several minutes as he sat still in the openbranches of a bush would you believe it! We then headed south towards Ruatiti to spend some time looking for blueduck. Approaching the river it becameapparent that the rain we had been having had had an effect on the water levelsand the river was higher than it normally is this time of year. We stopped at every spot you could look downinto the river, and not a blue duck to be seen! Don’t think I’ve ever searched so much of the river for so littleeffect! We got to the bridge over theriver and managed to spot a duck right up at the end of the river. Grabbing the scopes we got onto the bird asit fed in the fast flow, before hauling out on a rock for a bit. A couple of shining-bronze cuckoos were a slightdistraction, but when another rain shower came through I was suddenly standingin the rain alone!

We headed down to the Domain for a spot of lunch and thenchecked the area for more ducks, but not a one to be seen. We heard a couple of robins from the campingarea, and there were whitehead, bellbird, and fantails zipping around the placeto keep us occupied.

We then decided to head for Foxton Beach to have a look atthe Manawatu Estuary where Sav had found a great knot the previous day. We drove through the very scenic (and they werecaught actually taking photos through the van window as we drove would you believeit!) Parapara’s towards Wanganui, with the odd rain storm coming through. We arrived at the Manawatu Estuary to findthe tide right in and the godwit and knot out on the mudflats gathering in aflock. It didn’t take long and the greatknot was spotted, being pretty obvious with big black spots still present onthe breast. A stunning bird and clearlybigger with a longer drooping bill than the red knots. Love it when a plan comes together...still norooks though! We took some time to checkout the wrybill properly as well, as they are pretty approachable here and hadgreat views of them in the scope just a few metres away.

We then decided to head for Feilding to our Motel, where wechecked in, had a breather before dinner and then had a dinner in town with Savand Jody.

Bird of the day – Blueduck x6, shining-bronze cuckoo x1, Australasian bittern x1

Day total – Seen=56 + 4 heard (Australasian bittern, common pheasant, NI robin, whitehead); newfor the trip = 2; total for the trip to date = 127

The 'good' were watching the blue duck...

But what is this guy doing? Is he botanising??!! This is a BIRDING tour! ;)

The duck that was watched by some...

Great knot (left) with group of red knot

A bit closer

Great knot again

It was all going so well

2011-11-02T21:48:00.004+13:00

So we were up, yet another bakery stop, and then on the roadwith a light drizzle (the weather that is). We headed across the Napier-Taupo highway with pie crumbs flying, andcontented snores starting to erupt, when I spied what looked like a duck shapedobject on a rock as we went over a bridge. Managing to do a u-turn a few kilometres down the road, we came back tothe bridge and yes there it was, a blue duck sitting on a rock just downstreamof the bridge. We parked on the side ofthe road, being a little distracted by a shining bronze cuckoo calling nearbyand getting a quick view of it, before heading onto the bridge and gettingquick views of the bird as it took to the water and headed downstream. Nice! In the hundreds of trips along this road this is the first time I’veseen a blue duck here, although a small population does exist in the area.

We then headed on for Boundary Stream and did one of thewalks getting good views of the usual forest birds including rifleman, tomtit,robin, whitehead, and grey warbler. Aquiet falcon call had me going as I finished a pit-stop at the bathroom, but nevercalled again. We headed off along thetrail and first heard a falcon pair making a few noises, and then saw the malecircle out and around and then over us, giving really nice views before headingoff.

On the way back we kept an ear out for kokako, but not muchthere, but with eyes to the ground managed to find several small colonies ofspider orchids in flower. Great littlethings and possibly at least two different species.

Things were going oh so well! We headed down to Napier, where the weatherwas dry and warm, and decided to see if we could find some bittern. The first stop had a lot of potential, untilwe realised there was somebody working on the tree plantings, and there wascertainly no bittern to be seen. Therewere a few ducks and Royal spoonbill as a consolation prize though! So we headed on to a couple of other localspots looking for bittern and perhaps a chance at the little egret...ha! Luck seemed to have run out with not a sniffof a brown streaky thing or a small white thing! Things couldn’t get any worse...until we gotto the Te Aute rookery (which had been active a few weeks before) to find emptynests where there had obviously been a spot of rook ‘control’ recently. Not a one! The words ‘I can smell victory’ kept resonating in my head for the restof the afternoon! At least until we gotto Anderson Park and found the three plumed whistling ducks happily lined up onthe pond edge...thank goodness!

So we called past Westshore, grabbed a black-fronteddotterel on the trot and then headed for Turangi, where it started to rain...

Bird of the day –blue duck x2, plumed whistling duck x1, NZfalcon x3, black-fronted dotterel x1

Day total – Seen= 59 + 2 heard (long-tailed cuckoo, redpoll); new for the trip = 6; total for the trip to date = 125

Napier-Taupo blue duck

Male tomtit at Boundary Stream

Male NZ falcon heading off to hunt

NZ pigeon wondering where that falcon went

Mallards, cute as ducklings, ugly as adults (at least the scruffy ones in NZ)

The saviours of the day, the plumed whistling ducks at Anderson Park

What! No bittern?

2011-11-01T21:25:00.003+13:00

So it was a bakery stop first thing...pies for breakfast(these guys are slipping into the kiwi way of life far too easily), and then onthe road. We stopped in at Whangamarinoto check out the bittern spot, and I was aghast when after almost an hour wehadn’t found a single one! The waterlevels were up quite a bit, and I just don’t think there was enough cover forthe birds to hide away in. So despiteseeing more white-faced herons than you could shake a stick at, a few ducks andmiscellaneous other things there was no bittern. We drove slowly along other likely spots, butstill no luck, so it was time to put the foot down and head through to Pureora.

We got through to Pureora Forest after lunch and ate oursandwiches in one of the picnic areas overlooking the forest edge. Robins and tomtits were singing away, andlots of whitehead, but the yellow-crowned parakeets gave us the merry runaround. Saw quite a few flying around, butjust couldn’t nail one perched and in the scope. There were also a few Eastern rosellas aroundwhich was a little disappointing, especially when they DID stop and showthemselves! Did get great views of kakaflying over though with lots of birds in the area.

We then headed to the forest tower and headed up to see whatwe could spy. Robins and rifleman aroundthe area were nice, and several more kaka. Pretty quiet on the long-tailed cuckoo front, with the first bird heardcalling after we had left the tower. Sowe drove the roads trying to get close to it, and saw it fly, so drove furtherand then had fantastic scope views for about ten minutes. The bird sat right in the top of a treecalling and gave great views...very weird for a long-tailed cuckoo!

We then headed back down the road, checking out a few otherspots, before heading for Taupo, getting coot on the way. Also a few scaup, black swan, and shovelerwhich was nice.

Bird of the day –Long-tailed cuckoo x4, rifleman x1, kaka x1, chaffinch (it’s getting worse, wheredo we get these people!)

Day total – Seen= 57 + 1 heard (common pheasant, Indian peafowl, dunnock); new for the trip = 6;total for the trip to date = 119

Scoping the long-tailed cuckoo

Shorebirds in the morning, seabirds in the afternoon

2011-10-31T22:30:00.000+13:00

Up after a restful night of no snoring, and headed down tothe hide and shellbanks at Miranda. Thetide was coming in, and the gull-billed terns and whimbrel seemed were still inthe same place. When we got to the hide,the sharp-tailed sands were also still there, and as the tide came in thenumbers of bar-tailed godwit and red knot started to increase. We didn’t end up with anything new except fora ruddy turnstone, but it was pretty spectacular watching the godwit and knotwheeling round and resettling on the shellbanks.

As the crowds gathered (Miranda Shorebird Centre open day)we headed off and towards Whitianga. Wearrived in Whitianga, checked in, grabbed some lunch and then headed down tothe marina to get on our boat. We metwith Ian and Andy and headed out, seeing reef egret on the way, as well asred-billed gulls at a nesting colony and pied shags in the pohutukawa treesnesting as well.

As we headed out we had a single parasitic jaeger on thewater, that lifted off and headed towards the white-fronted terns feedingnearby, and then we started to see lots of common diving-petrels and a fewwhite-faced storm-petrels and fluttering shearwaters. As we reached our chumming location outbeyond the Mercury Islands we had a distant Northern Royal albatross go past,and a little shearwater land nearby.

With the chum in the water the birds started to come in, withof course the flesh-footed shearwaters being the first to arrive. They dominated the pack, but over the next fewhours we had reasonable numbers of Buller’s shearwaters, a few black petrels,and then the Cook’s petrels started to come past. Checking each one carefully, it wasn’t tilllater that we started to get recognisable Pycroft’s petrels, with darkerheads. We were pretty lucky to haveseveral albatross around the boat as well, with at least 4 white-cappedalbatross, and 2 Buller’s and 2 Salvin’s. A single Northern giant petrel put in an appearance but wouldn’t come inclose, but we had good close views of several grey-faced petrels, at least acouple of sooty shearwaters and the highlight was a pass by a mottledpetrel. Possibly the same bird came backa few minutes later, but this time further out. We also had a small mako shark checking out the chum on severaloccasions, and even try chasing a few birds around.

As the numbers of Pycroft’s increased we decided to head forhome, on the way spotting a small pod of common dolphins, but they weren’t in aplayful mood. Back on dry land we headedfor a local pizza and pasta joint before heading home with full bellies!

Bird of the day –Buller’s albatross x5, wrybill x1, mottled petrel x1

Day total – Seen= 66; new for the trip = 8; total for the trip to date = 113

Bar-tailed godwit and red knot in flight...spot the Hudsonian godwit!

Settling

White-faced heron

Mottled petrel off Whitianga

Cook's petrel

White-capped albatross

Star of the day with regards to 'Bord of the day' - Buller's albatross

And again

Aberrantly plumaged flesh-footed shearwater - we called him Marvin

On the water

Grey-faced petrel swinging by

Pycroft's petrel

Mako shark cruising past

Even the black-backed gulls got a look in

Flesh-footed shearwater

Me looking sneaky...although one of the gang were sneaky and took this when I wasn't looking!

Rooks!?!?

2011-10-30T12:18:00.001+13:00

Well I realised why the overnight bags were so small...seemsthe men at least had failed to pack all their anti-snore medicine anddevices! It was like snoring in Dolby5.1 surround sound in the guys room...man!

Don’t know why, but seems every time I’ve woken up onTiritiri Matangi lately it is raining...and this morning was no different. We had a leisurely breakfast (probablybecause everyone was too tired from lack of sleep to move quickly) and thenpacked up, cleaned up and then headed out. We wandered back down towards the wharf as the rain eased and had kokakosinging in all sorts of places. We hadquick but good views of one bird singing and listened to it for quite some timebefore finding a pair singing, mutual preening and then gathering material toline its nest with cabbage tree fibres etc. The nest turned out to be just a couple of metres off the trail and wehad great views of its mate sitting preening and singing nearby whilst itvisited the nest several times to add to it. Magic! Down near the wharf we hadanother kokako singing just after the ferry arrived and the crowds haddispersed.

Our water taxi arrived and we headed back to Gulf Harbourwith just a single little penguin seen along the way. We loaded the vehicle up and headed offtowards Miranda making a quick lunch and fuel stop on the way. Marvin threatened to put a pepper-steak piedown as bird of the day, but I knew with Miranda coming up that memory wouldfade when he saw a wrybill.

At Miranda the tide had already dropped considerably and thebirds were well out from the hide, but before we had even left the carpark wehad a flock of Pacific golden plovers, a single whimbrel and two gull-billedterns. Headed across to the hide wequickly had a couple of wrybill in the scope and black-billed gulls, with allthe migrant shorebirds being well out on the mud. We’d only just checked off these twofantastic endemics and somebody pipes up they haven’t seen a rook yet, and “Whenare we going to see a rook?”! It’s toughgetting good clients these days! Foursharp-tailed sandpipers were present as well, and every time I looked seemedanother had come from somewhere, with six in the end. We spent a good bit of time just enjoying thesun and scanning the mudflats, with the gull-billed terns doing some passes,and then as we left we found the marsh sandpiper roosting with a small flock ofpied stilts.

We then had a bit of a rest (they reckon I’ve been pushingthem too hard?) and headed to Kaiaua for dinner, before retiring for the night.

Bird of the day –white-faced heron x1 (??? HUH), wrybillx1, sharp-tailed sandpiper x1, kokako x4

Day total – Seen= 59; new for the trip = 9; total for the trip to date = 105

Watching the nest building kokako

Hadn't even left the carpark at Miranda...

Gull-billed terns near the shellbank

Looking for rooks!

Marsh sand in with four pied stilts

Dental work and kiwi

2011-10-29T22:54:00.001+13:00

To be completely honest I probably don't look after my teeth as well as I should, but this was the first time I'd ever had toothache like this. The first two days of the tour I had bad toothache, and when it kept me awake most of the third night, enough was enough. So Phil Hammond got a 6:15am wake up call and ended up guiding the Hauraki Gulf pelagic with the more than capable skippering and guidance of Brett Rathe on Assassin. The guys headed off out on an absolutely spectacular day, whilst I went and paid a visit to the dentist, I wasn't upset at all...honest! Grrrrr...

Long and the short of it was I had a pretty bad infection and needed antibiotics (would you believe today is the third day without booze!), and seems they didn't need me after all with great views of NZ storm-petrel, black-winged petrel, and all the usual suspects, plus three Bryde's whales, common dolphins, massive blue sharks and sunfish! Way to make a guy feel unwanted!

Bird of the day – NewZealand storm-petrel x4, white-faced storm-petrel x1, weka x2

Day total – Seen= 38; new for the trip = 16; total for the trip to date = 84

So yesterday we were up and rested, heading away with overnight bagspacked...possibly the smallest overnight bags I’ve ever seen! Not sure what that means but I guess we willfind out on the island. We headed offtowards Gulf Harbour, again with the sun shining, and arrived to find a reefegret and white-faced heron side by side on the rock wall near the pier. Nice comparison.

The ferry arrived and we headed out to the island with about100 school kids...glad we are staying over night and have a few hours on theisland without anyone else. Pretty quietcrossing with only a single flesh-footed shearwater seen until we got to theisland and could see out beyond where there was a flock of white-fronted ternsfeeding and at least one, probably two Arctic skuas (parasitic jaeger) wheelingaround amongst the terns. There was alsoat least one, possibly more Buller’s shears, and may have been more but toodistant.

We headed up for the briefing and then up through the trailsto the bunkhouse. On the way it was hardto miss the whiteheads, bellbirds, and tui on the way, and there were plenty ofstitchbirds around the feeders and elsewhere. We checked into the bunkhouse, unpacked, had lunch and then had a restbefore heading out again in the afternoon.

We headed back down to the wharf and sat beside one of theponds waiting, waiting, and waiting. Abrief glimpse of a spotless crake spurred us on and eventually we were rewardedwith awesome prolonged views of a spotless crake feeding along the edge of thepond. The brown teal pair and ducklingshad kept us entertained right the way through the wait, and a fernbird evenpopped up right beside us about 1.5m away, so a pretty nice way to spend theafternoon. We then headed slowly back upto the bunkhouse and finally managed to get a good view of a kokako having notheard a peep from one all day.

Back at the bunkhouse we had possibly the best meal of the trip(I have to say that because I cooked it!), BBQ steak and lamb, with salad andpotatoes, followed up with dark chocolate for dessert...mmmmmmm! We then headed out for our nocturnal ramble,heading right the way down to the other end of the island. No kiwi called until 2100 which was a bit ofa shock, and shortly thereafter we had great views of a morepork which satperched and then hovered right above us, perfect! A bit further on we had a pretty good sizedtuatara right on the track and had really nice close-up views. We walked back towards the bunkhouse thinkinga kiwi was going to jump out at any stage (in fact by this stage I was thinkingthe damn things had gone back to bed!), and we were within 2 minutes of thebunkhouse when we found a kiwi right beside the road. We ended up having excellent prolonged views,possibly some of the best I’ve had of this species, so very very happy. A short walk back to the bunkhouse for a miloand bed!

Bird of the day –Little spotted kiwi x5, saddleback x1, stitchbird x1

Day total – Seen= 47 + 1 heard (little blue penguin); new for the trip = 12; total for the tripto date = 96

The manuka is currently in flower...yeah yeah, I know this is a BIRDING trip!

Male stitchbird near one of the feeders

Male bellbird

Sacred kingfisher against the sky

Brown teal getting jiggy...

...and all in front of junior!

The big and small of it all

2011-10-27T21:31:00.004+13:00

So it was up and off to breakfast at a civilised hour,keeping in mind we had been up till late the night before. A beaut breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs,cereals and toast had us powered up for the day and we headed northwards withthe sun shining again. We took the shortwalk in to visit Tane Mahuta – the largest of the kauri trees, and possiblyaround 2000 years old. Whatever its ageit really is a spectacular tree and we even had some lovely Earina orchids flowering and a few Pterostylis (Greenhood) orchidsflowering, although almost finished. A coupleof nice male tomtits kicked the days list off to a good start.

We headed southwards back towards Dargaville and then acrosstowards Waipu, stopping on the way to visit a small pond where bothAustralasian and New Zealand grebes breed. The Australasian grebes didn’t seem to be breeding yet, but the NZgrebes had at least two chicks and both adults were busy diving with the chicksprotected under their wings. Very coolwatching the heads pop out from under the wings to be fed by the adults.

We then headed down into Waipu to grab some lunch and headedto a nearby estuary. Within seconds we’dspotted a fairy tern roosting on the mudflats right away down the estuary. We had it in the scope for everyone before ittook off whilst we ate our lunch. We thenscoped the rest of the estuary seeing all the usual suspects – bar-tailedgodwit, a single red knot, a few turnstone, lots of variable oystercatchers anda good number of New Zealand dotterel. It was a nice opportunity to spend some time checking out the endemic waders,enjoying the sunshine, and waiting for a fairy tern to appear, and they did. We spotted two birds roosting further downthe estuary, and as we headed towards them they took flight and one ended uphovering over a small pool not far away, before doing the same over the mainchannel. The other then did almost thesame thing before landing, and we had closer scope views. Pretty happy with that, they flew off back upthe estuary and we decided to head off as well.

We checked out another estuary along the coast, finding anon-breeding little tern and a great egret, along with a heap more white-facedherons, before heading further south to a great spot for buff-bandedrails. We ended up with three in onebinocular view, with excellent views of them walking along the shoreline. A small flock of brown teal was also nice.

Lastly, as if the day hadn’t been good enough, we managed tofind two kookaburras perched and had good views of them, before a lovely dinnerin the little town of Warkworth. And theforecast looks good for the pelagic tomorrow...

Bird of the day –Fairy tern 2x, buff-banded rail x4

Day total – Seen= 59 + 3 heard (kaka, shining bronze-cuckoo, bellbird); new for the trip = 17;total for the trip to date = 68

Earina orchid in flower

Closer view of the flowers

In front of Tane Mahuta, I can see there is going to be a lot of posing on this trip!

The big of it...

Fun with gannets - Day 1 - 21-day tour

2011-10-27T18:20:00.001+13:00

We were all up bright and early and ready for action. The sun was shining, there were still AllBlack supporters reeling from the close victory over France, and everyone waspoised like a coiled spring. We headedout through the sprawl of Auckland to the west to the Waitakere’s where we hada stop overlooking a nice patch of kauri forest. Along the way we had quick views of spotteddove, and a bunch of other introductions, but nearing the park we had our firstviews of tui, New Zealand pigeon, and purple swamphen (pukeko).

Standing in the sunshine overlooking the forest we had goodviews of tui, pigeon, fantail, silvereye and heard shining bronze-cuckoo andtomtit. A very confiding male NorthIsland robin came and checked us out and sang his heart out right in front ofus. Eastern rosellas flitted around theplace giving colourful but brief views and another noisy Australian flew out ofthe forest scrakking away as it flew – Sulphur-crested cockatoo in the bag.

We then headed up the coast and checked out the beautifulbut rugged West Coast at a local Australasian gannet colony. The birds were all in attendance, mostly witheggs, although the odd small chick was also visible. There were also about 400+ white-frontedterns in attendance, some nesting and some with quite large chicks, quite aspread of breeding stages. A pair ofvariable oystercatchers were down on the beach, and tui, yellowhammer and asacred kingfisher were seen around the area.

We then grabbed some lunch enroute, and headed on towardsWaiwera where we sat and ate lunch overlooking a patch of tidal mudflats withmangroves. Fleeting glimpses of buff-bandedrails were not enough to put on the list, but it was a nice spot forlunch. We then headed on to some wetlandareas with small numbers of New Zealand grebe, New Zealand scaup, Australasianshoveler, grey teal, Pacific black duck, and black swan. A lone little black shag sat in the sunlooking on.

We then headed northwards, basically making a b-line forDargaville and the Kauri Top 10 holiday Park. We checked in to our accommodations, and then settled in, having an houror so to check out the local birds – tui, rosellas, etc. After dinner at the local Kaihu Tavern (builtin 1855) we headed out with Herb from the holiday park into Trounson KauriPark. Expectations were high and beforetoo long we heard the first male kiwi call. However, they made us work for it, with two rather obscured views beforea last-minute good but brief view of a bird out in the open grass. We did had fantastic close views of amorepork for several minutes, as well as kauri snails, banded kokopu,long-finned eel, fresh-water crayfish, glow-worms (actually a fly maggot!),cave wetas, and even a possum. All inall a great night, and excellent first day of the tour.

Bird of the day –Northern brown kiwi x2, Australasian gannet x1, New Zealand dotterel x1, NewZealand pigeon x1, North Island robin x2.

Day total – Seen =51 + 3 heard (shining bronze-cuckoo, dunnock, North Island tomtit); new for thetrip = 51; total for the trip to date = 51

The gang

The rugged West Coast looking south

Muriwai

The rugged West Coast, looking north

Gannets doing their thing

Coming in to land

A nice backdrop

White-fronted tern against the sky

Surf's up

White-fronted tern bringing in a small fish

White-fronted terns nesting

A change in direction

2011-10-27T17:55:00.004+13:00

Well had almost three weeks at the Rena Spill in Tauranga. Whilst there I was managing the Wildlife Field Operations, so during the peak of my time there we had almost 40 teams of 3-4 people each out on the beaches recovering wildlife, ranging over up to about 160km of beaches. The work was incredibly challenging, not made any easier by political and financial grandstanding by conservation organisations who should know better, and at least one that is renowned for such antics.

But we had an incredible team of skilled people onboard, from Massey University, Maritime New Zealand and several overseas Bird Rescue and Oiled Bird response facilities. A big thanks to Kerri Morgan, Helen McConnell, Brett Gartrell, Jim Lilley, Bill Dwyer, Phil Battley and Lynn Adams, as well as Barbara Callahan, Curt Clumpner and Mike Ziccardi. Luckily, we had been training for such an event with regards to a Wildlife response for quite sometime, the impacts are still there, but we were able to react swiftly, with skilled trained people. And of course then there were our trained responders and the huge number of volunteers that came out enmasse to help. Truly wonderful to see. And great to have such experience, knowledge and enthusiasm to call upon - people like John Dowding, David Melville and Tony Harbraken for the NZ dotterel capture, Paul Cuming and Dave Richards for taking the reins on the night penguin work and putting in so much effort, and all those teams on the beaches. And then of course there is the massive contribution from the Department of Conservation...a government department currently stricken with the loss of around 100 jobs...the very people we have called upon in this time of need. Let's hope this acts as a wake up call as these guys came from all around the country, eager to help, with skills, knowledge, and the logistical support we needed to lead the field teams. It would have been a lot more difficult without them.

So with long days and not much time off it was home to repack and drive to Auckland to start again, this time a 21-day tour with Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ. Did get to watch the All Blacks beat the French though!

M/V Rena on 7 October 2011 with Motiti Island in the right background and the mainland further beyond.

Wildlife response - Rena oil spill

2011-10-14T11:37:00.000+13:00

Well the last week has been one of the most hectic I've ever had to deal with. So you haven't heard much from me lately...

Last week I was called within hours of the MV Rena running aground in Tauranga, NZ, and mobilised as one of the core National Oiled Wildlife Response Team members to Tauranga. I've been here since, and likely to be here for a little while yet.

Below is a link to an interview I did the other day on TV3, and thought I'd post it here just to give a little info on what I've been doing. I would just say that having been involved with this from the very start I am constantly amazed by the knowledge, expertise, and drive of the people involved, from all aspects of the response. This is not an ad hoc group running this response, but a team of incredibly experienced people who know what they are doing. If things haven't been done as those in the public expect, it has been for good reason.

I'd ask that people be as supportive of the efforts as possible, work with those involved directly and not form splinter groups of well meaning people. Lets work together on this. If you want to be involved with the Wildlife Response then please call 0800 333 771 (experienced bird handlers will be especially valuable over the coming weeks), and if you want to be part of the wider cleanup response then please call 0800 645 774.

http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Wildlife-expert-on-Rena-stranding/tabid/1216/articleID/228997/Default.aspx

New Zealand storm-petrel in the news

2011-10-04T14:00:00.001+13:00

Well this is a little late, but things have been so hectic lately, that I thought better late than never! Been trying to get my report on the Tukituki River Catchment completed, and it is taking a little longer than expected, and of course there is always something else to add. I should have that finished in the next few days and then can get a few photos taken over the last few weeks on here...some good stuff of Australasian bittern, orchids, and plumed whistling ducks to put up.

In the meantime this article ran in the Sunday Star Times just over a week ago - on 25 September 2011. The article had two of my images accompanying it - including the front cover of the 'Focus' section. They came out really well, and in fact the article has received a lot of good interest. It was really sparked by the publication of a paper in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, by Dr Bruce Robertson, with myself as a coauthor, entitled "When rediscovery is not enough: Taxonomic uncertainty hinders conservation of a critically endangered bird". You can read that article here.

Anyway, more exposure for the story, the bird, and us. The articles can also be seen here and here.

Peripatus!

2011-09-14T21:59:00.001+12:00

An awesome day in the field doing more bird surveys in Hawkes Bay. A long day though and I'm off to bed very shortly, but just wanted to post a couple of shots which I enjoyed. I was out with Mike Lusk, a local guy who spends a lot of time out in the bush, and has a huge knowledge of native flora and fauna. I was focused on survey the forest patches we visited for birds, but also wanted to photograph other bits and pieces we saw. So when Mike found some Peripatus I was stoked! This was something I had really wanted to photograph, and so the new macro setup was VERY handy. Think I am slowly getting the art of it, but still a learning curve!

Anyway a couple of photos below...

Spider orchids in flower, this species is Big red spider orchid - Nematoceras iridescens

Peripatus ejecting it's sticky entrapment fluid

The curious peripatus!

Reintroduction Biology cover shot

2011-09-13T11:11:00.000+12:00

Also just recently found out my image of a female stitchbird (hihi) taken on Tiritiri Matangi Island last September made the front cover of "Reintroduction Biology: Integrating Science and Management". This book was edited by a couple of good friends, including John Ewen, Doug Armstrong, and Kevin Parker. Thanks guys!

An honour

2011-09-13T10:43:00.000+12:00

So the other day I was rifling through a stack of mail received during my time away (yes I still haven't got to the bottom of it after being home now for two weeks!). There was an unmarked folder in the stack which I opened, and in it was an award! It was a Meritorious Service Award from the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. To be honest I was shocked and surprised, and really hadn't expected anything like that.

A couple of months earlier somebody had tagged my in a photo on Facebook. It was a picture of the front cover of the latest Southern Bird magazine - produced by the OSNZ. I failed to recognise why I had been tagged, but going back to it see that there is a citation in the for this award...come on people you have to be less subtle than that! ;)

The citation reads -

"Brent Stephenson has been the webmaster for the society's website since around 1996. During this time he has maintained the pages and content to a high standard even though he has often been absent overseas on business. The redevelopment of the website would not have been possible without Brent's sterling work over the years."

So thanks very much to Bruce McKinlay for the nomination, and to the OSNZ for the honour. Much appreciated.

Back to work

2011-09-09T15:35:00.004+12:00

So it's time to get back into some bird survey work now that I am home, and with the weather the way it is to be honest that isn't too hard a task! The last couple of days have been spent with herpetologist researchers Trent Bell and Sarah Herbert from 'Ecogecko Consultants' as we are both working on the same project with Hawkes Bay Regional Council and MWH to assess the Tukituki River Catchment for ecological values...they of course are doing the herps and I'm doing the birds.

So on Wednesday we headed to the back of Te Mata peak where they had already placed lizard 'houses' out and we checked them again. It was a good start with several common geckos, but things petered out a little. They had seen much more earlier in the year, so perhaps the cold weather has meant the critters were not as easy to detect. Anyway, got to see a few and take a few photos with my new 100mm 2.8 macro lens. Loving it, but unfortunately didn't have the adapter ring I needed to use the MT-24 flash head I've bought, so just using ambient light. Of course got home and found it had been delivered and was in my mail box! It was of course the most overcast morning we have had of late. Nevermind, some nice shots anyway. Not a lot in the way of birds around, just the usual farmland suspects.

That afternoon caught up with Aaron and Sarah, Aaron runs Wild Earth Travel from Christchurch so it was great to catch up with them. Spent the afternoon chatting and also visited a few local spots including Te Mata peak, heading up to the top. Stunning afternoon with lovely shadows and light on the hills.

Then yesterday we headed to the Silver Range, a fairly iconic Hawkes Bay location, is a hogsback ridge composed of alternating sandstones and mudstones, and has some unusual shrubland remnants, as well as some well vegetated stream valleys nearby. So Trent had previously been there and set up lizard 'houses' and they wanted to survey those, whilst I was interested in learning what birds were about. A beaut sunny blue sky morning, so a cracking day to be out and about. We surveyed the lizard sites and found some great invertebrates, but no lizards. This time the flash was able to be used, so my first real use of the flash and macro setup. The results I'm sure will get better, but as a first attempt they are not too bad! There were a lot of birds around including the usual common natives such as tui, bellbird, pigeon, grey warbler and fantail. Encouraging to see the smaller insectivores as the really cold snap with a lot of snow recently would have been a tough time for them. Obviously they pulled through in this area.

Spectacular views, sunshine, and interesting photographic subjects, what more do you need!

Trent and Sarah working hard!

The eastern face of Te Mata peak's limestone bluffs

Trent examining geckos capture from under the covers

Neonate common gecko (probably around 6 months old)

Not just geckos under the covers, queen German wasps were also sheltering from the winter, note the wings and antennae tucked out of the way to avoid damage.

Trent and Sarah checking the covers

Sarah showing off a neonate common gecko found under the covers

View along the eastern face of Te Mata peak

One of the lizard covers

Limestone bluffs with cattle for scale...yes those black dots are cattle

Trent inspecting the covers

A sudden mist bank appears...and it disappeared again within minutes

Adult common gecko

I"m gonna get you!

View of Mt Erin from Te Mata peak

Te Mata Peak views

Mt Erin in the distance

Working dogs tied up against the fence

Had enough, time for a snooze

Some of the vegetated stream gullies near Silver Range

Black tunnel web spider, about 70mm from tip of forelegs to end of hind

Looking up towards Silver Range - note the bare sandstone faces

Possible Carabid beetle found under a cover

Female vagrant spider found under a cover, another large spider common in the NZ bush

Closeup of the vagrant spider

Male tree weta, possibly Hawkes Bay tree weta

Very unusual dorso-ventrally flattened spider found under a cover, quite large with body length of around 20-25mm

Willow leaves 'springing'

Looking south along the Silver Range

Trent and Sarah on the Range

Sandstone bluffs

Sandstone bluffs with flax, kowhai and Olearia shrubland

~~Sun orchid of some sort~~ Actually it is just a weed! Purple-eyed grass (Sissyrinchium iridifolium)

Donkeys looking unamused

Prime beef!

Tasty!

Just to prove it's Spring!

2011-09-06T21:35:00.003+12:00

Took these shots today, some lovely blossom...that I think is crab-apple? On one of the main round-abouts in Havelock North where I live. Time to test out the new 100mm IS/L f2.8 macro. I think it will get a workout over the next few months, it sure is a nice lense to handle and looking forward to putting it through its paces with the MT-24 flash. Today however, was another gorgeous blue sky day!

Beautiful blossoms!

Honey bee in action

Sunny afternoon in Hawkes Bay

2011-09-05T23:43:00.000+12:00

Well the weather since getting home has been great. Sunshine and blue skies, with the odd frost but nice warm days. Last week was spent catching up on paperwork, spending time planting native trees at our section, and catching up with friends and family. This week it's back to work! Spent this morning inside staring at the computer screen so decided to head out with the camera this afternoon. A new little egret has been found in Hawkes Bay - take a look on birdingnz.net - and so I thought I'd head out to check a few spots to see if I could find either the old bird or the new own.

I got a little side-tracked by people white-baiting on the Tukituki River, and took a few photos of that. For those unfamiliar with whit-bait they are the juvenile form of a bunch of endemic New Zealand freshwater fishes (in the family Galaxiidae) - take a look here for more info. Basically it is a big thing in New Zealand to catch them during the season and they are considered a delicacy pan-fried as fritters (with just a bit of egg and seasoning) - beautiful! Anyway, I spent some time taking photos of the white-baiters with their nets and little channels they had made to direct the fish upstream into their nets. Kind of neat patterns.

Then headed through Haumoana on the lookout for the egret, but no luck so on to a small pond where there are sometimes interesting ducks, in Te Awanga. Nothing much there so headed to Muddy Creek. No sign of egrets but welcome swallows were a nice distraction, so spent some time with them, and then as the sun got low did some silhouettes with the black swans. Didn't turn out too bad!

Looking up the Tukituki River towards Te Mata Peak

Whitebaiter with the rivermouth and sea in the background

Looking upstream, Mount Erin with the TV repeater on it

Whitebaiter checking his net

Checking for whitebait

Welcome swallow in the late afternoon light

Little pied shag shaking itself

Welcome swallow checking me out

Strong side-lighting on a welcome swallow

Black swan with strong side-lighting

Backlit

Expedición Pelágica Madeira

2011-09-01T13:11:00.001+12:00

During May 2011 Bob Flood and I did a fantastic three-day pelagic with Madeira Wind Birds. On the trip were some great guys from Spain who have put together this video, so thought it worth linking through on my blog. That's me in the red jacket and yellow hood. Thanks to them for putting it together, and hope we can do it all again sometime. Bob and I are looking at doing the trip again perhaps in June 2012...

Almost time for home

2011-08-24T05:57:00.000+12:00

So we had a great Bird Fair at Rutland Water. The third that I have attended representing Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ and the first that both Sav and I have attended. Friday was a busy day, as always this is the day where most serious interest seems to be shown. Saturday was pretty quiet and Sunday was a little better. A lot of interest being shown in New Zealand still, which is great to see considering the current state of 'financial' affairs.

Nice to also catch up with a bunch of past clients, a friends and colleagues from around the World. A big thanks to Albatross Encounter whom we shared a stand with, and great to hang out with the rest of the kiwi exhibitors.

Mum and Dad had spent time up around the local area in their campervan and then picked me up yesterday morning. We headed back to their place and being the sort of person that loves to watch others working hard took a few photos of the old boy digging his spuds. I know this will be enjoyed by a few people around the place!

Leave tomorrow morning for London, and then back to NZ. Looking forward to getting home as this has been a long but enjoyable three and a bit months. Hard to believe its been that long actually, and managed to see a few good things and get a couple of nice photos along the way!

The stand before the madness starts

Gary Melville from Albatross Encounter by the stand

Sav at the stand

Dad digging his spuds

Tatters!

To the Bird Fair Batman!

2011-08-18T19:08:00.000+12:00

Well it is that time of the yea again. We are packing up the campervan this morning and heading to Rutland Water. My folks are dropping me at the Bird Fair and then doing some tripping around the area, whilst I spend the three full days at the Bird Fair. Should be another great event (as always), and looking forward to meeting lots of people there. Sav will also be there this time, his first time in many years, and the first since we started Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ.

So if you are at the Bird Fair, or thinking about a birding tour to New Zealand, drop by and see us. We are sharing a Stand with Albatross Encounter again this year - Marquee 4, Stands 46/47! Hope to see you all there.

You can come to New Zealand and see this bird with us...the New Zealand storm-petrel! We rediscovered it after supposed extinction of 150+ years in 2003.

Up, up and away

2011-08-18T04:24:00.000+12:00

So yesterday afternoon I headed out with Uncle Wilf to release some of his young birds on a training run. Part of the regime of pigeon racing is not only exercising your birds around home, but also taking them out to certain locations that may be useful for the birds in later races, and letting them familiarise themselves with the lay of the land, as well as helping them to build up endurance and fitness.

So with 38 youngsters in the back of the ute we headed through to a secret location on the banks of the Severn River (actually I'm not sure it is secret, but it sounds better anyway). The weather in the morning had been typically British summerery type weather, wind, wetting drizzle and cool, but by lunchtime it was looking better, and as we navigated the narrow country lanes near the release site the sun was actually shining...should have brought my sunscreen (yeah right!). Anyway, we started to get the cages out of the ute and put them up on a stop-bank wall when three kids, Jill and another lady came along. They were pretty keen on seeing the birds released, and as Wilf opened the trap-doors they watched as the pigeons took to the skies and circled, before heading off up the river. We let the four baskets of birds go, and then headed home, hopefully to find the birds quietly tucked up in their lofts. We arrived and most of the birds had arrived back, but somehow some of the birds had become split, and we were waiting on a few to get back. Sometimes I guess they can become split of their own accord, but sometimes it might also be the local peregrines working the flocks and splitting birds off. Anyway, by the end of the day all of the birds had arrived home safely, and I also spent a bit of time taking photos of some of Wilf's hens exercising around the lofts. Also got a few nice shots of the Welsh Beulah ewes that are grazing their farm, and the Leicester Border X lambs they have produced. Nice looking sheep (no funny comments please!) with black and white faces.

There was then a bit of excitement with a hobby ripping through the area creating hell with the swallows and house martins. We had seen him the other day, and Uncle Wilf has seen it a bit this summer, so suspect they are hanging around the area. Was fantastic to watch it zipping around and at one stage went into full chase mode, swirling through the air after a swallow or martin. They are so unbelievably manouverable it has to be seen to be believed, but all the swallows lived to see another day, with the bird not being successful. It was in the area for a good few minutes on several occasions later on, and you could generally tell when it was about as all the birds would go mad, calling and twittering and diving around the place. Even the jays down in the wood gave a few coughs. When I got home and looked at my photos of the exercising pigeons I was astounded to see a distant diving hobby in the background of one of the photos! Well it certainly looks like a hobby rather than a barn swallow! Pretty cool, and another nice day in the Forest of Dean.

The youngsters loft, with the travel cages ready to go

Boxing them up

We had an audience

Which one is the fastest?

Ready steady...

GO!

There they go!