Up and off in the morning we headed east
and towards Napier, but not before snatching nice views of the mountains down
the end of the lake. Mt Ngaruhoe had a
bit of cloud around the top, but the other two were pretty clear, and it was
otherwise a clear blue sky – it looked like it was going to be a great day. The plan was to visit several forest sites on
the way to Napier, before looking around several shorebird and waterbird sites.
We headed through some pretty good falcon
country on the way – “Keep your eyes peeled for falcon, we are in good falcon
country” was the call from the drivers seat…I’m not sure anyone believed though
as not a single falcon showed itself all day!
We did however stop along the way for a rook! Excellent, nice to have that one under the
belt.
Our first stop was overlooking a forested
area, with the hope of the elusive falcon.
Some harriers and a lot of other bird song was all we saw and
heard. Once we got down into the forest
we had a lot of tui and bellbird, as well as rifleman, whitehead, tomtit and
robin. Great views of all of them and
some really lovely forest to walk through.
A long-tailed cukoo called off in the distance, but never came close. As we neared the end of the walk the guys
found a pair of kaka and managed to get some great photos of the birds
courtship feeding, with the male feeding the female. We had lunch overlooking the forest, with
another kaka coming in close for a look and then feeding nearby on a feeding
station that has been put out for these recently released birds. Great watching it up close feeding on honey
water from a nectar feeder.
After lunch we headed down towards Napier,
making a couple of brief stops and driving past a small pond with several mute
swans on it. We headed to a wetland area
first off and spotted good numbers of black swan and other waterfowl –
including our first shoveler of the trip, before getting great views of pied
stilt with half grown young ones, and then a black-fronted dotterel with very
small chicks. We then headed to Anderson
Park and found the long-staying plumed whistling ducks roosting on the side of
the pond. Just the two of them now, and
they looked to be happily sunning themselves beside the pond. The guys managed to get some nice photos of them,
before we then headed on back towards Taupo.
We made a quick stop at Brent’s house to
sample his latest batch of beer, have a coffee, and scare the rabbits out of
the vegetable garden, before then heading back up and over the hills to Taupo,
and then down along the eastern side of the lake to Turangi. We made a couple of quick stops along the
Tongariro River to check for blue duck, but alas nothing, before then checking
into our accommodation and having another great dinner.
Day
total – Seen = 55 + 1 heard (long-tailed cuckoo);
new for the trip = 5; total for the trip to date = 114
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| Lichens up close |
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| The motley bunch! |
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