A wren on a rock

We were on the road and heading towards Queenstown with the sun shining yet again...let’s not jinx it, but we have been damn lucky so far!  We headed through the scenic Cardrona way to Frankton, even stopping for more scenic photos, but with eyes constantly peeled for falcon.  No luck on the falcon, and we skirted through Frankton and up the shores of Lake Wakatipu towards Te Anau.

With no steam train fanatics there was no need to stop in at the ‘Kingston Flyer’ and as we started to get onto the more open farmland areas we started to encounter small numbers of black-billed gulls and the odd black-fronted tern.  Of course South Island oystercatchers were seen out in the paddocks as well.

We cruised into Te Anau, grabbed some lunch (predictably more pies at Miles Better Pies!), and then headed out towards Homer Tunnel.  The sun was still shining, and it was just too great an opportunity to get to Homer Tunnel and look for rock wren in lovely conditions.  We made a few stops along the way, checking previously successful falcon spots, but nothing until a pair flew out and up the valley and off into the distance.  Nice flight views for most people, and we also had lovely red admiral butterflies playing in the sun, kaka, tomtit, etc.  At the Homer Tunnel we had a rock wren within about 30 seconds (which has to be a record for me), as a male flew directly behind and within metres of Marvin, Bruce and Dwight.  Of course they were all standing admiring the damn scenery as it flew right past them!  With me yelling and gesticulating wildly they quickly put their cameras away thinking I was berating them yet again for admiring the scenery, and luckily the rock wren decided to watch the spectacle from a few metres away and everyone ended up with superb views, only to have the female appear and hang about for a bit before also disappearing off uphill with the male.  Awesome!

We decided that with the sunshine and beautiful conditions we may as well hang around, and about 45 minutes later they both reappeared and this time showed themselves off even better.  Worth the wait!  We then spent some time watching the kea playing in the carpark, chasing the cars around and trying to pull bits of rubber off hire vehicles, before heading off slowly back towards Te Anau.  No sign of any blue duck during the day despite spending a little time searching...they have to be here somewhere!  On the way back we found a dead long-tailed cuckoo on the side of the road, obviously struck by a car.  A sad end for such a beautiful bird that has travelled so far!

Back in Te Anau we checked in to our accommodation, had a bit of a break and then headed out for dinner.  What a spectacular day!

Bird of the day – Rock wren x7

Day total – Seen = 43 + 1 dead (long-tailed cuckoo); new for the trip = 1; total for the trip to date = 151

Hollyford River

Looking from Homer Tunnel

Waterfalls at Homer Tunnel

Male rock wren...what a stunner!

Male rock wren calling

Kea in its native habitat...a carpark

Look at me!

Up close and personal

Whitebait fritters

So it was up and off to grab some breakfast before heading up to look at Franz Josef glacier, still with the calls of the male kiwi last night reverberating in our heads.  We did a short walk seeing a few birds along the way including a stunning shining cuckoo and a couple of tomtits.  We also managed to find some greenhood orchids (Pterostylis sp.) which had just started to flower, in fact most had not fully opened but with a little persistence we managed to find one fully open.  Some nice mosses and lichens and even some Tmesipteris!

We then headed south down the coast, making a few quick stops, and stopped at Knights Point to check out the views.  The sea was pretty calm and no real seabirds, but we did have NZ fur seals and a single large Southern elephant seal on one of the beaches visible from the lookout.  Very cool.  Then it was a quick stop into Curly Tree Whitebait where the more adventurous of us has a spectacular fresh whitebait fritter on white bread, man was it good!  Highly recommend this as a quick stop!

We then headed further down the coast to Jackson Bay and checked out a few areas, finally finding a Fiordland crested penguin swimming along the shore.  We had reasonable scope views of the bird swimming along before it disappeared.  We had lunch looking out over the ocean and then enjoyed a few other stops, before refinding probably the same bird and getting more good scope views.

Heading back up the coast we made a couple of stops for brown creeper and tried unsuccessfully for another fernbird, before heading up the Haast Highway towards the Pass.  Stunning scenery and mostly clear skies made it a really nice drive, and we made a few more scenic stops.  Just before Pleasant Flat I thought I saw a yellowhead fly up off the road (yes yellowhead not yellowhammer, and we were in beech forest), but in turning around we found nothing.  But pretty sure it was!  Eyes peeled for falcon, but no luck, but at another stop we hadn’t gone more than 40m from the van when we spotted a beautiful yellowhead.  We all had stunning views of it feeding in the canopy for 15 minutes or more, with yellow-crowned parakeets around, kaka flying over, rifleman, grey warbler, it was a really birdy spot and we had excellent views of everything.

We then cruised the last part of the road through to Wanaka, very nearly not making it the last few kilometres when some knucklehead pulled out right in front of us in a 100km area.  Luckily the brakes work well and we managed to narrowly avoid a pretty serious accident.  A beer at the motel a few moments later helped to ease the frayed nerves, and we then had a nice Indian meal.

Bird of the day – Fiordland crested penguin x1, yellowhead x6

Day total – Seen = 44 + 1 heard (long-tailed cuckoo); new for the trip = 2; total for the trip to date = 150

Lichens

Mosses

Mosses

Greenhood orchid (Pterostylis sp)

Franz Josef glacier

More mosses

Tmesipteris

Caught photographing the orchid

Curly Tree whitebait fritters! Yummy

Marvin making short work of his!

Death to pies!

So after two great nights in Kaikoura it was up and on the road.  The sun was still shining and the wind had eased and we found a stunning male cirl bunting sitting on some telephone wires singing away!  Love it when a plan comes together.  We then cruised down along the beautiful Kaikoura coast, with fur seals and red-billed gulls being pretty common, and then we headed for the hills, heading up and over to towards the start of Christchurch.  On the way we stopped at a small lake and managed to find several pairs of Cape Barren geese and had great views of them, scaup, and managed to get some perched redpolls for a change...even Bruce saw one!

We then headed towards Arthur’s Pass and of course with bellies rumbling from HOURS since breakfast we made a stop at the famous Sheffield Pie Shop.  It was never going to be a quick stop, but by the time we swaggered out of the place the floor was littered with pie crumbs and the pie warmer was looking considerably more empty than when we arrived.  We headed on up towards Arthurs Pass and made a few scenic stops along the way...yes I’m definitely losing my edge.  I might even enquire about a job with Scenic Circle after this tour!

At Arthurs Pass there were quite a few kea at the train station so we made a quick stop to see them in their native habitat (ie. carparks).  Never mind they are damn cool birds anyway.  Then heading to the top we check out a few places for blue duck with no success, but made another stop for kea, before then wrapping over onto the West Coast.  A couple of weka were spied as we drove, so we stopped to admire these before stopping at the Hokitika Sewage ponds.  You’ve just got to check them, but apart from the feral pair of Cape Barren geese nothing else of interest, except a couple of sacup (not hardhead!), and mallards.  We then made another stop for a forest walk to see brown creeper, and the other common forest birds, before getting in to Franz Josef in time for an early dinner.

For once it wasn’t raining (much) and in talking with Ian Cooper it was fine out towards Okarito, so we headed out there after dinner and caught up with South Island tomtit and robin, and a fernbird before meeting up with him and heading out for our Okarito kiwi adventure.  With the usual skill and experience Ian has now amassed we had stonking views of both the male and female of a pair of Okarito brown kiwi at literally spitting distance, and had the male call from right in front of us as well.  A really special night, and the ‘Bird of the Day’ reflects this!  Three out of three kiwi so far...

Bird of the day – Okarito kiwi x7

Day total – Seen = 53 + 2 heard (morepork and long-tailed cuckoo); new for the trip = 6; total for the trip to date = 148

The death of another dozen pies!

You can almost hear the pies screaming!

Lovin' Kaiks

We headed off with the wind still pretty strong from the south-west, and with a little time up our sleeves before the pelagic started headed for the Seal colony.  We checked out the loafing seals and there were a few ruddy turnstone and even a couple of godwit on the rocky platforms.  We could see hundreds of Hutton’s shearwaters streaming past at sea, and even one or two albatross...

A quick scenic stop (unbelievable on a birding tour!) at the Lookout, and then down to South Bay to meet Gazza our skipper and jump on the boat.  We were in one of the larger boats, and the wind was still honking, but we hadn’t even hardly got out of the South Bay harbour and there were albatross and Cape petrels around us.  We headed out into the wind and it wasn’t actually too bad, with the masses of birds making up for it.  We got a little way out and one of the local fishing boats was working with an absolute swarm behind it, so we headed towards that and started chumming.  There were birds everywhere and it was truly one of the best Kaikoura pelagics!  At one stage as the fishing boat went past there were literally 50+ Westland petrels behind it.  Many of the birds came over to us, and Gazza stayed at the helm and guided the boat slowly into the swell, and then we turned and motored with the swell slowly so the light was in the right direction.  We had both Northern and Southern Royal albatrosses, at least 20+ New Zealand wandering, mostly Northern giant petrels, but at least one very hungry Southern Royal, and good numbers of Salvin’s albatrosses.  Westland petrels were picked amongst for the odd white-chinned which ended up showing really well, and although it didn’t show particularly well we had a very late in the season Antarctic fulmar.  Surprisingly there were also a lot of sooty shearwaters, with 20+ birds.

The photographers were clicking away and we had an incredible time.  Despite the lively conditions, nobody was sick...there were too many birds to keep everyone occupied!  We headed along to another point on the canyon edge and chummed a bit longer, with a similar assemblage of birds.  Just magic stuff.  We then headed in towards Barney’s Rock and picked up good numbers of Hutton’s shearwaters, and as we headed over there an Arctic skua showed itself well.  We also had a couple of dusky dolphins head past us, and as we headed back for the marina a small pod of Hector’s dolphins showed really well – a nice finale to the trip.

We arrived back into port and then had a great lunch at the Encounter Cafe – great food thanks guys!  After lunch it was free time, an opportunity to take a break, check email, get some washing done, etc.  Myself and Steve Wood decided to head back out on the water for the afternoon trip, with the wind having dropped it really was like another different day on the water.  Numbers of birds in general had dropped, but we still had some great photo opportunities and picked up a young black-browed albatross and grey-faced petrel  that hadn’t been seen during the morning.  We also had massive flocks of feeding Hutton’s shearwaters just off the peninsula which was fantastic.

Dinner was at a local restaurant, and then an early night (for some!) before another big day.

Bird of the day – Hector’s dolphin x1 (does it have feathers??!!), Cape petrel x2, New Zealand albatross x3, Salvin’s albatross x1

Day total – Seen = 45; new for the trip = 7; total for the trip to date = 142

A couple of NZ wanderers have a go

Northern giant petrel coming in to land

Taking off

Southern Royal albatross flying past

White-chinned petrel coming in

White-chinned

Salvin's albatross about to land

Salvin's albatross

And again..love 'em

Antarctic fulmar

Salvin's albatross with coast i nthe background

Salvin's headshot as it flies past

New Zealand wandering albatross coming in to land

Sooty shearwater flying past

New Zealand wandering albatross coming in to land

Salvin's treading water

Westland petrel against the blue

Sooty shearwater against the blue

Sooty shearwater

Headshot of a New Zealand wandering albatross

Sooty shearwater coming in to land

Hector's dolphin coming for a look

Immature Northern Royal albatross coming in

Northern giant petrel calling as it lands

Westland petrel

Cape petrel banking

Hutton's shearwater zipping across the waves

Big flock of Hutton's shearwaters

Feeding frenzy of Hutton's shearwaters