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 |
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Northern Royal coming straight at us |
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White-capped swings past the boat |
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Buller's shearwater coming to land |
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Northern Royal albatross coming close |
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Northern giant petrel calls as it comes in to land |
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Buller's shearwater leaves the water and flies in closer |
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White-chinned petrel on approach |
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Two Northern giant petrels go at it |
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Salvin's albatross comes in to land |
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White-capped albatross portrait |
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Grey-backed storm-petrel skips across the water |
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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 |
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