Nature in the Rock Garden

There’s quite an expanse of sand and uneven rocky ground to cross every time I make my way from the NZMCA Park over to the ‘good’ lupin patch on the edge of the Lake Tekapo.

A large patch of ground that turns out to be home to many birds; birds that live quietly and without fuss in an area that usually sees very little foot traffic. Until the lupins are flowering that is. Of course the lupin flowering coincides with the nesting season which means there are often people blundering about in amongst the rocks or passing through (like me) to see the lupins, disturbing the nesting birds and sending them into a panic.

I found this redpoll feeding on the grasses very near the walkway as I cross to the lake edge. Redpolls usually tend to stay high in the trees moving through in flocks chattering away to each other. They are quite skittish and this one didn’t hang around too long. He’s also at the end of lens reach. Redpolls are an introduced species and are quite common in the South Island (not so much in the North Island), and are usually found at higher elevations.

As I approach the edge of a small bay there are a few Pied Stilts/Poaka which are quick to let all and sundry know there’s an intruder on her way.

I scan the rocky terrain ahead and catch sight of a flurry of movement in all directions around and over the rocks. Tiny little birds are dashing about calling little ‘chip, chip, chips’ to each other.

This is the Banded Dotterel/Tūturiwhatu, an endemic small plover (found only in NZ) whose conservation status is ‘Nationally Vulnerable’.

There are nests about and the incubating bird runs off as soon as danger approaches. The birds are well disguised amongst the rocks, and being so tiny, you don’t see them until they run. Some find a high rock to stand on so they can scan their territory, others rush off bobbing up and down and calling as they go.

The nests are shallow scrapes in the sand or gravel and are especially vulnerable to predators and unwary people stepping on them so I tread carefully as I go. The bird on the right is mid-bob. When feeding, Banded Dotterels have the classic ‘run-stop-peck-run’ foraging behaviour.

Sharing the rocky lake side with the dotterels is a bird that is higher up on conservation status than the dotterel, this one is ‘nationally endangered’. The smart looking Black-fronted Tern/Tarapirohe is another endemic bird and one I've been waiting to see at close quarters for awhile. We've see them flying near rivers and as we cross bridges but not up close until now.

The Black-fronted Tern is a small grey tern found on the braided rivers (where they mostly breed), estuaries and harbours of the eastern South Island. They move to coastal areas after breeding and some small populations also head to the North Island.

You might remember the post I did on their much more common cousins, the white fronted terns that danced in front of us on the beach at Greymouth earlier in the year. In that post I explained how the name ‘white-fronted’ refers to the forehead, where a strip of white separates the black cap from the black bill. Most other ‘capped’ terns, including the black-fronted tern, have black caps that reach the bill when in breeding plumage. You can see the distinctive black cap clearly on these birds.

There was a small colony of black-fronted terns nesting in amongst the rocks very close to the lupin patch and before I know it, I was upon a nest. Unlike the dotterels the terns stayed put until the very last moment. The bird on the left is sitting on a nest. They quickly took flight as I backed off…

...and they started dive-bombing and squawking at me. They also bombarded me with sloppy poop, I’m not sure whether that was intentional or they just happened to let go because they were flying. Whatever it was it was very effective and they have good aim; my jacket was covered in great big smelly splotches.

But I did manage to grab one quick shot of the nest! And then exited stage left as fast as I could.

I saw other people cutting through the area at various times and they all made a hasty retreat as well. Unfortunately it was a direct line through the rock garden from the NZMCA Park to town and those that didn’t take the walking track were taking a short cut straight across the nesting area.

Another pair of terns were nesting closer to the water, I stayed well away from another splattering but managed to capture them in the setting sun as they flew past. They are quite gorgeous, I love the cap and their beautiful soft grey tone, and those tiny little feet. Yes, I think these are my favourite terns.

I thought I’d tag the rabbits on the end here…well they are nature too. There’s a rabbit plague around the Church of the Good Shepherd, along the lake front and in amongst the lupins. I took these shots very early in the morning when I went to catch the sunrise. The grounds around the church were alive with rabbits. And they weren’t too worried about the humans walking in amongst them either.

This little cutie was pulling down a flowering bush….

… to have a nibble.

And this one was finishing off a bunch of lupins someone had brought him. A pest eating a pest. Perhaps that’s the answer. Corral the rabbits around the lupin patches and they’ll soon both be gone.

Finches & A Falcon

I mentioned in the last post that we saw a second New Zealand Falcon on our road trip over Danseys Pass, the first was chasing a smaller bird down a narrow gully, they disappeared over a rise at great speed and we didn’t see the outcome of that battle. The second happened when we stopped at Kyeburn Diggings to watch three Australian Harrier Hawks/Kahu swooping and diving through thousands of finches which were feeding on the seeded grasses that were growing in a paddock of winter stock feed.

These photos were taken a few days later, after the snow fall, when we went back to see if we could spot the falcon again and even though they’re not the best photos, they’ll give you an indication of the sheer numbers of finches that were feeding over the paddock- the next two photos are full of finches, right to the bottom of the photo (click to enlarge)

These are mostly Redpoll Finches with a few Goldfinches scattered in amongst them with slightly larger (and possibly slower flying) Chaffinches around the periphery of the flocks. Redpolls are the smallest of New Zealand’s introduced finches and are widespread throughout the South Island but not so abundant up north.

There were thousands of birds lifting and swooping, swirling and landing for a moment before lifting again. The chatter and wing noise was amazing and no matter how often I tried to catch them up close they spooked, with the hawks hunting through the masses, they were on full alert.

I managed to catch a few birds as they stopped briefly on some bushes nearby- a lone male goldfinch at the top left and the rest are redpolls. When mature, both sexes have the red patch on their heads (poll) with just the males having the colour on their lower throat and chest after their second year moult. Juveniles have no colouration. Without these photos it was extremely hard to identify the birds, they were so fast and quite a distance away. We couldn’t keep up with them even with the binoculars.

While we were watching the hawks swooping over and scattering the flock a slightly smaller, faster bird came flying through, swooped up and landed awkwardly at the top of a tall poplar tree just behind us.

At first we thought it was one of the hawks and as we trained the camera & binoculars on it, it still took us a few seconds to realise with stunned disbelief and great delight that is was a NZ Falcon/Karearea.

Falcons are one of only two New Zealand endemic birds of prey- the other being the native owl, the Morepork/Ruru. Falcons are found throughout New Zealand but are quite rare. The NZ Falcon is one of the fastest falcons in the world capable of flying at up to 200 km/h, they hunt live prey mainly by watching from a vantage point and making a fast direct flying attack striking or grasping the prey with their sharp talons and killing with a powerful bite to the neck. They’re capable of catching prey larger than themselves but their diet mainly consists of small birds.

She (or he- the males are quite a bit smaller but without a comparison we couldn’t tell) couldn’t get a good perch where it had landed and lifted off (slightly out of focus, these photos are at the end of my zoom lens and have been cropped)

To land in the top of the poplar next door….

….where it still had trouble holding on….

…it hopped about from one foot to the other…

…bounced up in the air….

…tried once again…

…before deciding this wasn’t the best vantage point to wait before the next dinner dash…

…so lifted off heading to the right….

…before changing direction and sweeping around and dropping into a spectacular stooping dive back over the paddock scattering thousands of finches along the way.

She disappeared along the river at the end of the paddock and we didn’t see her again, even though we returned a few days later where we found the hawks still working the field.

It was another thrilling encounter with a rare and endangered bird and extra special that we were able to watch it for a good minute or so before it moved on. Most of our sightings recently have been very brief and usually on the wing except for our first encounter on the Catlins River back at the beginning of our travels.

Jack's Bay & the Blowhole

After exploring the inland river area we left "Out There" in the DOC camp for the day & headed back towards the coast to check out a few more areas. First port of call was the Purukaunui Falls, one of Otago's most iconic & photographed sights. The falls often appear on calendars & post cards & featured on a postage stamp back in 1976. Just a short 10 minute walk through bush leads you to  the falls which are known as "wedding cake" falls because of the three tiers. The falls are pretty impressive & I would imagine they'd be even more so when in full flow; we gave them a 9/10 on our waterfall scale, well worth the short walk.

Next destination was Jacks Bay, on the way I took a photo of this abandoned classic early 1900s farmhouse built from native timber & corrugated iron. The farmhouse, or homestead on bigger farms, usually had a veranda on the front (this one looks like it has been enclosed at some stage) & and a woodshed &/or washhouse (laundry) at the back. This house had a large specimen tree in what would have once been it's front yard, with old fruit trees behind. I wonder of the stories these houses could tell.

Most of the old derelict houses I've seen have overgrown macropapa hedges wrapped around two or three sides. These would have originally been planted to give the house shelter& protect it from the prevailing winds. Now the hedges have grown into huge trees that have nearly swallowed up what remains of the house. The old house below was located just down the road from our camp. It's unusual in that it's rather small with just one front room with the front door to the side. The kitchen & bathroom facilities would have been located in the 'lean-to" attached to the back. Maybe it was the farm worker's house or perhaps shearers quarters.

Talking about old buildings, we called into the Catlins Boating Club which is on the edge of the Catlins Lake, the huge estuary that we were already familiar with, Surat Bay & Newhaven where we stayed on the way to Invercargill, are located on the other side and we visited this side to check out the Royal Spoonbills while we were there too.

The boat club is also a POP, a motorhome association park over property, where members are allowed to park overnight free of charge. They still obviously use the clubhouse as the trophy boards had the year 2013 written on them. The floor is gravel, the odd assortment of chairs rickety & broken and we decided the Americas Cup could be run very well from the rust covered starter's box. At high tide only of course. We said hello to a motorhome that had pulled in ahead of us, a couple from of all places, Tauranga.

Further on towards the Heads the gravel road took a sharp right turn & after another 5-6kms of gravel we arrived at Jack's Bay, another sleepy holiday settlement in another beautiful sheltered bay.

And wouldn't you know it, the first thing we spotted was another Ultima fifth-wheeler exactly the same as ours, parked up alongside the beachfront. This area is a free camping area for self-contained vans as long as you don't block the view from the cribs, although most of the beach length is lined with cribs so I'm not too sure how that would work.

We made ourselves know to the owners of the Ultima when we later met them down on the beach checking out the sealions. They hailed from Hawkes Bay, Havelock North to be exact and this was their first major trip away. They were keen to talk to us about all the different idiosyncrasies of the Ultima and it was over an hour later that we emerged from their van. 

Just as we arrived at the beach we spotted a sealion surfing in on the waves. He gave a guy on a wet bike a bit of a fright as he surfaced right beside him at one stage, enough for the guy to speed off down the beach & haul his bike out. The sealion seemed to be sniffing the air and then not finding what he was looking for, he'd walk back out into the waves and swim further along, come in again & check the air & then move along once more until he finally spotted & obviously smelt what he was looking for, another sealion soundly sleeping in the sand right up by the dunes. It is incredible to think they can smell & spot another sealion from so far away & know exactly where to come out of the sea.

This one had a mission in mind and he quickly walked up the beach making a bee-line for the sleeping sealion. He walked very close & straight past a tourist with his camera and then broke into a run when the other sealion spotted him. They eye-balled each other for a moment before the new arrival growled & charged. The other guy was quickly out of there, heading for the sea although he did stop at a decent distance and have a good scratch. The new arrival had a good roll around in the others sand pit covering himself from head to toe, or should that be flipper, with sand. He then flopped down, stretched out and fell asleep. Meanwhile not too far away from all the going on was another smaller rust coloured sealion who slept on blissfully unaware of how close he was to trouble.

One of the reasons for visiting Jack's Bay was so we could walk to Jack's Blowhole, a sea cave with a cool 55-metre deep blowhole that is 200m from the sea. The blowhole is a popular tourist attraction in the Catlins, it was quite a strenuous 20 minute walk to the it and once again we passed people walking in inappropriate footwear & wearing little but skimpy shorts & singlets on a exposed cliff top with a cool breeze blowing.

This panoramic view is looking north east over Jack's Bay, the Catlin Heads are in the centre and Surat Bay just behind. This is the large bay that we walked around on our quest to see our very first sealions back in early December.

Along the way we spotted a yellow-eyed penguin resting on a rocky ledge way down below in a small bay; probably another fledgling chick waiting for dinner. David had his binoculars and of course every group of people that passed by wanted to know what he was looking at. And then of course they wanted to have a look too. Needless to say the walk took longer than the indicated 20 minutes, both ways!

Jack's Blowhole was formed when the roof of a large subterranean cave (similar to the Cathedral Caves) was eroded by the sea and collapsed. Waves are forced through the tunnel and expel air through the blowhole. It was named after the famed Ngai Tahu chief, Tuhawaiki, known to early European settlers as Bloody Jack - apparently he liked to use expletives. Jack's Bay & a nearby island offshore are also named after the same popular guy!

The tide was on its way in but the sea calm, so the blowhole wasn't "playing" very much at all although white water appeared on each swell, all quite amazing considering the water travels 200 metres inland before bursting out into the open. It would be spectacular in a heavy sea & quite scary, it's a long way down there & the noise quite deafening even in this benign state. The cavern was filled with bird noise too, lots of small birds were flitting about around the cliff faces.

On the way back down the track, while waiting for David to finish passing around his binoculars, I managed to capture a Redpoll Finch.  Redpolls are an introduced bird and are not that uncommon in NZ although they are more common in the South Island. A lot of people may have seen them but not realised as they do look like sparrows and you can hardly see the red when they are flocking together & flying from one grass seed patch to the next. I've found it hard to take a photo as they are very well camouflaged in the dry grass & very flighty. They spot you approaching long before you can get within range. This one stayed still long enough but I was shooting directly into bright light hence the white background. Still pretty impressive red isn't it?