New Zealand No. 6

Following on from Blog No. 5, 

We are just about to leave South Island and cross over the Cook's Strait to North Island, but we still had time to take one short boat trip out from South Island to try to find the rarest Shag in the world. We caught the pleasure boat at Picton, and although this boat was taking several passenger to a nearby island, the boatman agreed with us, to take us to Motuara Island where a breeding colony of the New Zealand King Shag was present.

                      

Good numbers of Dusky Dolphins were seen on the boat trip,

as usual just to quick for my photography, but around 20 were 

seen around the boat.

Fluttering Shearwater Puffinus gavia

Fluttering Shearwaters in the Queen Charlotte Sound

Fluttering Shearwater breeds in New Zealand and Southern Australia. At times it can be difficult to tell from Hutton's Shearwater , although Fluttering has much paler underwings, and a more conspicuous  whitish throat. We saw at least 20 on this trip.

New Zealand King Shag (also known as Rough-faced Shag) Carunculatus leucocarbo

The King Shag colony in the Queen Charlotte Sound.

On the boat journey back to Picton, a King Shag flew right past us. 

New Zealand King Shag (also known as Rough-faced Shag) is endemic to the Marlborough Sound, in New Zealand with a population of 839 birds (which includes 187 pairs). and is classified as vulnerable.

On arriving at Wellington, our friend John Gale had agreed to meet us and put us up for the night, and also take us out to the local Wellington Bird Sanctuary.

North Island Robin Petroica longipes

North Island Robin at the Wellington bird sanctuary.

North Island Robin is a full specie and endemic to North Island. It is virtually black all over apart for the whitish area on the vent unlike South Island Robin which has whitish underparts. On North Island it is chiefly restricted to scrub and forest habitats to Central North Island although a numbers have been relocated to sanctuaries, to avoid predation by feral cats, stoats and rats.

Brown Teal Anas chlorotis

Brown Teal in the Wellington Sanctuary

Brown Teal is endemic to New Zealand. It was formerly widespread on the mainland, but since the introduction of predators, it has now been classified as near threatened. We were fortunate to see a small party on a river later on North Island.

After a nice meal with John and his wife, we had an early night as we had to leave early in the morning to drive and  connect with the ferry to Kapiti Island. The ferry is due to leave from Paramumu beach.