New Zealand No.9 Which will be the final blog on New Zealand.
Our final few days on North Island, and we are now staying at Sandpit near Auckland. We have arranged for two pelagics the first out off Sandpit and. the second pelagic went from Leigh. The first went via Little Barrier Island and close to the Pyecroft's Petrel breeding areas, and the conditions were still quite windy. Both pelegics went onto Mokohinau Islands. We were out on the boats from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm.
Heading out towards the Mokohinau Islands on the Leigh pelagic.
Arriving at the Mokohinau Islands
The Grey Ternlet stack, unfortunately no Grey Ternlets.
The landing stage on the Mokohinau Islands, one of the birders was
going to stay overnight as he was trying to find where the
recently discovered New Zealand Storm Petrel was breeding.
Doreen on the boat off the Mokohinau Islands.
Bulle'rs Shearwater
Up to 70 Buller's Shearwaters were seen today, some very close to the boat.
Fairy Prion Pachyptila turtur
Up to 70 Fairy Prions were seen on the pelagics.
Fairy Prion has two races, the Northern race is common in the seas around S.E. Australia and New Zealand. On the first pelagic we recorded 30 birds, and the second trip we recorded 200.
Cook's Petrel Petrodroma cookii
Cook's Petrels
Cook's Petrel breeds only in New Zealand on three small islands, Little Barrier, Great Barrier and Codfish Islands. Although the current population is in excess of 1.2 million birds, it is classified as vulnerable as it only breeds on the above three islands and on the Great Barrier Island there has been a massive decline due to the introduction of pigs, cats, rats which attack nests and the population has decreased from 20,000 birds to less than 1,000.
We had good numbers on these two pelagics, on the first pelagic we returned at dusk and an estimated of 800 flew close past us, and Doreen and myself sat outside and enjoyed this flight, and on the second pelagic we recorded 100.
Pycroft's Petrel Petrodroma pycrofti
Pycroft's Petrel on the pelagic near Little Barrier Island
Pycroft's Petrels breeds in colonies on several islands off N.E. New Zealand. They can be difficult to identify on a moving ship from the commoner Cook's Petrel, with the best identification features are the blacker crown on the head of Pyecroft's, more black on the underwings. In the very windy conditions, the Petrels came very close to the boat but holding the camera still and trying to identify the differences proved to be difficult. We recorded ourselves 3 on the first pelagic but only 1 on the second pelagic. The other birders claimed 10 on the first pelagic.
This Petrel proved difficult to identify, although it is probably a Pyecroft's, although the head isn't quite as black as the other Pyecroft's, although it looks darker than Cook's.
Flesh-footed Shearwater
Flesh-Footed Shearwater
We saw 200 on the Sandspit and 30 on the Leigh pelagics,
Parkinson's Black Petrel
Parkinson's Black Petrel of the Sandspit pelagic, up to 30 were seen of
the Sandspit pelagic and they can be identified from White Chinned
Petrel by its all white bill.
White-faced Storm-petrel Pelagodroma marina
White-faced Storm-petrels off the Leigh pelagic.
White-faced Storm-petrel breeds in colonies on small islands around New Zealand. After the breeding season they migrate to eastern tropical Pacific. The population is around 1 million pairs, with the largest colony on Rangatia Island which has been estimated at 840,000 pairs.
We recorded 40 on the first pelagic and 80 on the second pelagic and these gave excellent close views allowing for the photographs to be taken. Superb!!
New Zealand Storm-petrel Fregetta maoriana
New Zealand Storm-petrel of the Stanspit pelagic
We had almost given up on seeing the New Zealand Storm-petrel on the Stanspit pelagic, the light was beginning to go, and the other birders had gone into the cabin while Doreen and myself stayed out-side.
Suddenly, Doreen picked out a smallish petrel heading towards the boat, which we quickly identified. It twice flew around the boat and then headed off out, just given me a chance to obtain some poor photos. Thought to be extinct since 1850, it was re-found in 2003 with the breeding site discovered in 2013 in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, and in 2014, an egg was discovered on Little Barrier Island.
Without doubt, one of the highlights of our trip.
After the second pelagic, the following morning we headed out towards Auckland Airport and we stayed overnight near the Mangere Lagoon and tidal areas. We visited this area during the day and also the following morning, before we drove to the Airport, returned the hired car and then departed for London. The Mangere Lagoon area proved a very productive area for birds including a number of introduced British birds such as Goldfinch, Yellow Hammer and it also had a good selection of New Zealand species including Swamp Harriers 2, Royal Spoonbill 1, Wattled Plover 8, Red knot 700, Wrybill 2, Bar-tailed Godwit 300, Black-tailed Godwit 1, Black-billed Gull 20, Caspian Tern 1, Sacred Kingfisher 3, Tui 2, but the surprise find was an American Hudsonian Godwit present with the Bar-taileds, and showed well. It came flying in to the pools with the Black-tailed with several Bar-tailed's and showed well on our last morning. Unfortunately, my camera was packed away for the flight home.
Hudsonian Godwit Limosa haemastica
Hudsonian Godwith with the Eastern race of the Bar-tailed Godwits,
Hudsonian Godwit is a North America species and it was first recorded in New Zealand 1n 1902. In recent years they have been regularly seen with up to 3 annually. It breeds in Alaska, N.W.Canada and the Hudson Bay area. After breeding they have a rapid long-distance migration to Argentine and Chile.
Kiwi's In New Zealand
Kiwi's are of course flightless and endemic to New Zealand. There are 5 species of Kiwi's in New Zealand, they are nocturnal and we tried to see all 5 species during our trip. We were fortunate in seeing 3 of these species and we heard a fourth calling but could not locate it. It can be very difficult seeing them in the dark and torches are necessary. The use of flash photography was not allowed so unfortunately no photographs, but they are amazing birds and just seeing them shuffling around was one of our finest birding experience .
The three species of Kiwi's we saw were as follows:
Southern Brown Kiwi Apteryx australis This involved a boat trip of about 45 minutes from Stewart Island for an Island further out. On arriving at that island, it was then a walk through woodland in the dark to a beach. We were fortunate in seeing a male and female Kiwi's, and heard another 3 calling. The Kiwi's performed down to 20 metres from us, and they seemed happy forgaging with their amazing bills, and didn't seem to take any notice of us. It was a warm evening with a bright moon for watching the Kiwi's on a deserted beach, We probably watched them for around 30 minutes, and for me this was the best experience birding I have ever had.
I did go on a second evening, but the weather was poor and were unable to find any.
Little Spotted Kiwi Apteryx owenii We saw these very well on Kapiti Island. We stayed on Kapiti Island for two nights and both nights we went out with the warden after it got dark and saw 2 and heard a third on the first night, and on the second night we saw 1 and heard another 3. We also saw 1 and heard another 4 on Teriteri Island, we found this bird with Ron Johns and his wife who were also staying on the Island. The Kiwi took us by surprise and virtually ran over our feet.
Northern Brown Kiwi Apteryx mantelli
For this Kiwi, we had to drive to the northern end of North Island, and Ron Johns had kindly made arrangements for us to stay with Detlaf who I knew from our trips to the Scillies, and who now lives in this area and he kindly took us out to see one close to his home. We had excellent views of 1 out in the open at night and heard another 4 calling.
In total, we recorded 143 species during our trip including the majority of the endemics of New Zealand.
