Pot of gold, a gannet at the end of a rainbow |
This is the blog of Eco-Vista | Brent Stephenson, a wildlife photographer, guide, and birder based near Napier, New Zealand. His wildlife, landscape, and people images can be discovered at his portfolio website.
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Songs about rainbows
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.
Friday, 18 November 2011
The pud
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 |
Sunday, 13 November 2011
WIIIIILLLLLSOOONNNNNNNNNN!
So up and packed and off to the 0800 ferry where we had to
farewell the beautiful Stewart Island.
It was another lovely sunny day with almost no wind today, and the sea
looked flat calm..and it almost was!
Very smooth conditions and it really didn’t bode well for a good
crossing birdwise. We had a couple of
little blue penguins as we left Halfmoon Bay and of course some Stewart Island
shags, before getting out towards the Muttonbird Islands. A few sooty shearwaters drifted past, and
some good views of common diving petrels.
In great contrast to the day before we had one Salvin’s and one
white-capped albatross and a Northern giant petrel crossed our wake, but she
was looking pretty quiet...until I spotted a small black bird flying towards
and with us. All dark, white rump, low
to the water, WILSON’S STORM-PETREL! The
call 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 with
the ferry for probably more than a minute going in the same direction as
us! Fantastic, a cracking little bird
and really good views.
The birds pretty much thinned out after that with just a
couple of white-chinned petrels, before getting in to Bluff. We grabbed our gear, reloaded the bus and
then checked out Stirling Point and some of the tern flocks, but nothing
different spotted amongst them. So we
headed north, up through the very scenic Catlins. We stopped at a couple of places to take
photos, before grabbing some lunch and then heading to a beach to check out
some 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 actually
another animal tucked right up against the hightide mark that everyone else had
missed and walked straight past. So we
spent some time admiring this big boy, still a sub-adult though. He seemed pretty happy dozing and flicking
sand 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 see
yellow-eyed penguins coming ashore, and although after an hour or so we hadn’t
seen any come ashore we had heard them and had scope views of a bird only 20m
or so away. So fantastic views of this very
rare penguin.
We then checked in to our accommodation, had dinner, caught
up on the checklist and off to bed!
Bird of the day – Yellow-eyed
penguin 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 |
Friday, 11 November 2011
Records breaking
Well what an unbelievable day! Nobody ate a single pie today...not even
Marvin! No it wasn’t just unbelievable
for that, we had an absolutely incredible day out on the water, and bagged a
whole bunch of great birds as well.
We grabbed some lunch and then headed to the boat, the
Aurora, skippered by Ty and Colin, and ably assisted by Matt. We headed out just on 0830 and it was
overcast and a little drizzly, but this didn’t dampen our spirits as we headed
out to the Muttonbird Islands. First
call was Bench Island to try and find a few yellow-eyed penguins, which we
managed pretty easily with two on the rocks not far off. They gave nice views and we savoured the
moment and then headed off, getting a couple of distant brown skua shortly
after. We however got great views of a
couple of brown skua that came in to be thrown a few blue cod frames, before we
headed off and around towards Wreck Reef.
This was our first chumming spot, and on the way the birds
started to come in with albatross numbers increasing as blue cod frames were
slowly fed (mostly, thanks Ty!! ;) over the side. There
were literally thousands of sooty shearwaters around and we had great views of
these plus the odd common diving petrel and Cape petrel. At Wreck Reef we chummed for a bit and
numbers of albatross steadily increased, with most being white-capped and Salvin’s
the odd Buller’s and a good number of Southern Royals of varying ages, showing
varying amounts of white in the upperwing.
We also managed at least one, possibly two immature Campbell albatross
which are always nice to see.
We then felt it was time to head south further towards Port
Pegasus, stopping at a few spots along the way to see Fiordland crested
penguins both swimming and feeding and up on the rocks, and checking all the
tern flocks we could find. The scenery
was stunning, even in the sometimes drizzly conditions, and the wind rose a
little, but was never too uncomfortable.
Near Port Pegasus we finally managed to find one Antarctic
tern feeding with a group of white-fronteds, but it gave us the slip, as did a
second bird found shortly after. We
never got great views, but enough to see the darker plumage and red bill. There were however a lot of Fiordland crested
penguins around, with rafts of up to 7 or so birds.
We then made a run out towards the Northern traps, where the
wind had picked up and there was perhaps 1.5m swell, but still pretty
comfortable. As we neared the chumming
location we suddenly started to see mottled petrels, and after a handful had
passed 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 sooty
shearwaters and small numbers of fairy prions, and a lot of albatrosses. Same mix, although we had a nice adult
Campbell albatross, but a lot of white-capped, Salvin’s and Southern Royals
coming in for the chum. The stars
however were mottled petrels that just kept coming past singly, with probably
close to 100 seen during the course of the day.
Fairy prions were carefully checked, but all seemed to be fairy until not
long before we left when we suddenly had a couple of broad-billed come past giving
great views. Just prior to that a
fantastic little grey-backed storm-petrel came in and spent a few minutes out
on the slick feeding, allowing everyone to get onto it and see it – awesome! With pretty much everything we had expected
and more in the bag, and a long way to home, we decided to head back, staying
out wide for quite a bit. The result was
a steady stream of mottled petrels and some really great views of perhaps 10 or
more broad-billed prions. Fairy prions
were also still coming past, and I’m absolutely sure a couple of prions that
came past were neither...perhaps Salvin’s prions, but too tricky to nail in the
conditions and whilst moving...another day!
Clearly the day had been a hectic one and had taken its toll
on all involved (some more than others), and whilst they snoozed a black-browed
albatross snuck up the wake and had a brief look, being seen by just the wily
Bruce and some of the others onboard, but not the main party. We made it back into Halfmoon Bay just before
1800 in time for dinner and a relaxing few drinks. What a spectacular day in an incredible part
of New Zealand! Even better is the fact
that this is tied with my record for a 21-day trip list, and is dangerously
close to Sav’s 165 record!
Bird of the day – Fiordland
crested penguin x2, Antarctic tern x3
Day total – Seen
= 38; new for the trip = 7; total for the trip to date = 161 (actually 162 inc
bittern)
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
So it was earlyish morning, leaving the accommodation just
after seven and heading back to Miles Better Pies for another round of
pies...apple pie this time for breakfast and damn was it good. It was an absolutely gorgeous clear blue sky
day so of course all eyes were on the scenery.
We drove through to Bluff making one quick stop along the way to have a
look over a wetland area. There were a
few scaup around, plus shoveler and paradise shelduck, but nothing special so
we were on the road again.
We arrived in to Bluff, checked into the ferry terminal and
waited for the ferry to depart. The sun
was still shining and the sky was clear blue.
As we cruised out of Bluff and into the first part of the Foveaux Strait
we could look back on the Southern end of the Southern Alps...something I have
never 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 lovely
conditions and a bit of wind to keep the birds flying as well. We encountered good numbers of sooty
shearwaters, with a few rafts mid-Strait, and had nice views of them and common
diving petrel. We saw a couple of
Stewart Island shags at either end of the trip, plus the odd Northern giant
petrel, white-capped albatross, and Cape petrel. There was one possible white-chinned petrel
following a fishing boat into Bluff also.
As we came in to Oban we kept an eye out for penguins, but
nothing seen. We got off the ferry and
grabbed our gear making the short walk to the Hotel and checking in. We had a short break and then headed up and
over to Golden Bay and grabbed a water taxi to Ulva Island...still with the sun
shining...can’t believe it! At Ulva our
focus was very much on saddleback, having missed them on Motuara (only hearing
them anyway), so we walked the first part of the track very slowly and kept
listening out for calls. There was the odd
one distantly, but our attention was quickly diverted to the flowering spider
orchids along the side of the track.
They were pretty much all over the place, with one of the species being
in full flower. It kind of looks like Singularybas oblongus but seems to be
more round in shape and doesn’t have such a prominent floral bract beneath the
flower and the leaves weren’t normally veined and flecked. There were a couple of other species of
spider orchid we found just finishing flowering and a heap of greenhood orchids
most of which were not yet in full flower, but I managed to find one that was.
Meanwhile we had nice close robin, red-crowned and
yellow-crowned parakeet, brown creeper and stonking yellowhead. Eventually we had fantastic views of a
saddleback and then managed to find a few other bits and bobs, plus kaka, so
everyone was happy! Yellowhead were
actually surprisingly common, and despite the poison drop it was nice to find
saddleback, robin, etc. We didn’t
however see a weka, and apparently they are pretty thin on the ground at the
moment.
We did a short loop around to Sydney Cove, and then getting
back to the wharf just before 5pm, enjoyed the sunshine, before heading back to
Oban for a quick break before dinner.
Fantastic dinner as usual at the South Sea Hotel, and then out with
Phillip Smith to search for Southern brown kiwi.
Lots of little blue penguins on the way in beautiful calm
conditions, and then we headed over to Ocean Beach. We took the long-way around and halfway along
the trail I heard something behind me and turned to see a female kiwi run up
right behind me, pause, then run right up to me and tap my boot with her
bill! Ha, that’s a first! Most of the group got great views of her, and
then a short way on we had another smaller male. Once on the beach we had stunning views of a
bird feeding on the beach in the open.
We watched it in the dim torch beam for a good few minutes, simply
awesome! What a night to remember. We headed back to the boat and then back for
a 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 |
Same |
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! |
Thursday, 10 November 2011
What a day!
Awoke to a dreary sky and threat of drizzle, but the sun was
shining at Miles Better Pies again this morning. With another truck load of pies and
sandwiches we lurched back up the road towards Milford Sound, this time with
the aim of going right through to do a Milford cruise.
The drizzle started to fall as we got along the road, but we
were still on the lookout for falcon and other things as we headed through. So spotting the pair of blue duck on a couple
of rocks in the river was a definite bonus, and we had a couple of minutes
there watching them preening and standing in the river. Excellent!
At Milford Sound the cloud was pretty low, but we could
still make out the top of Mitre Peak, and we boarded our boat and headed out at
10:15am. It didn’t take long and Marvin
pointed to a bird in the sky near the walls of the fiord, and it was quickly
apparent it was a falcon! A really dark
individual and we had really nice views of it circling above the fiord before
we got too far away. A great start. A few minutes more and the first of the
Fiordland crested penguins were spotted in the water a wee way off, and then
shortly after a small pod of four bottlenosed dolphins cruised past giving
really 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 crested
in the water we were pretty happy.
Towards the end of the Fiord we had a penguin up on the shore and the
boat skipper took the boat nose in on the beach and we had great views of it
hopping around the rocks. Then shortly
after another bird up on the rocks a bit further down.
We neared the end of the Fiord and circled around, and
started to rack up a few more penguins in the water, some pretty close and
giving 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 the
cruise by Lady Bowen Falls we were still seeing more penguins, and the last
tally was 28 (!) Fiordland crested penguins during the cruise. Awesome!
So we headed back to the vehicle and made our way back
through to Homer Tunnel where we dropped a few more pie crumbs, watching kea
through the windows in light drizzle, and then continued on through. I spotted another ‘ducky’ shape and turned
around to find a beaut male blue duck on a rock. We had absolutely stunning views of it within
a few metres, calling, preening and falling asleep! Stunning...another couple of photos for the holiday
album! 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 – Fiordland
crested penguin x4, rest TBA
Day total – Seen
= 37 + 2 heard (dunnock, brown creeper); new for the trip = 0; total for the
trip 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 |
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