Falcons, falcons, everywhere

Another stunning blue sky day on the West Coast…how long could this last?  We were up a little later based on our nocturnal excursion the previous night, and headed south towards Fox Glacier.  Passing through some stunning scenery and superb forest we were again on the look out for falcon, so headed to a local spot near a lake to take a look.  With coffee in hand, this time the falcons neglected to show, they had obviously not received the memo!  However, stunning views of the mountains and surrounds were an excellent consolation, and epic views of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook topped it all off.

We grabbed some lunch, stowed it in the cooler in the back to stop random nibbling before lunch time (!) and then headed on south.  Not too far south of Fox Glacier a large bird circling way up high came in to view, but that was not the thing of interest, what was was the smaller shape circling near it! “Falcon” was the yell from the drivers seat, and finding the next available pull in spot we ground to a halt, to scan an empty sky.  Somehow the falcon and the great cormorant had both managed to dispear in the short time it had taken to come to a stop.  But then again the yell went up, this time from Geoff, and we all got onto a rather ragged looking female falcon flying across the road in front of us, giving good prolonged flight views as she headed away into the forest on the far valley wall!  Phew, the monkey was off our back!

We were pretty happy as we continued our way south, and as we neared the coast, winding our way back and forth through some of the switchbacks on the road, again the yell of “Falcon” went up from the drivers seat.  This time a bird perched up on a high snag above the road, and as we pulled into a nice wide pull in area a short way down the road the bird stayed right where it was.  With the scope on it, it was not hard to identify the bird as a recently fledged juvenile, probably a female based on her size.  As we all got great views of her through the scope, she suddenly started calling, leaving her perch and flying out over us as we realised there was nother bird approaching from further up the valley.  Hardly able to believ our eyes, right in front of us we watched the adult male fly in and pass food to this clearly female juvenile!  A mid-air food pass!  Wow!  The male headed off out of sight and the young female went up to a visible perch and started to eat whatever poor small bird had become breakfast!  All in the scope, but it didn’t last long and she was getting anxious, having inhaled her snack.  A short time later there was more calling and the young female calling, also left her perch and flew out again, with the adult male coming in and doing a second food pass!  It doesn’t get much better than this, and with 800mm and 600mm lenses pointing to the sky there were no doubt a few action shots snapped!  We watched the young bird consume most of her second meal, waiting a bit longer for any more action, but then deciding we needed to get back on the road.

We continued southwards, stopping in to try some local whitebait fritters – you just can’t drive the West Coast of New Zealand without having a whitebait fritter!  Of course, one fritter led to two fritters…a little snack before lunch!  We then continued south to try our luck at spotting a Fiordland penguin or two, but hadn’t reached our location when another falcon flew across the road in front of us.  Coming to a grinding halt we spun around and jumping out Geoff said “There it is”, hang on, he was looking at a different bird, so in the end we had another two falcon, again a juvenile and an adult.  We watched the juvenile fly around the place, harassing the adult, obviously wanting to be fed, and after some time had great views of them both on the same perch, with the adult flapping whilst the juvenile screamed “Feed me! Feed me!”.  Fantastic – a FIVE falcon day!  They both flew off across the road and disappeared, and so it was time to carry on.  We got to a piece of coast where we scanned for penguins, but alas nothing.  However, we did have a very close pod of about 10+ bottle-nosed dolphins cruising along, leaping and cavorting…love seemed to be in the air!

We had our lunch watching the dolphins and scanning for penguins, all the while bathed in sunshine (and swatting sandflies), and then were on our way again, heading inland and up and over the mountains towards Wanaka.  We made a couple of stops, checking out a forested area for bush birds.  There were a lot of rifleman around and nice opportunities to see them, a few tomtit, but otherwise the forest was relatively quiet.  We could distantly hear yellowhead, but they were just so far off and not showing any sign of coming any closer, so we decided to head for the accomodation in Wanaka.  As we left the forest wet West Coast, and headed up through to the very contrasting and dry Wanaka area, we decided what better way of having dinner than with a BBQ at the accomodation!  Even better with a couple of bottles of great New Zealand wine!

Day total – Seen = 37 + 2 heard (kaka, yellowhead); new for the trip = 0; total for the trip to date = 146

Mt Tasman (left) and Mt Cook

Checking out the falcons

The adult, sick of the noisy youngster takes off

Bottle-nosed dolphins heading past the shore

Cooper's kiwi

A lazy start to the day, with a late night for most the night before.  So we headed to a local café at Punakaiki and had a leisurely breakfast, before then heading out and around the walk at Pancake Rocks.  With the large swells and a relatively high tide, the blowholes were doing their thing, rather spectacular to watch.  We checked the surf for dolphins, but no little fins could be seen, but there were a few white-fronted terns roosting and passing by, and the odd spotted shag.

We then loaded up and headed off back down the coast, making the most of the stunning scenery bathed in beautiful sunshine.  We stopped just north of Hokitika at the sewage ponds, and checked through all the waterfowl, but other than one of the feral Cape Barren geese, there was not a lot of interest amongst the Paradise shelducks, mallards, shoveler, etc.  So we picked up some lunch in Hokitika and headed to a local spot with lovely scenery and some forest, having our lunch in the sunshine.  After lunch we did a short walk through the forest, but it was very quite and although we found a few dragonflies, there was not a lot else flying!

We carried on down the coast, making a couple of quick stops to check out lakes, and spotted some distant great crested grebes, plus kept our eyes peeled for falcon.  Passing through a lot of good falcon country, but just not spotting any – day fourteen and still no decent views of this species – rather unusual!

As the weather was so stunning we decided to head up to have a look at Franz Josef Glacier, so we parked and walked up the short trail to the glacier lookout.  Walking up through some very mice forest we had excellent views of several black morph New Zealand fantails, as well as grey warbler, silvereye and brown creeper.  Black fantails are not something we see on every tour, so a nice addition, and they hung around for sometime feeding in the subcanopy around us.  As we continued walking we noticed all the seed capsules of both spider and greenhood orchids, and in one place on the track there were seven different species of orchid visible.  Unfortunately they had all finished flowering, but pretty nice to see them anyway.  The view from the lookout was spectacular, with clear skies and the towering mountains feeling like they were just there.  The glacier continues to receed, with only a part of the face now visible – a big change since the photo in the itnerary was taken back in about 2003.

We headed back down into the town and checked in to our accommodation, and had a chance to relax, before then heading into have dinner and then towards Okarito to head out on our kiwi hunting expedition.  We arrived early, and checked out the area for a few other species, managing to get absolutely stunning views of fernbird within about 1m, totally exposed and sitting on a branch in plain view!  The bird sat there for perhaps 3-4 minutes giving cracking views, totally unperturbed by us.

Ian Cooper from Okarito Kiwi Tours arrived and we set about getting our gear ready and being briefed on what was going to happen.  We then headed deep into the forested area along some logging tracks to get into position for the evening.  Along the way we had more excellent views of fernbird, and several South Island robin came into investigate also.  Nearing our position we discussed the plight of this kiwi and what makes the bird so special, and then as the light faded and the mosquitos began to hum, we got into position.  The two birds we planned to target were roosting quite close to the track and to each other, so it wasn’t a very long wait and we could make out the sound of leaves being trampled nearby as the birds came out of their burrows and began to feed.  We waited with baited breath, anxiously hoping that the birds would feed slowly towards us, and as the rustling sounds increased in volume we knew we were in luck.  It was almost dark as we all got into final position along the trail, and with Ian and Brent intently focussed on the growing sound of a kiwi approaching, both keeping an ear to their telemetry gear to make sure the other member of the kiwi pair was still nearby, we waited quietly.  A were we rewarded!  Ian carefully put his light on just as ‘Joeline’ the female of the pair came out of the ferns on the side of the track literally 2m from us!  She cautiously sniffed and peered towards us, but completely unperturbed, fed briefly, then ran right to Etienne’s feet, fed a little more within a couple of feet, and then slowly ambled into the ferns and bushes on the other side of the track.  She had been in view for probably 30 seconds, giving stonking views and her behaviour seemed completely unaffected by our presence, the goal that Ian always strives for!  Although we wanted to whoop for joy, this was of course not possible, and we remained quiet as she fed off away from the track on the other side, but we knew from Ian and Brent’s body language that the male – ‘Fancy’ was not far off and was probably also going to come out onto the track.  We quietly adjusted our position, and sure enough several minutes later he too came out into the open on the track, gave a great but slightly briefer view, before also disappearing into the undergrowth on the other side of the track.

Ian slowly and carefully got us to move back up the trail and away from the birds, and we then out of earshot and away from them we had a chance to congratulate each other and thank Ian for an aboslutely stonking kiwi experience!  And all this before 10pm!  We headed slowly off back towards the vehicles, and once in range of another pair of kiwi, Ian checked carefully that they were not too close, as we headed through their territory.  They were well off the track, so we headed straight for the vehicles.  We thanked Ian for his incredible skill and for giving us such a great experience – he had after all put us right in front of these two birds and had done so in a way that had not impacted them.  Perfect!

We drove back off into Franz Josef and fell into bed, dreaming of Okarito brown kiwi – the rarest of the kiwi!

Day total – Seen = 45; new for the trip = 3; total for the trip to date = 146

Young weka chick at our accommodation

Waves crashing at Pancake Rocks

Hazy sea air along the coast

Stack of pancakes

Fern frond in the sun

Kidney ferns

Franz Josef glacier in the sunshine

The kea delight

Up and off.  But this morning was different as we were leaving our good mate Matt behind!  Matt was to stay behind in Kaikoura and have a few days off before catching up with Sav and his group and continuing the tour through the South Island with them.  Sad to leave him behind, we slowly headed south along the coast, with another beaut blue sky warm day.

We made a stop at St Annes Lagoon, but it would appear that the toxic algae bloom that has occurred there has meant a lof of the waterfowl, including the Cape Barren geese, have either moved on to somewhere else or died.  Hopefully not the latter!  We searched high and low, but couldn’t find a Cape Barren goose anywhere!  So on to Cheviot for a quick coffee break and then continuing on our way.

We then made a stop at an estuary to see what shorebirds we could find.  A flock of white-fronted terns had our first little black-fronted tern amongst it, a juvenile bird fledged from this season.  There were a number of bar-tailed godwit, lots of pied stilt, and variable and South Island oystercatchers.  Scanning further we found a massive flock of spotted shag roosting on the seaward spit at the river mouth, and then scanning through the godwit feeding on the mudflats found a whimbrel off in the distance.

All of a sudden a dark shorebird flew in towards and landed not far away – ‘Black Stilt!’ was yelled and the scope was soon on it, even though it was only a few tens of metres away.  The photographers moved into position and snapped a few shots, and everyone got great views.  Scanning further we realised there was also a second bird a bit further away.

We headed back to the van and then checked out a couple of sites on the river where Geoff had found some black-fronted terns roosting.  Again the photographers had a ball getting some really nice close shots of both adults coming out of breeding plumage, still looking really striking, and some of the juvenile birds that had just fledged this year.

It was then time to head towards Arthur’s Pass, but of course on the way it was a quick stop at the ‘World Famous’ Sheffield Pie shop.  The pie crumbs were flying as we ate our lunch on the picnic tables in beautiful sunshine outside the shop!  Another gastronomic delight!  With full bellies we then continued on our way up into the mountains, with a quick stop at Arthur’s Pass village to spot a kea or two in heir native habitat – beside the cafe in the carpark.  But at a slightly more natural setting we found another group of birds, and with sunshine, blue skies, and a beautiful mountain backdrop we had some lovely views of these great birds.  They were calling, playing and flying around giving excellent photo opportunities, and it was just watching them check out cars, riding them down the road, and interacting with each other.

We then headed off and across onto the West Coast, where we made our way north to Punakaiki.  Some stunning scenery along the coast, especially with large swells rolling in and blue skies and hot conditions.  We checked into our accomodation, and then headed down for dinner at the local tavern, before heading out into the forest to listen for great spotted kiwi.  After dark we waited in the forest, and heard several distant kiwi calling, and had great views of another morepork.  We headed slowly back to the accommodation, seeing a couple of weka and possum, but no kiwi.  A good nights sleep was in order!

Day total – Seen = 55 + 2 heard (great-spotted kiwi, fernbird); new for the trip = 4; total for the trip to date = 142

Photographing black-fronted terns

Kea against a blue sky

Gliding

Capturing kea

Strong lighting

Coming closer

And closer...

A different bird, note the less bedraggled tail

A different approach

Kea meets tui

Kaikoura really goes crazy

The sea was fairly flat, there was a light breeze, and there was a fair bit of cloud around, yet the mountains we could see were bathed in sunshine.  We headed out to the Seal Colony along the peninsula and had views of the seals and a few turnstone and banded dotterel, then headed to another spot to look for cirl bunting, and within a minute a male popped up onto a fence and then flew to a telephone wire.  Nice!

We headed down to South Bay to meet with the boat, and board with our skipper Gary.  Excitement was in the air, as for most of us this was going to be the first real albatross encounter (excuse the pun – we were of course going out with Albatross Encounter!).  We headed out to our first chumming spot a wee way off land, and of course had a few birds following before we even stopped, and made a pass of several fishing boats that had called and said they had birds behind their boat.  A short-tailed shearwater was on the water right by their boat, and a good addition to the trip list.

At the first chumming spot we lowered the chum and in came the birds.  Within minutes we had both Southern Royal and New Zealand wandering albatros, as well as Salvin’s and white-capped, and a little later a Northern Royal albatross also turned up.  Not a bad assortment of albatri!  Of course in amongst them were Northern giant petrels, Cape petrels, and Westland and white-chinned petrels.  The cameras were clicking!

We decided to move, and although it was a little lumpy in places there wasn’t a lot of swell, so we headed out deep.  We carried on right out to a place which is as far out as the regular trips go, and threw the chum back in the water.  Again the same albatross species were soon to arrive – with most of the birds probably having followed us.  But all of a sudden a white-faced storm-petrel appeared – wow, a good bird for Kaikoura, with not many of these recorded here.  Then Brent spotted another storm-petrel coming in and called it, and as the bird got closer we realised this was a grey-backed storm-petrel, a REALLY good bird!  Whoops went up as the bird came right in to the back of the boat to feed and then carried on up into the slick to join the white-faced storm-petrel.  Somehow another white-faced had snuck past, so we had three stormies in the slick – not often this happens at Kaikoura!  Gary had turned it on for us!

We continued chumming, and had a great assortment of birds around us, all the previous suspects, plus Buller’s shearwater, a single flesh-footed and a couple of probably sooty shearwaters, plus one or two short-tailed.  Excellent photo opportunities of all species, and the grey-backed very obligingly did several circuits of the boat coming right in on a number of occasions.

But before long it was time to head back in, so we threw the rest of the chum into the water, causing a major feeding frenzy, and then started headed back towards South Bay.  We raced into town, grabbed a bite to eat, and then most of us had decided to head back out on the afternoons trip, with some opting for a rest and wander in town, and one heading for the dolphin watching.

Those of us that headed back out in the afternoon scoffed our lunches and were back on the boat heading out in no time.  We headed to a closer spot first off, and had many less Royals and many more New Zealand wandering albatross, amongst all the other birds.  We then decided to head out further to the south and out further.  We arrived, threw in the chum and all was normal.  Until Matt yelled ‘Arctic skua’.  Off in the distance was a small dark bird flying purposefully to the SE, but it wasn’t an Arctic skua and I yelled ‘Noddy!’.  Unfortunately too distant to get a good view, was a black noddy, heading off out to sea! Wow the World was really upside down today!  Everyone saw the bird, it was just a shame it was so far away, but what a record for Kaikoura!

We got back down to business and continued watching the birds at the back of the boat, with no other major upset, until all the whale boats started converging nearby and we realised there was a sperm whale several hundred metres away, huffing and puffing on the surface.  We watched for a while until it sounded, raising its tail fluke as it dived.  Nice!  So we decided it was time to leave also and headed in shore for a quick look at Barnies Rock, just in case the noddy had gone to roost, and then along the shore as we headed back to South Bay.  Suddenly Gary and I spotted a funny looking little wave and realised there was a Hector’s dolphin right by us, so we had a quick look at that before continuing back to shore.  What a day!

A bit of time back at the motel for reading, downloading photos etc, before dinner and then bed!

Day total – Seen = 51; new for the trip = 10; total for the trip to date = 138

Northern Royal comes in for a look

Northern Royal coming straight at us

White-capped swings past the boat

Buller's shearwater coming to land

Northern Royal albatross coming close

Northern giant petrel calls as it comes in to land

Buller's shearwater leaves the water and flies in closer

White-chinned petrel on approach

Two Northern giant petrels go at it

Salvin's albatross comes in to land

White-capped albatross portrait

Grey-backed storm-petrel skips across the water

The three storm-petrels

New Zealand wandering albatross with wings arced

New Zealand wandering albatross coming in

New Zealand wandering albatross with the mountains in the background

New Zealand wandering albatross