Birding Bonanza, Stewart Island- Part 3

Continued on...from Part 2

Well, we've seen island birds and beach birds so I guess that only leaves sea birds. We booked a Pelagic (ocean-going birds) Tour with Rakiura Tours and met Matt our skipper and guide down on the wharf on a sunny and calm afternoon. Great you say?Well not really, because for a change it is best to have a windy day (which means a choppy sea) when you go sea bird spotting. The wind helps them with their lift and they spend more time in the air around the boat than sitting on the water. Ocean going birds thrive on wind and here in what is known as the 'roaring forties' there's usually plenty of it.

There were just three of us on the tour along with the skipper, which was excellent, as we had plenty of room to move about the boat and get good views. We pulled away from the wharf and immediately half a dozen albatross swooped in behind the boat to follow us out of the harbour. Halfmoon Bay is home to quite a number of fishing boats-commercial & pleasure- and the albatross spend a lot of their time scavenging for scraps as the boats return to base filleting their catch along the way. Just think the birds get more Blue Cod than any of us!

Matt pulled up within a short distance and the birds immediately (crash)landed beside us. This handsome guy with the superb eye makeup is a Buller's Albatross, also known as a Buller's Mollymawk. Mollymawks are a group name for medium sized albatrosses.

Buller's Albatross are the smallest of the albatrosses and are endemic to New Zealand. They breed in four main colonies on the Snares and Solander Islands in the south, the Chathams to the east of NZ and Three Kings Islands in the north. There are estimated to be around 30,000 breeding pairs spread through these islands.

Not the famous 'Grumpy Cat' but there is a resemblance there don't you think? Isn't the colour of his bill just gorgeous.

The next bird to slide in sideways is another Mollymawk; the slightly bigger White-capped Albatross. This guy is a little worse for wear, he's has an eye injury on this side. Which is not surprising when you see them fighting over fish scraps. That sharp bill would be deadly in a fight.

The White-capped Albatross is also endemic to New Zealand with 99% of the total population (98,000 breeding pairs) breeding in the Auckland Islands.

Matt starts the boat up again and we head off around the coastline, we're going to check the rocky shoreline for penguins. We leave the albatross bobbing about on the water behind us but it's not long before they take off, catching up quickly and swooping in behind us, gliding and dipping along in our wake. What magnificent birds they are.

Everytime we stop to check for penguins, at least half a dozen birds land around us. They're hoping for some scraps but so far nothing is forthcoming.

They soon take off and head out towards the open ocean quickly being replaced by others that fly in. I have a feeling they spend all day doing circuits from Halfmoon Bay out to the Muttonbird Islands and back again, looking for boats along the way.

We're looking for the endemic Fiordland Crested Penguin/Tawaki which are confined to the shore at the moment because they are moulting.

Fiordland Crested are one of three penguin species that breed on New Zealand mainland. Their breeding range extends along the South Westland coastline to Fiordland and the islands of Foveaux Strait and Stewart Island. We've only ever had a glimpse of the Tawaki when we were doing a tour of Doubtful Sound, so I'm keen to, hopefully, get a close up view.

Matt found a penguin holed up in a cave- none of us could spot it, even through the binoculars, although we thought we could just see a white bib. It wasn't until I uploaded this shot that I could see that it was indeed a shy penguin. We let it be and carried on around the coast. Matt told us we'd return later in the afternoon when perhaps it would be out, standing on the rocks.

We passed a number of beautiful private beaches and houses with amazing views but saw no more penguins.

Matt turned the boat seawards and we headed out into Fouveaux Strait, towards the Muttonbird/Titi Islands. There are numerous groups of islands (approx 36 in total) located around Stewart Island and they're all know as the Titi Islands- it's where the Muttonbirds or Sooty Shearwaters, a member of the petrel family, return to nest after around 7 years at sea. They return to the same burrow that they hatched in. It's also where Rakuria (Stewart Island) Maori have come for hundreds of years, and still do to a lesser extent, to gather a traditional food source, titi chicks. They hunt them out just before they are due to fledge, when they are big and fat and still located in their nest burrow or flapping about outside learning to fly.

There are at least 20 million mutton birds world wide and Rakuria Maori harvest around 250,000. The season begins on April 1st and is over by May 31st. It's here that I have to admit that I actually had Muttonbird at a restaurant we visited while on Stewart Island. It wasn't a salted bird which is the traditional way of storing them and while I was happy I tried something new I don't think I'll be repeating the experience. It tasted very gamey, a little oily and was quite stringy. Nothing to write home about.

Here's a small flock of muttonbirds we passed along the way. I was totally absorbed with the albatross that I failed to get a close up of the titi.

We stopped again for a raft of tiny Little Blue Penguins/Korora which were feeding ahead of us. This is the world's smallest penguin, it's around 25cm tall and weights about 1-1.5kg. We've seen Little Blues many, many times especially when we were boating but the closest encounter we had was on an island near the Tairei River mouth when we found a dozen or so hiding in a rocky crevasse.

Little Blues forage out at sea during the day and then return to land under the cover of darkness. Many visitors to NZ take tours or find places to sit and watch the 'penguin parade' each night. Even on Stewart Island word is passed around about the Little Blues that come home beside the fuel tanks on the wharf at Halfmoon Bay. And every night there's a parade of people that quietly file in behind the tanks to find a spot to sit and wait for these cute little guys to make an appearance.

I went to see them one evening and saw four penguins come home; it was high tide unfortunately(for us) so they were able to swim in quickly and disappear into the darkness behind the rocks. Others that were there were very excited all the same even if I was a little underwhelmed. This lot quickly swam away, disappearing under water as soon as they could.

Albatross continued to fly in to check us out and fly off again as soon as we moved. They wheel and soar effortlessly on their long narrow wings. I'm spell-bound, I could watch them for hours as they soar and dip behind us, often catching up and passing our speeding boat. 

They are able to hold themselves just off the water, their wing tips appear to just touch the surface as they fly. Perhaps the tips are like cats whiskers and they can judge the distance by touch.

For all their grace and beauty in the sky they don't seem to have perfected their landing too well; using their large webbed feet as rudders as they clumsily surf to a halt, face planting the water as they settle.

Albatross are attracted to offal from fishing boats and it is thought that fish-processing waste makes up a large component of their diet. They also feed on surface fish and squid and can do shallow dives. We find a small boat on a fishing tour and instead of the gulls we would normally expect to see around a boat we find a flock of White-capped albatross.

We hung around the boat waiting to see what else arrived might arrive....more Buller's...

and many more White-capped...

We moved off a little way and Matt reached underneath the rod holder to bring out the secret weapon; a bin of fish heads and skeletons.... and then it was 'game on'! Birds came from all direction, crash landing on top of each other, squabbling and fighting over the fish.

Albatross have the great capacity to extend their throats so they can swallow large pieces of food. If you look closely at the photo below (click to enlarge) you can see a bird at the back swallowing a large piece of fish. Other birds have their gapes wide open. For a size comparison, you can also see red-billed gulls flying overhead hoping for a chance to grab any food going spare.

Here's a close up of the action as white-capped albatross fight over food. Their strongly hooked bills grasp the food whilst the sharp edges are used to slice it into manageable portions. Although here they just grab and swallow. 

It's not long before a different bird flies in and drops himself right in the middle of the melee; this is the Southern Giant Petrel, also known as the Sea Vulture and the largest of petrel species. 

Slightly smaller than mollymawks, the Giant Petrel has a large and distinctive hooked bill with two large tube nostrils that are joined together on top. They are not the most attractive birds.

Here are a couple of photos showing the size comparison- petrel, white-capped & a red bill gull in the background...

Petrel and a White-capped Albatross...

Giant petrels will attack and eat smaller species of seabirds although they are generally scavengers and are frequently seen around anything dead and floating. The traditional seafarers' name for giant petrels was "stinkpot" which is very apt as apparently the birds have an intense foul smell, like purifying flesh. We couldn't smell anything except fresh clean sea air! 

Southern Giants breed on ice free islands around the Antarctic Continent and are mainly a winter and spring visitor to New Zealand waters.

Here he is getting right in there...

And here you can see he's not afraid to come close either, the white-caps look a little afraid of him...

because when he wasn't around they were up close too...

Although they ignored him when he came back in for another feed...

We left the albatross behind (or did we.....when I looked out the back of the boat a number were still escorting us) and headed for the Titi Islands passing a small rocky protrusion  on the way. Atop the rock were a number of smartly attired Stewart Island Shags including the pied morph which has striking black & white plumage and one bronze morph (left) which appears dark brown but is iridescent in the right light.

We skirted around one of the Titi Islands, Herekopare Island,  looking for a different penguin, the Yellow-eyed Penguin/Hoiho, but all we could see were a couple of guano covered lookout points. Matt told us the parents, followed by the chicks, had used the mounds as look out points over the last few months. We were too late, the chicks had fledged and everyone had gone swimming.

We did see plenty of NZ Seal/Kekeno pups though, very well disguised amongst the rocks- see if you can find them all. I count ten.

Here's a couple of cuties we disturbed playing in the water.

With no different sea birds or penguins spotted on the island, we headed back to Stewart Island to check for those elusive Fiordland Crested/Tawaki. The penguin we saw hiding in a cave hadn't moved so we moved on around a point and there on the rocks ahead of us were three crested penguins! We were quite a distance from them and they were only just visable to the naked eye. Tawaki are very timid birds and they rock hopped away from us as soon as they saw us quietly creeping forward. They jumped and waddled up into another cave where two of them stopped to peer out. Check out those prominent crested eyebrows.

We stopped and Matt fed out the last of the fish skeletons to the few albatross that were still with us. You can see a lone Buller's in one of them too. Being smaller they lacked a bit of confidence around so many snapping white-caps.

Once the feeding frenzy was over we motored around the point to the otherside of the cave where the penguins had disappeared into and sure enough, just as Matt had predicted, they had come out and were down near the water line. Not for long though. They hurried back to the cave. 

We left them to it while Mat made us afternoon tea; a welcome cup of tea and a piece of banana cake; a great way to finish an awesome afternoon. Highly recommended and well worth doing.

And that's it- a detailed account of our Stewart Island bird encounters. It was a privilege and a pleasure to view such an amazing variety of  spectacular and beautiful native birds. Our virtual list is getting shorter.

Birding Bonanza, Stewart Island- Part 2

Continued...on from Part 1

One tour we definitely wanted to do while on Stewart Island was the night tour to see Kiwi in the wild. This would be our first sighting of a wild kiwi. We have spoken to many tourists on our travels who casually mention that they hope to see a kiwi in the wild while they're travelling. They are often a little taken aback when I tell them that probably 99% of New Zealanders wouldn't have seen a kiwi in the wild. 

"How can that be?" they ask, "The country revolves around the kiwi symbol, everywhere you look there are kiwi photos, souvenirs, signs, postcards and tours etc, even the people are known as kiwis" 

"Well..." I say, " that's just how it is, there are kiwi out there, they're not in great numbers but they are there, we often hear them calling at night when parked in isolated bush areas. But they are elusive and being nocturnal you'd normally be in bed when they come out to feed." Most still think they'll see one if they look hard.

And here on Stewart Island there is a chance you may see them during the day. Kiwi have been often seen on some of the more isolated beaches, down on the strand line looking for their favourite sandhoppers amongst the seaweed & floatsam. We also heard that they've been spotted occasionally near the paths on Ulva Island during the day. We decided we weren't going to chance it, even though we still carefully hunted for a kiwi when we were on Ulva, David did find kiwi footprints along one of the beaches. Personally I think many of sightings are of a weka bum disappearing into the bush; a rear end easily confused for a kiwi.

I'd booked a very popular kiwi spotting tour a month or so ago with Phillip Smith of Bravo Adventure Tours; for the 2nd night of our visit. I figured if it was cancelled we'd still have seven nights up our sleeve to do the tour. Which was just as well because after the rain and then the gale force wind, it was four nights before we finally got the go-ahead to meet at the Halfmoon Bay wharf for our tour. I felt sorry for a number of people we met who were only on Stewart Island for a night or two and missed the tour altogether. 

As the light faded, and a rain shower passed overhead, we boarded Wildfire along with eleven other people, all wrapped up warm, and headed out into the bay.

A White-capped Albatross which had followed a fishing boat in, turned and headed back out with us. This was the first close up encounter we'd had with the albatross. What magnificent creatures they are, stunningly beautiful and so sleek. It was a pity night was falling as I couldn't take too many photos of them as they whirled and swooped around the boat ever so gracefully.

We left Halfmoon Bay, rounded Ackers Point and headed into Paterson Inlet. Forty minutes later we sailed into Big Glory Bay, arriving at a jetty on a pitch-black night. 

Phillip gave a detailed talk on the various facts about the Stewart Island Brown Kiwi- Stewart Island is the only place in New Zealand where kiwis aren't considered endangered, it's thought there's a population of around 18,000 birds on the island. Stewart Island kiwis are quite different from their mainland relatives. They are diurnal, feeding during both the day and night, they also have a different family dynamic- the males share incubation and chicks stay with their parents for up to two years, much longer than on the mainland.

Greg, a crew member, hands out torches and tells us what to expect on our walk through the bush and over to the other side of the peninsula where hopefully we'll see some kiwi. Of course nothing is guaranteed but in over 26 years of doing these tours there has only been a handful of nights without a sighting. We're told in a firm voice that there are three rules- "No talking, no flash photography & no getting closer than I am to the birds". 

We scramble up off the jetty onto a narrow and muddy path and stride off quickly, following Greg single file through the bush, our torch lights showing the way. A quiet knock on low overhanging trees is fed back through the group to warn not to hit your head. We've been warned we might come across a sealion along the path but thankfully there are none camping in the bush tonight. We're heading to an ocean beach and very soon we can hear the pounding surf. We leave the muddy track behind and walk the final 250 metres along a boardwalk that has sunk into water in a few places. 

We finally reach the beach where we gather together to hear the plan. From now on there are to be no flashlights and definitely no talking, we're to stick close and follow Greg as he walks along the high tide line sweeping across the sand, back and forward, with his torch. A few minutes later Greg zeros in on some movement in the distance. A murmur goes up and then a quiet shhhhh as we creep in closer to see a curious looking creature shuffling about in the seaweed.

This is what we've come to see. A real live wild kiwi! Looking considerably smaller in the wide open space than her captive cousins, this is in fact, one of the larger kiwi species. Greg tells us later when we're out of her earshot that this is the matriarch of the family group whose territory takes in the beach. We followed her as she poked and prodded her way along the beach, stopping occasionally to snort the sand out of her nostrils (which are located at the end of her bill). 

After a few minutes Greg indicated we were heading off again further up the beach. We must have looked a funny sight, a silhouetted group of people huddled in close, striding it out, following a small circle of light along the sand. It felt like we were being route-marched along the beach; the sand was soft and tough to walk in and Greg walked fast; everyone wanted to get up close in case another kiwi was spotted and we were also wary there might be a sealion sleeping just outside the circle of light. Up to the top of the beach we marched and then back down again. Greg found a set of footprints and we tracked them to another kiwi.

This is another female and likely the matriarch's last year's chick. We watch her for a short while; she seems to be more aware of our presence and we don't want to scare her off. Time is up and we head back to the boardwalk entrance and as we re-group we hear a male kiwi calling from the nearby bush followed by a female returning the call. What a great way to finish the night.

You'll recall that no flash photography was allowed and all that is lighting the scene is one small torchlight from around 10 metres away, and all the while the bird is moving. I won't tell you how many shots I took (actually not too many; the shutter noise sounded like a machine gun going off in the quiet stillness) but just consider yourselves very lucky to see these two of the kiwi. Especially when the others on board who had cameras failed to get anything but a black square or a dark brown blur. It sure was a tough assignment. But at least I have the evidence and I knew what to expect. I was just thrilled to have finally had the privilege of seeing our treasured national icon in the wild.

We traipsed back along the path, hoping we might still see another kiwi, we were told they sometimes feed along the track. It was quite ironic, but all we saw (the first three people in the line including me) was a possum scurrying off into the bush. The French lady behind me couldn't believe she missed seeing her first possum.

Skipper Phillip was waiting back on board with welcome cups of tea and coffee. The boat headed off into the inky blackness, it's passengers buzzing with excitement inside, while Greg took a break out the back.

Another bird ticked!

To be continued....Part 3

Latitude 47 Degrees- NZ's Third Island

Real-time

Well here I am, back again, I bet that's a surprise! Not. Where there's a will there's a way. I still don't have a phone, or my laptop, but with David's laptop (God it's slow), a good dose of rain and free Wi-Fi where we're staying, I'm managing to bring you a Stewart Island blog! It might not be as slick as my usual posts; I don't have my photo processing programmes to work with and I can't do story boards so there might be a few too many single photos, but I'm sure you'll still enjoy it.

So while we should be kiwi spotting on a beach tonight I am instead writing you a blog. It started raining during the night and it hasn't let up all day. We pulled the pin on the kiwi spotting trip late afternoon and I suspect it will have been cancelled now anyway. At least we have 7 more nights to re-book unlike the many people we have met who come to Stewart Island just for a night. At this stage we are re-booked for Monday.

Rachel got us to Bluff wharf well ahead of schedule (it's just an hours drive from Winton) and then proceeded to 'own' the wharf, passengers & crew, regaling anyone who'd listen about the horrendous crossing they'd had to Stewart Island last Easter; when everyone one was as crook as a dog, the waves were crashing over the top of the ferry and they had to be offloaded in another bay because the harbour was inaccessible. Like we wanted to know all this just before we were set to sail? She's definitely her father's daughter!

We thought our bags must have been in one of these bins when we heard the guy operating the hi-ab call out to the forklift operator that they were a bit too heavy for the arm. You'd think that after living in a RV for the last 30 months we'd have learnt to travel lightly. But we needed packs, tramping gear, wet weather gear, fishing gear, camera gear, warm jackets, a selection of food, wine & liquor along with our everyday wear. We're here for 9 days and you never know what the island is going to throw at us. Anyway, we mustn't have been the only ones with heavy bags, by the time the ferry was set to sail the back deck was two thirds full of covered bins and the total weight, I heard the guy mention, was 4000kgs.  

It was a full load of passengers too, well nearly- 64 of a possible 65 passengers including a small group of overseas people on a guided bird tour of New Zealand. While I have never met Brent the tour leader and owner of Wrybill Touring before, I know of him well. He belongs to a bird forum that I contribute to and he also hails from Napier, my home town. It was great to meet him and say hello. And while I was at it, admire that lens! Now that is a beast (lens envy here), imagine carting that around all day. And in case you're not quite sure, yes that is the end of it sticking out of the camouflage cover at knee level. 

With so many on board, and many of them out the back taking up the small amount of space available in front of the bins, including all of the birders scanning the ocean for sea birds, I could only take a couple photos from indoors as we approached Stewart Island. We had a good, fast crossing travelling at about 24knots, with just a little bit of chop.

I managed to squeeze into a gap as we approached the wharf at Halfmoon Bay.

Where waiting to greet us was Lola and her owner. Lola was there in her official capacity as 'top dog' of Stewart Island. Lola is the star of her own movie 'A Local's Tail', a 40 minute movie that can be viewed at the local cinema. Told in her own 'words' Lola introduces Stewart Island's history and local characters to visitors. We have yet to see the film, we'll save it for another rainy day- there's sure to be one around the corner.

'Welcome to Kaka Retreat'

In case you hadn't guessed, we're staying at Kaka Retreat Motel, a delightful place with a small number of units set in amongst the bush and just a short leisurely stroll downhill (or a short steep climb uphill) to the township of Oban. The one and only township on this island with a permanent population of around 400 people.

The bird life is amazing, absolutely fabulous. There's dozens of Kereru/Wood Pigeons and tui flying about, we've seen and heard native parakeets/Kakariki and there are quite a number of kaka (a gang) that call the township home, flying from place to place to the amusement of visitors including us here at Kaka Retreat. They are extremely noisy birds, especially early morning and evening, sometimes I think I'm in Aussie listening to their parrot chorus, not way down the south of New Zealand.

Of course the Kaka Retreat wouldn't be complete without the native Kaka Beak plant growing. You can see how the plant got it's name.

And the stars themselves, the cheeky but endearing Kaka. There are a couple of feeding platforms located in the garden of the motel and every evening sunflower seed is put out for the kaka.

They are mostly very friendly and will take seed out of your hand ever so gently, you'd hardly know they were choosing just one seed to de-husk.

Some are a bit shy and are content to feed themselves.

Others are extremely nosey and think they might like to steal some of your crackers and cheese, or to dip their beak in your glass of wine- both a big no-no. But who is going to argue with that beak?

With no crackers on offer they're happy to take the sunflower seeds while hanging awkwardly off the guttering along the roof.

And to finally settle on the deck railing and feed out of a paua shell I commandeered and filled with seed. By the time we leave Stewart Island I'm sure I'm going to have hundreds of kaka photos.

After settling into our room (and marvelling at the size- we could fit three of our 5th-wheelers into the space) it was time to walk into town and pick up some supplies. With just 28kms of road on the island there aren't too many cars but still, the locals that do drive, have problems with visitors walking all over the road instead of along the edge or on the few footpaths. Obviously someone got frustrated and painted their own sign here.

Unlike today, yesterday was hot and sunny and after collecting a few grocery items at the store we headed over to the hotel for an icecream and to check out the menu- just one of 3 eating places in town. This is the famous South Sea Hotel where every Sunday night there's a raucous and bawdy quiz night with an equally loud and bawdy quiz master(mistress). The quiz night turned out to be one of Prince Harry's highlights on his recent visit to NZ. We'll hopefully check it out on Sunday. We returned to the pub later in the evening for dinner and had one of the best restaurant meals in a long while. A seafood medley baked in a parchment parcel with fresh seasonal vegetables. It was outstanding.

What a difference a night makes. This is what we woke up to this morning; raining, grey and dismal outside. We'd been warned that a small cruise ship was visiting the island today and it would be best to avoid Ulva Island and any of the tours around town. The small cruise ship with just 600, mostly German passengers, was anchored over the hill in Paterson Inlet. I would think that most stayed on board but many that did venture into town were easy to spot as they carried the boat's aqua coloured umbrellas. 

It's another short sharp climb up and over the hill to Golden Bay & Paterson Inlet where, after we walked to Observation Rock, we could see the ship anchored behind Iona Island. Ulva Island is the next one over.

In early March a large cruise ship is due to visit which will have 1800 passengers on board. I can't imagine how big an impact all those people will have on the town tours and short walks in the area and especially on Ulva Island, which is an open bird sanctuary. It will be good for the economy but the town will be stretched to capacity. Even today it was very busy all things considered.

From Observation Rock we could see the ship's tender ferrying the mostly older guests back and forward from the boat to the wharf. They then had that rather steep climb up and over to town and then back again after they were finished wandering around. 

The local market with gift and food stalls was conveniently being held in the hall which also offered some welcomed seating and shelter from the weather.

We bought some bacon wrapped mussel kebabs for a snack- at $4 a stick they were quite expensive but very tasty all the same. We also bought some local smoked salmon and then found out-when we went for a walk tonight- that the smoke house is located right beside us here at Kaka Retreat. Just through the bush from out unit. We haven't smelt any smoke or salmon yet.

Inside the hall the gift stalls were lined up around the outside with a long table down the centre with a number of people sitting at it intently staring at their mobile phones; the library in the room next door offers free Wi-Fi. I reckon they would have made a lot more money if they charged them all $10 to sit at the table! I guess it made the market look busy.

Mind you look who is now checking his phone along with a couple of others. We've now parked our bums on the bench seat at the Kai Kart Diner while waiting for our bowl of chowder for lunch. It's been seafood, seafood, see food (and eat it), all the way so far and we're only 24 hours into a nine day stay.

The Kai Kart is world famous in Stewart Island and has an excellent selection of seafood dishes, both eat in and take-away. I'll post a photo of the diner when it's stopped raining. 

We moved to the tiny inside seating area of Kai Kart where three Americans (who we had a good chat with) were finishing their lunch and these two German passengers from the cruise ship were just receiving their seafood platter. They couldn't believe (and we couldn't either) the size of the dish. We left before they finished and I bet they did too!

Excuse any mistakes- I'm off to bed before proof-reading. I'll do that in the morning before most of you will even see this. Enjoy.