Tour report. 24 October 13 November day tour with Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ. Led by Sav Saville, Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ.

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1 Tour report 24 October 13 November day tour with Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Led by Sav Saville, Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Participants Maggie Boswell, Dona Coates, Stephen James, Deanna McPhail, Marilyn Milek, Denis O Connor, Bob and Carli Traverso Images All images thanks to Stephen James (

2 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 2 of October 2016 Day One Meeting up at the hotel in Auckland went smoothly and the van was soon packed and we were on our way. First stop was at The Cascades in Auckland s Ark in the Park, where some common bush birds (Grey Warbler, Tui, NZ Pigeon) were quickly seen. A couple of Shining Cuckoos flashed past, rather too close for anyone to get a decent view. Then an Australasian Gannet colony, always a favourite for the sheer spectacle of it all. Lunch was at Waiwera with NZ Dotterel and Variable Oystercatcher for company before a quick wetland stop (NZ Grebe, Paradise Shelduck) and then up to Trounson. Dinner in the iconic Kaihu Tavern with the brilliant Grant and Raewyn, and then out to look for North Island Brown Kiwi. Not much luck tonight, though several birds were heard calling none were very close. It may be that the works in the park have disturbed them a little. Morepork was heard only as well. 25 October 2016 Day Two This morning started with a trip up to the great Kauri tree Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest). The parking lot held a couple of excellent birds great views of a male Tomtit, and wonderful perched views of a Shining Cuckoo.

3 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 3 of 20 From there it was away to Waipu for lunch and Fairy Tern, arguably the rarest bird in NZ. We were treated to close looks at a pair fishing, along with the usual suspects including Variable Oystercatcher and NZ Dotterel. Final stop for the day was Tawharanui a great reserve behind a predator-proof fence. Water levels were very high and precluded any chance of Banded Rail, but we did get 8 Brown Teal. Spent the night in Warkworth.

4 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 4 of October 2016 Day Three Hauraki Gulf pelagic. Skipper Brett Rathe on Norma Jean. Any day on the water of the Hauraki Gulf is special and though this didn t produce any real surprises there were plenty of great birds to be had, and everyone eventually got to see everything that they wanted. Highlights were huge flocks of maybe 5000 Buller s Shearwater, hundreds of Cook s Petrels, and scores of dancing White-faced Storm-petrels almost close enough to touch and about 10 New Zealand Storm-petrels giving tremendous views, 6 individuals in one binocular view is something of a record for a bird that was only rediscovered less than 15 years ago. Some species were in short supply - probably only 3 Black Petrels were seen, and there was only one very brief Little Shearwater. The 3 White-capped Albatrosses were popular with everyone though. 27 October 2016 Day Four Another of the absolute highlights of a New Zealand tour is the wonderful island of Tiritiri Matangi. Just a 20 minute ferry ride away, and in sight of downtown Auckland, this is a place with multitudes of birds some of which are very rare indeed. The main target species all fell into place with reasonable ease Stitchbird and North Island Saddleback are both numerous, a Brown Teal at the Wharf Dam, one Takahe prowling about near the lighthouse, a couple of Kokako, lots of Bellbirds, Tuis, and Whiteheads, several pairs of Brown Quail and (surprisingly few) Red-crowned Parakeets. A Fernbird near the bunkhouse performed well, and after a magnificent BBQ dinner (!?) we set out to look for the real prize Little Spotted

5 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 5 of 20 Kiwi. A couple of frustratingly brief glimpses, and then a male pretty much gave itself up to us, allowing prolonged views at close range. 28 October 2016 Day Five Bob and Carli had missed the kiwi last night so got up super-early and had one of their own! Other early risers had more Kokako, and 3 Takahe near the lighthouse as well as all the other normal species. Leaving the island by water taxi, we reloaded the van and were off to Miranda. Smooth sailing through Auckland traffic was a bonus, and we were settled at Miranda in good time for the rising tide. Unfortunately, the high tide just wasn t very high and so the shorebirds never really came close for us and the afternoon was a little frustrating. We did have about 70 Wrybill though, and Banded Dotterel, Blacktailed Godwit as well as long range views of Red-necked Stint and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. A decent bunch of Royal Spoonbills and our first Black-billed Gulls were other notable sightings. Fish and Chip dinner and a comfy bed finished off the day!

6 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 6 of October 2016 Day Six We started today at the Whangamarino Wetlands searching in vain for Australasian Bittern, and then set off cross-country to Whitianga for our second planned pelagic. Although we had some quite spectacular flocks of feeding shearwaters and a brilliant display by more than a hundred Common Dolphins this was a rather disappointing pelagic because our main target just didn t turn up! Not a sniff of a Pycroft s Petrel and only a handful of Cook s Petrels is not how the script reads!! Maybe we were just a week too early in the season, or maybe the wind was wrong who knows? The Buller s and Fluttering Shearwater flocks were some compensation.

7 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 7 of October 2016 Day Seven A nice early start and more cross-country driving to the Pureora Forest. The weather was kind and the birds showed up! Plenty of Yellow-crowned Parakeet and lots of Kakas were showing, along with North Island Robins, Tomtits, Whiteheads, another Shining Cuckoo and, stars of the show today, Long-tailed Cuckoos giving best ever looks both flying and perched. No Riflemen calling was a big surprise, and we didn t bump into a NZ Falcon, but that will be OK Having more or less cleaned up at Pureora we made tracks for Turangi in the hope of nailing Blue Duck today (thus giving us much more freedom tomorrow). We found one Blue Duck without much difficulty on the Tongariro River, and it really performed for us. Another bird later flew downstream as well. Flushed with success we pushed on to seek out Bittern again, but only heard them booming. Any day with Long-tailed Cuckoo and Blue Duck is a good one though!

8 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 8 of October 2016 Day Eight A pre-breakfast Bittern hunt provided 2 very brief and rather unsatisfactory views, but also brought a Fernbird, and some quite close NZ Grebes. The rest of the morning was spent driving to, and walking around Boundary Stream Reserve, with mixed success. The forest was remarkably quiet, with few Kakas, and North Island Robins calling, and we struggled to find just one Rifleman. No sign of NZ Falcon here either. Moving on towards Napier we stopped off for excellent looks at both Banded and Black-fronted Dotterel before ticking off the vagrant Plumed Whistling Ducks at a municipal park. Dinner at Sav s house that night in Havelock North.

9 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 9 of 20 1 November 2016 Day Nine From Havelock across to Foxton and Foxton Beach for a midday high tide. Many of the Bar-tailed Godwits, Red Knot etc stayed up river, but we did get nice close looks at 3 Wrybill, and a couple of Pacific Golden Plover. Small ponds around the town gave good views of several waterfowl including NZ Grebes, NZ Scaup and Australasian Shoveler.

10 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 10 of 20 2 November 2016 Day Ten Nothing very much to report in the morning as we made our way leisurely down to the Cook Strait Ferry in Wellington. More NZ Grebes at a sewage ponds, long-distance views of Little Penguin and Spotted Shag in Wellington Harbour and a quick stop into the National Museum Te Papa filled our time, and then it was across the water to South Island. The ferry crossing was good for seabirds, with 3 albatross species seen including 2 Northern Royals, small numbers of 5 shearwater species and about 500 Fairy Prions. A single King Shag in the Tory Chanel was a bonus, but more tomorrow!! Just as the ship was about to dock a quick view of a NZ Falcon passing over in a hurry, but not seen by all.

11 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 11 of 20 3 November 2016 Day Eleven A very successful days, starting with our boat trip on Queen Charlotte Sound. Only about a dozen King Shags was a bit of a surprise, but they gave us excellent close views anyway. The highlight of the morning was Orange-fronted Parakeet, a super-rare bird that is really hard to find, except today! The strenuous hike (thanks Bob!) to the stream was followed by one OFP dashing in to land almost above my head and staying in full performing mode for several minutes. Another bird (it s mate?) was slightly less open, but showed nonetheless. Success with OFP gave us time to move on to Motuara Island where we scored a juvenile South Island Saddleback and South Island Robins. Once back on dry land we grabbed some lunch and set off to look for Black-fronted Tern duly achieving that without much trouble. Then down to Kaikoura where we found our first Brown Creepers just inland, and 1000s of Hutton s Shearwater passing the peninsular tip and a Reef Heron on the rocks.

12 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 12 of 20 4 November 2016 Day Twelve A quick stop at the top of the peninsular for a nice, but flighty male Cirl Bunting before one of the undoubted highlights of the whole tour: Albatross Encounter with Gary Melville. The trip did not disappoint: 6 species of albatross, mostly within 10m of the boat, and including the biggest flying birds Southern Royal Albatross. A couple of Grey-faced Petrels were good, after an all too brief view off Whitianga, as were about 20 Westland Petrels. Dainty Cape Petrels were in constant attendance along with the anything but dainty Northern Giant Petrels (and one Southern GP). The afternoon saw some participants take the Whalewatch boat for Sperm Whale and others took a leisurely stroll around the end of the peninsular. 5 November 2016 Day Thirteen A scenic drive down the coast and then across to Arthur s Pass, with stops at St Anne s Lagoon for waterfowl and the famous Sheffield Pie Shop for..pies!! Not a day of very many birds, but some good things including a prolonged view of a NZ Falcon having a tussle with a Swamp Harrier, and 7 or 8 Kea showing off in and around Arthur s Pass township. A walk in the forest brought nice Rifleman, Brown Creeper and (South Island) Tomtit.

13 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 13 of 20 In the evening we went in search of Great Spotted Kiwi, with in truth not much hope of success. Just before it was too dark to see, Steve spotted the back end of a kiwi moving away, and quite soon after that we heard both male and female calling but drizzly rain eventually forced us to give in.

14 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 14 of 20 6 November 2016 Day Fourteen Down from Arthur s Pass and along the coast, Southwards, to Franz Josef. The weather got progressively worse as we travelled ending up with absolutely torrential rain (45 mm in 45 minutes!). We saw plenty of Wekas in roadside paddocks, and the odd Tomtit but little else. My fear was that the Okarito Kiwi excursion would not happen, but a slight break in the weather and the enthusiasm of Ian Cooper made it all turn out right. We were eventually treated to the sight of 2 birds emerging from their burrow and were able to see them in natural light. Although this was a brief sighting, it was apparent to all that this was something quite extraordinary, and thanks to Ian for making it happen for us. As the misty rain turned progressively heavier, Ian battled on even though hearing birds in the bush was pretty much impossible, and some of us were rewarded with the sight of a female kiwi running across the road in front of us. Damp but happy we made our way back to Franz for a relatively early night 7 November 2016 Day Fifteen Another day of pushing South with some quite wonderful scenery and generally improving weather conditions. First the glaciers at Franz and Fox, a detour down to see the tops of both Mount Cook and Mount Tasman (highest and second highest NZ mountains), then the general splendour of the road through to the Haast Pass. Distant looks at Great Crested Grebe were quickly followed by a lovely walk through the forest to a Beach where we looked for Fiordland Crested Penguin. Although we did get a quick look at one bird going into the water a tremendously high tide made it all a little difficult so we decided to cut our losses and pin our hopes on Penguins performing on Stewart Island.

15 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 15 of 20 Next stop was at Haast Pass where the forest holds good numbers of endemic bush birds. Today it was relatively quiet, though the prime target species Yellowhead did put in a brief appearance, along with a supporting cast of Yellow-crowned Parakeet, Tomtit and Rifleman. Highlight of the day was a visit to an active NZ Falcon nest site. On arrival the female Falcon was on the ground devouring what looked like a rat. She was pretty much unconcerned by us as she finished this off. Then up into a tree for her and we were eventually able to see both male and female perched in the same tree. The nest site (which was on the ground) was fenced off to prevent unwanted disturbance but the female apparently thought the fence wasn t far enough away because, as I walked round to look from the opposing side, she made a fairly serious attempt to take my head off!! Not quite as serious as the attempt to take out a passing dog though!! Wonderful close and prolonged views of these brilliant birds. 8 November 2016 Day Sixteen Another day with another quite fantastic experience. Off to Stewart Island, via the Crown Ridge Road and brilliant scenery past Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. Nothing much en route and very little from the Stewart Ferry, so we were over to Ulva Island in Peter Cox s water taxi. Ulva is always good, and all the expected species more-or-less played ball (only the roosting Morepork gave us a hard time) lots of Yellowheads gave good views, loads of Red-crowned, and only one Yellow-crowned Parakeets flashed about, several Kaka allowed close inspection, South Island Saddlebacks were noisy and reasonably cooperative, Weka were around our feet, lots of small parties of Brown Creeper moved about around us, we saw 3 species of native Orchid, and a brief NZ Sea-lion swam past but star billing goes to the bird that Carli spotted : Oh, a Kiwi and it certainly was!! We had a male Southern Brown Kiwi, mostly within 20 feet of us, for about 30 minutes in broad daylight!!! What an amazing thing, and a complete treat.

16 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 16 of 20 The boat ride out after dinner to look for Kiwi again was almost an anti-climax, but we did end up with long looks at another male feeding on sand-hoppers on the beach (a la David Attenborough). A satisfying day to say the least!

17 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 17 of 20 9 November 2016 Day Seventeen Stewart Island pelagic. A full day on the water, and off Stewart one never knows what might happen. Today was no exception, with what looked like perfect weather, good numbers of albatross, lots of Common Diving Petrels and Sooty Shearwaters but not much else in the proper seabird stakes. Only 2 Cook s Petrel was a surprise thank goodness the penguins showed up! We had great looks at 9 Fiordland Crested, one Yellow-eyed and one Little Penguin. The supporting cast of a few Brown Skua being hand-fed and about 100 of the newly split Foveaux Shag (aka Stewart Island Shag) made the day complete. 10 November 2016 Day Eighteen Early morning ferry back to Bluff, and a flat calm sea so no real chance of any decent seabirds..wrong! Really good views of a Broad-billed Prion and 2 Mottled Petrels. It just goes to prove that no-one really knows how seabirds react to weather. Once off the ferry it was quick as you can to the Homer Tunnel and looking for Rock Wren. The little gems didn t make us work too hard and gave tremendous close views, enabling us to shoot down to Milford Sound for the tourist fix, and spend a little time looking for Blue Duck on return (one bird seen flying up the river). Several Kea were also present. A walk through the Cascade Creek Nature Walk was in wonderful forest but with few birds. Rock Wren, Broad-billed Prion, Blue Duck an unusual day list..

18 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 18 of November 2016 Day Nineteen Heading towards the last lap, and a cross-country day from Te Anau to Oamaru, via Dunedin. Not many bird species left to find, so we concentrated on just 2 things today. Yellow-eyed Penguins lovely close looks after good but distant views from the sea off Stewart, and Otago Shag (the other half of the Stewart Island Shag split) with many hundreds at a roost allowing close scrutiny.

19 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 19 of November 2016 Day Twenty There is only one target species remaining Black Stilt. It is inconceivable that we could miss it, but several people have reported difficulty in recent weeks so I was somewhat apprehensive.. No need for that! 27 Black Stilts is enough for anyone and probably more than 10% of the world population. We walked for a while to get decent views and then a pair came to us and gave quite a show. The rest were all always quite distant, but a little bit more than black specs. A supporting cast of 10 or more Banded Dotterel and 4 Wrybill were welcome additions, as were a few Black-fronted Terns cruising about. We spent an hour or so in a half-hearted attempt to see Baillon s Crake at a marshy area, but had more success with good close views of Great Crested Grebe and also ridiculously close NZ Scaup.

20 Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ Tour report, 24 Oct 13 Nov 2016 Page 20 of November 2016 Day Twenty-one The last day and really just a transfer to Christchurch day. We did make a slight detour to visit the Mt John observatory for wonderful views and a couple of Chukar, and to another lake in the hope of some more Black Stilts but to no avail. A few Great Crested Grebe and assorted waterfowl were never going to be trumping the top birds of the last few days. And so it ended. Thanks to all who played such an integral part in the success of the tour. I truly enjoyed your company throughout.