Up and away…well at least to the bakery
down the road. We grabbed lunch and then
headed off south back towards Tairua as a few spots of rain came through. Heading back up and over we again had
beautiful views of the Alderman Islands, and then headed through Tairua on
south. We basically spent most of the
morning heading south and inland, finally getting away from the coast we have
been hugging for almost the entire time we have been touring. The sunshine prevailed and as we got inland
it warmed and got sunnier.
We entered Pureora Forest Park and stopped
at a great spot with good views over the surroundings for lunch. We all had eyes peeled for some key targets,
but most were clearly hiding away. We
did get good flight views of yellow-fronted parakeet and kaka, as well as tui,
robin, NZ pigeon and other common stuff in the forest around. We decided to drive in to another spot and
did a short walk through the forest, where we again found several robins and
this time got good views of kaka and parakeets perched. A beaut view out over the forest, with flight
views of kaka, but there were no calling long-tailed cuckoo, and no perched
falcon….hmmm!
We headed off to another spot and drove
some gravel roads, finding a couple of confiding NZ pipits which showed
well. Good views out over the
countryside, and we then headed to a spot where we quickly got onto a
fernbird. The bird jumped right out in
the open and then flew across to a patch of blackberry and sat in the open for
few seconds before diving into the bracken.
We spent a little time trying to coax it
out again, but no luck, so headed off back to our first spot for a second look,
before then heading off through some beautiful forest. We scoured the area for falcon and listened
for long-tailed cuckoo, but no luck. But
it was beautiful scenery and nice to be driving through it.
We made another quick stop for fernbird,
but nothing showing, so carried on. We
checked into the accommodation and then headed out for a spectacular
Valentine’s Day dinner…so romantic!
Another great day!
Day total – Seen = 46 + 3 heard (Eastern
rosella, grey gerygone, whitehead); new for the trip = 6; total for the trip to
date = 118
Bird
of the day – Kaka x4, yellow-crowned parakeet x1
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| A confiding North Island robin |
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| A tui peers out of the shrubbery |
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| A tui perched in a tree fern crown |
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| Bird of the day - New Zealand kaka |
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| Enjoying the sunshine |
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| Another cracking day |
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