New Zealand  No. 1

 Last Spring during the Covid 19 pandemic when we were all having to stay in during the lock-down, I loaded a couple of foreign trips we had made to S.E.Brazil and to Kenya to my blog, in order to bring back some happy memories.  As we are now in yet another lock-down with no end in sight, I have decided to bring back further happy memories in down-loading a further report of a 6 week trip Doreen and myself made to New Zealand from the 27/10/2005 to 5/12/2005. Again I will cover this trip over a number of short trip reports in a similar format to my previous two trips blog reports. Again, I will not produce the reports in date order and will try to give a few details of the individual species. Doreen and myself took all the photographs this time with digital cameras.    

We decided to go on the above dates to avoid the school holidays in New Zealand for ease of booking accommodation during our visit, although we did book in advance accommodation on a number of islands which we visited during the trip. We also hired a car and booked a number of ferry crossings etc in advance, and we were able to cover many sites from Stewart Island in the south to the northern tip of North Island.

Flying over the New Zealand Alps as we approached Christchurch Airport on North Island.

After landing at the Airport and collecting our hired car we headed out to Akaroa Bay and in the evening we had made arrangements to visit the White Flippered Penguin colony at Flea Bay.

Akaroa Bay.

Variable Oystercatcher Haematopus unicolor

There are eleven species of Oystercatcher in the World and the Variable Oystercatcher is endemic to New Zealand. It is a sedentary and coastal Oystercatcher situated around the shores of New Zealand with pied, black and intermediated plumages. Although it is considered not threatened it has a relatively small population which has been estimated of around 2,000 to 3,000 individuals, of which it has been estimated that 70% are black, 20% pied and 10% intermediate. It is a coastal breeder chiefly nesting on sandy beaches, feeds on rocky shores and is chiefly non-migratory.

Variable Oystercatchers at Akaroa Bay.

White-flippered Penguin Eudyptula minor albesignata.

This Penguin is a sub-species of the Little Penguin and there is quite a large breeding colony on a private reserve at Flea Bay. We met up with the owner of the area and they kindly drove us up in their 4 wheel drive vehicle and kindly showed us around the reserve with a number of the Penguins sitting on eggs in the breeding boxes. We also saw good numbers in the Bay waiting to come onto the land in the dark.

The White-flippered Penguin differs from the Little Penguin by having paler upperparts, and broad white margins on both leading and trailing edges of the flippers. It has a restricted range on the Banks Peninsula and Motunah Island near Christchurch with a breeding population of around 4,000 breeding pairs.

White-flippered Penguin in its nest box at Flea Bay

Flea Bay-We saw good numbers of White-flippered Penguins

coming into the Bay in the evening and were resting on the sea

until it got dark.

View of Flea Bay in the evening.

Bridled River on the drive to Arthur's Pass.

Road bridge on the road leading up to Arthur's Pass.

Kea Nestor notabilis

The Kea is chiefly resident in the Alpine areas and is endemic to South Island of New Zealand. Unfortunately, it is in serious decline mainly due to predation by Stoats as Kea's breed in burrows or hollows. The World population is estimated at around 1,000 to 3,000.

Kea's have a liking for rubber and will often damage car windscreen wipers in Alpine car park

Kea's at Arthur's Pass

Kea at the Homer Tunnel

 

Lake Brunner

Doreen in the cabin at Lake Brunner

Weka Gallirallus australis

Endemic to New Zealand and is now classified as vulnerable. There are four subspecies of this flightless bird belonging to the rail family. It has declined chiefly from 1900 to 1940 although the reasons for this decline are unknown, it could have been due to habitat loss or the introduction of mammals such as the stoat.

Weka Gallirallus australis of the dark form at Lake Brunner

Doreen with a Weka on the beach at Ulva Island.

Weka of the race Scotti on Stewart Island - We saw 12 on one day on Stewart Island.

Brown Creeper Mohoua novaeseelandia

The Brown Creepers is an endemic to South Island, New Zealand and it is known in New Zealand as the Pipipi. It is chiefly distributed in forests of South Island and they prefer the area to the west and north of the Southern Alps. They are also present on a number of islands off South Island.

On our two visits to Ulva Island we recorded 10 on both days.

Brown Creeper on Ulva Island

Black-billed Gull Chroicocephalus bulleri

Endemic to New Zealand and is considered to be endangered. In its 2nd year, it moults into adult plumage. Reasonable numbers of Black-billed Gulls were recorded during our trip.

Adult Black-billed Gull

Red-billed Gull Chroicocephalus (novaehollandiae) scopolinusantarctic 

The Red-billed Gull although endemic to New Zealand and some of the Sub Antarctic-Islands off New Zealand it is very similar to the Australian Silver Gull and most authors still consider it to be conspecific with that Gull, and is therefore treated as a subspecies of the Silver Gull. 

Adult Red-billed Gull

Black-fronted Tern Childonias albostriatus

The delightful Black-fronted Tern is related to the european Marsh Terns, it is an endemic to New Zealand and breeds along braided rivers chiefly on South Island, with some wintering on North Island. At the present time, it is considered endangered with a declining world population of around 2,500 +. On our trip we only saw odd birds, always on the bridled rivers of South Island.

Black-fronted Terns on a bridled river on South Island.

Brown Quail Coturnix ypsilophora

The New Zealand Quail became extinct around 1875, and the Brown Quail which is resident in Australia and other countries was introduced to New Zealand and Fiji around the 1860's. It has been introduced to Tiritiri Mantanga Island and during our 2 day stay on the Island we saw 8 Quail on our first day and 15 on our second day.

Brown Quail on Tiritiri Mantanga Islan.