Record Tour

Hi,

We had a very good Albatross Encounter on Friday the 20th of Feb. It was a miserable day with very heavy rain in the morning. But that didnt stop the passengers on the 9.0am Albatross Encounter tour seeing a record number of albatross species.

One of the passengers was Brent Stephenson and here is an exerpt from his write-up of the tour:


"Did Oceanwings yesterday morning (20 Feb) with 10 species of albatross - equalled their record of 11 years. Pretty happy with that! Both Royals, Antipodean & Gibson's, both Buller's, black-browed, Campbell, Salvin's and white-capped. We were just waiting for a Chatham to fly past! Also sooty and short-tailed shear, flesh-footed, Buller's and Hutton's shear, Westland and white-chinned petrel, plus northern GP and Cape petrel so a pretty awesome line up! Literally 1000s of Hutton's feeding around the rocks just of the peninsula was a real spectacle with large numbers of white-fronted terns and at least 4-5 Arcitc skua making fantastic chases."

Chatham Island Albatross

The Oceanwings tour had a rare visitor today. Alastair saw a Chatham Island albatross (see photos) also, see the comparison with a Salvins albatross, the Chatham Island has a distinctive yellow bill and grey head. This visitor is only seen on a few occasions each year here in Kaikoura so is always nice to see.

Penguin ID

The ID of the Penguin is confirmed as a juvenile Fjordland crested penguin. (Many thanks to Peter Langlands for the ID).

Crested Penguin Found in Yard

Hi all

These are some pictures Alastair took of a moulting crested penguin found just north of the Kaikoura township. DOC have the penguin now and hopefully it is on the road to recovery?

ps. ID is not 100% although some have suggested Fjordland Crested. We had an FCP found on a beach here in Kaikoura back in 2008 (see earlier blog).

Cheers

Alex