Banded Gull

Kaikoura regular and ardent birder Peter Langlands snapped this black-billed gull on the beach and managed to ID the tag number, as it turns out it was banded as a chick in 2004 at Bayswater on the Aparima River , Southland.

Its great to see the distance the gulls travel to come to Kaikoura, must be something to do with the very productive food web we have here as caused by the constant upwellings and very deep water close to land.

Photo: Peter Langlands

Photos from All-Day Pelagic

Peter Langlands has sent some photos from the all-day pelagic tour, I will post them up as he sends them to us.

Offshore Pelagic tour 20th March

Hi All

Peter Langlands was on the tour and posted this species list and report on the birding forum:


On Saturday seven birders went out on the Albatross Encounter extended offshore pelagic. Going as far as 20 nm miles SE off Kaikoura Peninsula the trip was an outstanding success- The highlight was the sighting of Cook's, soft-plumaged and mottled petrel with the additional sighting of a FOURTH Cookilaria which may very well be a Gould's Petrel ( I have photos and will post them tomorrow when I get home). This was our finest hour- they came through in a short space of time in morning.
The trip list for the day ( from 8am- 3pm) is as follows
5 Northern royal albatross
2 Southern royal albatross
1 Gibsons albatross
1 Antipodean albatross ( immature)
1 black browed albatross- Campbell Island 10 NZ white -capped albatross
3 Salvin's albatross
3 Southern Buller's albatross
5 northern giant petrel
5 westland black petrel
15 white chinned petrel
10 cape pigeon (nominate)
3 Diving petrel
2 Fariry Prions
50 Huttons shearwater
10 bullers shearwater
1 Sooty Shearwater
5 Short tailed shearwater
6 Wilsons storm petrel
5 Brown skua- chased wandering albatross - ambition !!!
1 Pomarine skua
3 arctic skua
3 black billed gull - 10 miles offshore
5 black fronted tern up to 20 miles offshore

Thanks to Gary for being the skipper- a great day. Took 16 GB of photos !!!
Regards
Peter

Great Shearwater??

Hi All

Gary spotted what appeared to be a great shearwater thisafternoon on the Albatross Encounter tour. He has shown the photographs around some other pelagic experts and the consensus is that it is indeed a great shearwater (usual range is the south Atlantic) if it is confirmed it would make it only the 3rd sighting in New Zealand.

Visually Impaired Paul with Guide Dog Taupo enjoy an Albatross Encounter

Paul Kibblewhite participated on the 9am Albatross Encounter tour with his guide dog Taupo. He has been blind for the last ten years and has a keen interest in birds. Although he could not visually enjoy the tour he commented that the commentary was superb and he would definitely be recommending the tour to the visually impaired. The skipper/guideprovided on board commentary in much greater detail than usual by advising what species were approaching the boat and what their actions and behaviour was. Paul stated that he particularly enjoyed the vocalization of the albatross as they entered the feeding frenzy at the back of the boat.

Taupo slept for the entire tour at the front of the boat!

Unusual Petrels

Hi all

A couple of petrel species spotted this week that we do not very often see in Kaikoura. Alastair spotted a cooks petrel and a mottled petrel on Tuesday the 1st of December.

Awesome White Morph Shots

Hi All

On the 25th Al also got some good shots of a very inquisitive White Morph.

Was seen all day Wednesday

Cheers

Alex