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Updated: Tuesday 27th December 2011
Busy birding
It's been a busy November and December, guiding on pelagics and Ulva Island and the Birding Bonanza package has been a popular choice.
In November we had our first full day pelagic of the season down to Port Pegagus in a quest for Antarctic and Arctic Tern. As we headed south we saw huge rafts of Fiordland Crested Penguin, Arctic Terns were noticeable by their absence and the Antarctic Terns were quite elusive. Once we got out to The Traps, a Campbell Island Albatross came into view and one Grey-backed Storm Petrel. At Wreck Reef we must have encountered 50+ Mottled Petrels, 10+ Broad-billed Prions and Black-browed Albatross was the only other bird of note.
Another half day pelagic didn't look too promising - no wind to speak of for a few days and calm sea conditions. I was at the back of the boat scanning for anything coming past when Ty the skipper called me into the wheelhouse to get my binoculars on something he could see off in the distance. For half a second we thought it was an upturned dinghy, but as I got my binoculars on it I could see it was covered in giant petrels. As we got closer it became clear it was a carcass of a freshly dead Humpback Whale with Northern and Southern Giant Petrels trying to get into the blubber. We think it hadn't been dead that long because the birds had not made any progress and there was no sign of sharks around either. The most common whale around here is the Southern Right Whale and I've never seen a Humpback around the coast of Stewart Island - a live one that is!
Earlier in the year at the British Birdwatching Fair Richard Chandler, the published wader expert, had asked me about a trip to the southern New Zealand Dotterel breeding grounds. New Zealand Dotterel are split into two distinct sub-species: the northern birds breed only on the North Island and are much brighter in breeding plumage. They breed on the beaches and have a population of around 1500. The southern sub-species breed only here on Stewart Island, high up in the hills of the national park and have a population of around 240.
In mid-November Richard and his wife arrived on Stewart Island. I'd enlisted the help of a mate, Paul Jacques, who is monitoring the breeding grounds of the birds here on the island and the three of us embarked on a 45 minute water taxi ride up Paterson Inlet and then a three hour hike up into the hills.
I've seen quite a few New Zealand Dotterels out at Mason Bay and occasionally at The Neck in winter plumage so I was looking forward to seeing these birds in breeding plumage in a more rugged environment. We reached the top of the hill by mid-afternoon and while Paul checked the pest control around the breeding area, Richard and myself got to work photographing nesting pairs that already had chicks. The landscape at the top was similar to the Cairngorms in Scotland where the northern hemisphere European Dotterel breed. The birds here were reasonably approachable and on more than one occasion flew towards us to check us out. They obviously don't get too many visitors up here. We noticed the birds had quite an unusual habit of climbing up into small bushes, something Richard and I had never seen waders do before! We guessed it was to get a better vantage point on their chicks and potential predators.
Tide times meant we couldn't get to the top of the hill and back in a day so we spent the night at the top in a small bivvy (hut) which was warm and cosy. Just as well as it was bloody cold that evening! Paul nipped outside just before we turned in for the night and called us out to see a kiwi snuffling around outside the hut. We could hear other kiwis calling in the distance. Kiwis are amazingly adaptable in terms of different habitats; they can be seen deep in the forest, feeding on beaches, and here these birds were high up in the hills above the tree line in a barren cold landscape.
The next morning Richard and I spent another couple of hours filling up camera cards before we retraced our steps back down the hill to meet the water taxi at lunchtime. We got down just in time because the next three days the weather "turned to custard" as they say here!
Planes and ferries were cancelled and Stewart Island became isolated. No produce for the shop, no mail or newspapers. Fortunately the pub was well stocked. The weather came right on the Saturday morning which was just as well as I was guiding on a Pelagic for Aurora Charters which had been chartered by Wrybill Tours, with Sav leading the party.
Also on board was a film crew with Mark Carwardine. Mark is an excellent photographer and cetacean expert and extremely well-travelled … but unfortunately he will always be associated with being shagged by Sirocco the Kakapo in the "Last Chance to See" series with Stephen Fry!
As the boat headed out of Halfmoon Bay for the half day trip, Sav and myself predicted some good birds would turn up, given the previous days' weather. Boy, were we proved right. It has to go down as one of the best pelagics that we've had in this part of the world!
By the time we got to Wreck Reef, half way down the east coast of Stewart Island, we started chumming. The reliable guestimate was 700+ New Zealand White-capped Albatross around the boat, 40+ Salvin's, 25+ Royals, and a couple of wanderers, not forgetting the three or four Black-Browed Albatross and the same count of Campbell Island Albatross. Both giant petrel species were in the melee along with Broad-billed and Fairy Prions, Cape Petrels, Sooty Shearwaters and the odd Mottled Petrel going through to spice things up. As we watched a White-chinned Petrel fly by, I noticed a small storm petrel skip into view and got everyone onto the Grey-backed Storm Petrel that passed the stern of the boat. These are probably our most common storm petrels around here, I'm not sure where they breed but we see them regularly on pelagics.
The cameras were running hot and batteries and memory cards changing regularly - and then someone called "Wilson's Storm Petrel". Sav and myself got onto a large dark storm petrel with an obvious white rump but as it banked we noticed the pale under wing and white on the breast. I fired off several shots of the bird as it flew past the back of the boat and Sav clinched its I.D. as a Black-bellied Storm Petrel. A larger bird than the Grey-backed stormie that followed on behind it. It then got a bit surreal because at one stage we had 3 Black-bellied Storm Petrels in view and 4 or 5 Grey-backed stormies. We think there was possibly 8 different Black-bellied Storm Petrels around the boat. Seeing one of these birds around the three main islands of New Zealand is rare in itself because these birds breed a lot further south, but having this many was amazing.
Later in the day as we headed back into Halfmoon Bay via Bench Island we picked up Yellow-eyed Penguin and Brown Skua and the last good bird of that pelagic was a lone Cook's Petrel. Summing up: in 6 hours we had seen 18 species of tubenose which included 6 species of albatross.
Everyone departed the boat extremely happy and Mark Carwardine said it was one of the best wildlife experiences he'd had which is an excellent testimonial. He'd taken over 3500 photographs!
The following morning, Ulva Goodwillie and myself lead Mark and the film crew around Ulva Island to get images of the forest birds. They showed well for the camera - we had good views of Saddleback, Yellowhead, Rifleman, Robin and a very approachable female sea lion. I think the film is being made for the internet for Tourism New Zealand, The Sunday Telegraph and Wanderlust magazine.
Early December saw another birthday come and go, a wee bit older but no wiser. Off to the mainland for Christmas shopping and a first aid course and then back onto Stewart Island to guide on the first cruise ship of the season and the following day on another full day pelagic down to Port Pegasus. This time Chris Gaskin leading a Kiwi Wildlife tour. A surprisingly quiet day with no unusual birds of note as we travelled south. As we got to The Traps there was a couple of fishing boats and decent flocks of albatrosses began to appear with a few Mottled and Cook's Petrels flew into view.
We stopped near one of the fishing boats and began to chum. The usual New Zealand White-capped and Salvin's Albatross were present quickly with a couple of Royals and then … there it was … a bird I had wanted to see since I moved to New Zealand! Sitting quietly among the White-capped Albs was a stonking Chatham Islands Albatross. With its sooty grey head and banana coloured bill it was so eye-catching. Instantly I got the lens on him and got image after image. Ironically it was exactly the time I was meant to be on a trip to the Chatham Islands (that was cancelled) so to have one of these magnificent birds in our local patch and on my Stewart Island list was a real bonus.
A brief update about Ulva Island. As mentioned in previous news, certain species of bird are lower in number after the aerial drop of poison. Stewart Island Robin, South Island Saddleback and Stewart Island Weka took the brunt of the hit, but already weka chicks have been seen on Ulva Island, Robin chicks have already fledged and Saddlebacks have been seen feeding in the flowering Rata.
Updated: Monday 7th November 2011
False start to Spring
Tui singing in the garden, veggies growing, cutting the grass in my t-shirt, Shining Cuckoo added to my garden list and the Rugby World Cup safely in the arms of the All Blacks. It certainly felt like Spring had arrived. I even had time to rescue a Weka chick that had fallen, down the side of the decking, much to the distress of his parents. But that was two weeks ago. Since then the weather has been extremely changeable with gale force winds, sleet, hale and heavy rain. But I'm getting ahead of myself - let's head back to August where summer was in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere.
I was back in the UK for the British Birdwatching Fair in Rutland which went extremely well. It was so busy I didn't really have time to look around and only just managed to leave the stand to buy a couple of books. At the fair, a few old birding buddies came by: John Gates, Gary Howard, Rob Lambert and Emma Perry all popped in for a chat as well as Dave Walker from Dungeness Bird Observatory.
Prior to the Bird Fair I spent a few days in Dorset rekindling my birding friendship with Pete Moore. Pete is an exceptionally good bird watcher and photographer and always very entertaining in the field - how I've missed his bone dry wit! I stayed at his new house in the beautiful village of Wareham and as Claire and the boys away camping, Pete and myself were straight out birding! First stop was Middlebere. We hadn't got too far down the road when we did an emergency stop as an Osprey flew overhead with a huge fish in its talons.
The next morning was bright and sunny and we headed for Durlston Country Park where migration was very visible. Every bush seemed to be packed with Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Garden Warblers and there was good comparisons with Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Redstarts and Northern Wheatears. I briefly spotted a couple of Grasshopper Warblers skulking in a small bush which Pete needed for his Dorset list, but unfortunately we failed to relocate them.
The afternoon was spent at Brownsea Island avoiding the tourists! We headed out for the hides overlooking the lagoon - lots of waders present: Common Redshanks, Avocets, Ruff, Dunlin, a single Spotted Redshank and a large flock of Black-tailed Godwits which were close enough for some half decent photographs. Before heading back for the ferry, a quick walk around the forest produced Coal Tit and Goldcrest and a very approachable Red Squirrel.
All too quickly my time in Dorset was up. It was great to catch up with Pete and enjoy his fine company.
My last full day in the UK was spent at Dungeness with talented father and son Essex birders Vern and Pete Merchant. An early start found us at the patch where Med Gulls and Little Gulls were present and Northern Gannets and Common Guillemots flew by. Other birds of note were three or four Black Terns. The bulky shape of a Bonxie came into view quickly followed by two Arctic Skuas harassing Common Terns and Pom Skua flew close to the beach. Pete picked out the long-staying Glaucous Gull near the fishing boats through his scope so we drove a bit closer. The beast of a gull spent most of its time asleep but the Yellow-legged Gulls around it were more active. We then headed round to Denge Marsh where we didn't have to wait too long for the Great White Egret to appear with a good supporting cast of Little Egrets. As we were watching Hobbies hunting dragonflies over the reeds another small egret appeared and Pete and myself shouted "this one's got a bright yellow bill, it's a Cattle Egret" which added to the set nicely. As we waited for it to reappear, a clonking sound above our heads revealed two Ravens, still a pretty rare bird in Kent. It was a great days bird watching with some great mates.
I still find it difficult to get away from the listing game. I kept a list for the two weeks I was in the UK and saw 142 species, the last of these was a Green Woodpecker just before I headed to the airport. I didn't see a single Songthrush, once a very common garden bird. They seem to be easier to find in New Zealand.
Back in the Southern Hemisphere, while I was away the first aerial drop of poison was made on Ulva Island in an attempt to eradicate the rats that had re-invaded last Christmas. The second drop was in September and at the time of writing the results look positive - no rats have been caught in the traps - although the full results will take about six months to come in. The down side of the poison drop is that some birds have been affected. Weka on Ulva Island have taken a substantial hit (on recent guided walks I have hardly seen this usually abundant bird) and I've seen less Stewart Island Robin and South Island Saddleback, but the official figures are yet to come in.
So the birding season has just started with a few guided walks on Ulva Island and we've had our first pelagic of the season with Aurora Charters , Fiordland Crested Penguins are back in Halfmoon Bay and the only other bird of note was an Antarctic Fulmar.
Updated: Wednesday 3rd August 2011
Winter months
May and June were pretty mild here on Stewart Island - there wasn't much rainfall and we even had one or two sunny pleasant days.
Birding-wise, May ended in a fizz. Walking to work one afternoon I bumped into Brent Beaven, head of biodiversity at the Department of Conservation here on the island. He'd been doing a rat trap line that morning and had seen an unusual bird which he thought was a shrike of some sort. Unfortunately work commitments meant I couldn't go straight away, but the twitcher inside me was eager to get round to Horseshoe Bay and I headed out there the next morning. An hour passed, checking every flying and perching bird I saw but without any joy. Heaps of Tui and Bellbird but no shrike. I was just about to give up when down the valley below me I caught a flash of ghostly grey in the long grass. The bird - was it a bird? - I couldn't say for sure, but 10 minutes later the bird gave itself up and flew to the top of a small tree to give me an unobscured view. As soon as I'd focussed my bins on it I knew exactly what it was - a juvenile Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike. A true New Zealand mega! I turned round to give someone a high five, but I was on my own. That's twitching on Stewart Island for you.
I watched it for a bit longer, soaking up the I.D. details and then decided to get some shots of it. It kept its distance but at one stage flew straight towards me, landing on a telegraph wire above my head. It flew back to the tree which ironically was a Blue Gum (it obviously made this Australian bird feel at home!). These birds are quite common through southern and eastern Australia right up to PNG. A few days prior to the bird arriving, the island had had some strong westerly winds which had probably brought the bird across the Tasman Sea. As I continued to take photos and watch the bird I saw it feeding on a stick insect. After about 45 minutes and a couple of hundred photos later I headed back to the car and texted Sav Saville about the sighting. He was quite excited and texted back asking if I could tie it to a tree for a few days ... but unfortunately after I'd seen the bird the weather turned to custard and it was never seen again. I went back a week later for a look but found nothing, which wasn't surprising given that these species are notorious short-stayers.
Doing some homework, there have been 20 records of Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike in New Zealand and this is only the second record for Stewart Island. The first was back in 2000. I think only half a dozen people saw this bird, including Brent and myself. The remoteness of the location probably puts off other New Zealand bird watchers from coming down to grab it for their list. It's one of the differences between New Zealand bird watching and, for arguments sake, the UK scene. With such a rare bird, guys would have chartered planes and thrown sick days to see and tick it in the UK. Ironically some even call them "bird flu days"!! My opinion is that New Zealand bird watching and twitching scene is very much in its infancy.
In June I saw my first Cattle Egret of winter coming in off the sea at Lonnekers Beach. A couple of days later another two appeared with Salt (the only horse on Stewart Island). Unfortunately a couple of weeks later Salt passed away - hope this doesn't put off the Cattle Egrets!
I saw a third bird as it walked up passed the Department of Conservation office on the main road and managed to get a few photos of it. Thinking about it I've seen some good birds on the main road: Kiwi, Weka (with chicks), Kaka, New Zealand Wood Pigeon ...
Winter work has been a bit thin on the ground this year. After completing the bird call count for SIRCET I've done a few odd days on the ferry as relief crew.
In July, as a birthday treat to Jules we were going to fly over to Mason Bay to spend a few nights and hopefully photograph Kiwi, Dotterel and Fernbird for me and some beach-combing for Jules. But if May and June were mild and settled, July was the complete opposite. Winter turned up, hissing and snarling and throwing literally everything she'd got at Stewart Island. Gale force winds, hailstones the size of, well, very large hailstones, snow, frost, sleet, heavy rain and freezing temperatures.
We are less than 3000 miles from the South Pole here and it really felt like it. Subsequently the trip to Mason Bay was cancelled as the planes weren't even taking off, let alone landing, especially on a beach! So Jules' birthday was spent next to the fire at home and the next day when there was a short break in the weather we got the last two seats on the plane and left Stewart Island. I would have happily gone on the ferry (there would have been some good birds whizzing around) but Jules + ferry + birthday cake don't mix. Bit of a rollercoaster flight over the Foveaux Strait which looked like a giant washing machine.
We spent a few days in Queenstown surrounded by snow-capped mountains which looked quite beautiful. Couple of days in Hanmer Springs for the thermal pools and a wedding, and then onto Kaikoura where I met up with Gary Melville of Albatross Encounter. Gazza and myself did a half day pelagic and got a great selection of birds: 20+ Black-browed Albatross, 1 Campbell Island Albatross, a dozen of the ever-photogenic Buller's Albatross, plus a huge gathering of Wandering and Southern Royal Albatross.
After a few days in sunny Kaikoura we headed back to Stewart Island where the weather seemed to have calmed down a bit. At the end of July I was back in Kaikoura for a full day deep-water pelagic with Albatross Encounter again where I had hopes of adding Grey Petrel to my ever-growing seabird list ...
A 6am start saw ten of us leave Kaikoura's South Bay heading out to the shelf about 20 miles out. The weather was relatively calm but it didn't take too long to start attracting birds. The usual suspects; Wandering (Gibson's) Albatross, Northern and Southern Royal Albatross, Northern Giant Petrels, NZ White-capped and Salvin's Albatross all squabbled around the iced chum block with the constant soundtrack of Cape Petrels in the background. Other good birds seen were Westland Petrel, Grey-faced Petrel, a lone Sooty Shearwater who'd obviously decided to stay put in the southern hemisphere, and the regular comings and goings of Fairy Prion. After 8 hours at sea we still hadn't seen Grey Petrel or white morph Southern Giant Petrel (local fishermen reported seeing two).
On this trip I learned that Grey Petrel have been hit hard by long-line fishing as a by-catch. A few years ago on this kind of trip a dozen of them would have been seen.
Steve Woods and Igor Debski were on this pelagic and they had also been on the Three Kings Pelagic back in March. On that trip we wore shorts and t-shirt. This one was woolly hats, gloves and thick fleeces!
We're now into August and soon I'll be heading north for the gruelling 24 hour journey to the UK to represent the New Zealand Birding Network and Ulva Island at the British Birdwatching Fair in Rutland (19th-21st August).
The New Zealand companies are all together on the one stand:
- myself representing Ulva's Guided Walks and launching our new Birding Bonanza package
- Lynette Buurman and Gary Melville from Albatross Encounter Kaikoura
- Brent Stephenson & Sav Saville from Wrybill Tours
- Kapiti Island Nature Tours
- and Heritage Expeditions
Being back in the UK is a great chance to catch up with family and friends - and obviously some birdwatching to be done! Hope to get down to Dorset and spend some time out in the field with my old mate Pete Moore and also revisit some old favourite Kentish sites.
Updated: Monday 2nd May 2011
Deep south to the far north
A house move in February (during the height of the guiding season) was a bit challenging but the new garden list started off very well with a Kaka following us from the old house to the new, plus the addition of a family of Weka with three chicks. The adult female had a broken lower mandible but she seemed to be doing a good job bringing up the chicks and they were very trusting, allowing us to get quite close for photographs instead of unpacking boxes that we were meant to be doing.
The beginning of March saw me leave Stewart Island for the far north to Three Kings for a four-day pelagic run by Brent and Sav of Wrybill Tours.
During my travels north I got an email from a mate back in the UK to tell me that Ray Turley had passed away in India. Ray was a cornerstone of the early twitching scene in the UK and in latter years had become a familiar face at Dungeness. His sea-watching skills were second to none and he was the sort of guy who was willing to share his knowledge and passion. I think anyone that crossed his path could only be impressed. I didn't know Ray particularly well but when I saw him last August we watched a flock of Glossy Ibises at Denge Marsh he said to me, "I haven't seen you down here for a while." I replied that I'd been living in New Zealand for a few years and we laughed as he'd thought he'd seen me only a couple of months ago. Such is the passing of time in birdwatching years compared to normal years! It was a great day that day at Dungeness - I jumped in Ray's car because a Hoopoe had been found on the beach and I left Ray stalking some Lapland Buntings that he was determined to get on film. The world's a sadder place without him in it.
The Three Kings Pelagic is THE best pelagic I've ever been on. Eight guys on a small boat in the middle of the ocean may not be everyone's idea of fun but if you're into your pelagic birds this was the muts nuts. Great birds just kept coming and to be honest I can't remember the order they arrived but every day brought a new bird. Kermadec Petrels, White Terns, Grey Ternlets, twenty-plus Long-tailed Skuas and New Zealand Storm Petrels.
The cameras were running hot and you found yourself running to the opposite side of the boat as something else great had been spotted such as White-naped Petrels, Black-winged Petrels, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and Grey-faced Petrels. As well as the birds we saw a huge pod of 100-plus Short-beaked Common Dolphins that played at the bow of the boat; three Bryde's Whales and while chumming a Shortfin Mako Shark made an appearance in the clear blue water.
The birds kept coming though and a single Sooty Tern was spotted along with a Gould's Petrel. Highlights have to be a Tahiti Petrel, probably the first living bird seen in New Zealand waters, along with a Collared Petrel, another first for New Zealand not forgetting the Flesh-footed Shearwaters and Black Petrels putting your head in a bit of a spin. Thanks to Tank, skipper of the vessel Demelza, Brent and Sav for organising the trip, and the great company of Steve, Igor, Ian and Detlef.
Back home on Stewart Island after a morning's guiding I'd just sat down with a cup of coffee when I got a text from a friend to say that she had a juvenile kiwi in her back garden and did I want to come round?! All the kiwis I've seen in the bush and Ulva Island when I've never had my camera, so I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. This was the nearest thing to a full scale twitch on Stewart Island so I threw my camera bag (and Jules!) in the back of the truck and we whizzed round to Sandy's house. Sure enough at 4 o'clock in the afternoon was a juvenile kiwi fast asleep on Sandy's lawn. We sat about twenty metres away and the bird was very relaxed and had a wander around, feeding inbetween kiwi naps. Sandy said she'd heard the parents calling in previous weeks and we were lucky to have spent a couple of hours in its company. Unbelieveable - only on Stewart Island!
Since that day, it hasn't been seen since.
April 7th saw probably the last pelagic of the season with Aurora Charters. I was just along for the ride as the boat had been chartered by Wrybill Tours doing a short southern New Zealand tour. As we jumped on the boat, the discussion between myself, Ty the skipper and Brent turned to what birds we were likely to see. It was blowing about 20 knots and there was a good 2-3 metre swell so I said we were likely to see White-headed Petrel as I'd seen them in previous Aprils from the ferry. Brent said we'd find a Great Shearwater, a bird that breeds in a completely different sea. The nearest population breeds on South Georgia near the Falkland Islands but one or two had been seen around New Zealand in the last week or so.
We arrived at Wreck Reef with the usual suspects immediately on view: Royal Albatross, White-capped and Buller's Albatrosses. The first good bird was a Broad-billed Prion and shortly afterwards a White-headed Petrel came into view and then another one appeared. Northern Giant Petrels and Southern Giant Petrels were in attendance and a brief view of a Sub-Antarctic Little Shearwater kept the momentum going until Brent shouted, "What's this? It's a f*cking Great Shearwater". I got onto the bird and couldn't believe it, it was a Great Shearwater. Probably less than ten records of these birds in New Zealand and probably half of those records this year. The bird circled around the boat, landed on the water and did a few close fly bys allowing us to get some photos. Quite unbelieveable. Brent at this stage lost all composure, shouting and screaming about his find! A great way to end the season. On the way back we picked up another two White-headed Petrels and even though it was 4 White-headed Petrels to 1 Great Shearwater, I think Brent still trumps me.
As we enter May, guiding has pretty much dried up and I've been fortunate to get a few days' work for SIRCET doing bird call counts at Ryan's Creek and Ackers Point here on Stewart Island. Effectively it involves walking to designated spots on a map, standing for five minutes and collecting data on all endemic and native birds you hear and see. Some of the points take you off the walking tracks and deep into the bush but the weather has been kind and I've got to see some parts of the island I haven't seen in a while.
Updated: Sunday 20th February 2011
Good and bad news
First the bad news. After more than 13 years of being predator-free, Ulva Island had an invasion of rats over the Christmas period.
Rat trapping is a continual process on Ulva Island (as a precautionary measure) if you don't rat trap you don't know if you are rat-free. On average Ulva Island catches three rats per year in these traps. It's difficult to keep an open sanctuary completely predator free but when it was recorded over Christmas that six rats had been caught (including two juveniles) our worst fears were realised. A breeding population of rats had established itself on Ulva Island.
At last count 70+ plus rats have been caught which is worrying time for the Stewart Island community because Ulva Island is one of the main draws to this part of the world. But it really isn't the time to go on a witch hunt to apportion blame. Everyone is of the same opinion; Ulva Island must be re-eradicated of rats as soon as possible. Unfortunately there will be some casualties; Stewart Island Robin, South Island Saddleback and Stewart Island Weka.
As a trustee of the Ulva Island Charitable Trust, I've attended a number of meetings in the past weeks. Ulva Island is seen as a blueprint of how to run an open sanctuary ie. a predator-free island that is open to the public. This is a sad chapter in its history but we must look on the positive side and move forward. It doesn't have to spell disaster - we can learn from this and so can other islands and eco sanctuaries.
Hopefully sooner rather than later Ulva Island can return as the precious jewel in the crown of Rakiura National Park.
2011 on Ulva Island has turned up some gems in terms of guided trips that I've led there. We've seen Yellow-crowned Kakariki feeding young at the nest; Jackbirds (juvenile Saddleback) foraging with their parents through the bush; and high in the canopy the pleasing flutey calls of Yellowhead above us. In a ten-day period I've been fortunate enough to see six daytime sightings of Stewart Island Brown Kiwi on Ulva Island and the best experience of all has to be watching two male kiwi fight for 35 minutes. A lady in my group who was filming this actually had her feet in the same shot as the fighting kiwis, as they were so intent on their battle for territory that they didn't give us a second glance. After the loser slumped away looking a bit sorry for himself the victor called his iconic kiwi call that you really only associate with evenings on Stewart Island - and all this before 10am!
Other highlights include a number of pelagics with Aurora Charters as the Birding Bonanza combination trip with Ulva's Guided Walks continues to be a success with serious birdwatchers and photographers.
One hugely successful trip to Wreck Reef on the east coast of Stewart Island began quite uneventfully. Not even a Southern Royal Albatross showed up. A single Fairy Prion, Cook's Petrel and White-chinned Petrel were about all we'd seen and then on the horizon a bird came lazily flying towards us. At first I thought it could be a Buller's Shearwater but as it got closer I realised that it was something different. It had a large white collar and black cap to the head. I shouted "White-naped Petrel" but cut myself short because I've only seen them in books. I've been doing some homework in preparation for a Three Kings pelagic next month, and knew if this was a White-naped Petrel it was way out of its range. The nearest breeding population is the Kermedec Islands, an archipelago north of New Zealand's North Island. These birds normally migrate north - as far away as Hawaii.
There was about 22 people on board that day (Tuesday 15th February) and I got everyone onto the bird, quickly rattling off ten photos as it wasn't lingering about. Ty, the skipper, asked what I thought it was and I replied that it could be a White-naped Petrel. We checked my photos against the field guide on the boat and when I got back onto dry land I phoned Sav Saville of Wrybill Tours. Sav said the only other thing it could possibly be was a Great Shearwater, but I've seen these in the UK and was convinced it wasn't one. I sent my photos off to Sav and he confirmed that it was indeed a White-naped Petrel. It could be the southern-most record of this species and possibly never recorded around Stewart Island - I'm filing the rarities report with the OSNZ as we speak. I was just happy to get a lifer!
Updated: Tuesday 28th December 2010
At this time of year the Pelagic season starts up and Aurora Charters have a new skipper called Ty. He has lots of local knowledge and a fun sense of humour. We've already done a full day trip down to Port Pegasus (the far south of Stewart Island) where Mottled Petrel was seen along with Arctic and Antarctic Tern - probably one of the few places in the world where you'll see these two birds side by side. Other great birds seen from the Aurora include Cook's Petrel, Buller's Shearwater, White-chinned Petrel, Campbell Island and Black-browed Albatross and last week's highlights were Soft-plumaged Petrel and at least four or five Grey-backed Storm Petrels and a Wilson's Storm Petrel flitting around the boat. Check out the Aurora Charters website for upcoming trips.
Earlier in the month I was invited to a book launch here on Stewart Island. Neville Peat has just released his book in time for Christmas called "Rakiura Heritage" about Stewart Island history and a guide to historic sites. I was going to buy a signed copy at the launch but my money was handed back with a personal note from Neville because I had supplied him with some photos of the local birds for the book!
During December SIRCET asks its volunteers to help with Blue Penguin surveys and Jules and myself were only too glad to assist. It involves walking the path from Ackers Point Lighthouse at 11pm with head torches on and counting the number of Blue Penguins you see for the 30 minute walk back to the car park. We had good views of adult birds coming ashore having spent the day out at sea feeding as well as two very cute fluffy chicks waiting patiently for a feed just off the path. Plenty of rustling in the bushes but we weren't allowed to count those!
That's all my news for 2010. I might grab the camera as there's a Kaka tapping at my window for attention - my most common garden bird, how cool is that?!!
November 2010
November saw me getting into a bit of a scrap with Sooty Shearwaters! Nothing personal, I was just helping Claire from SIRCET to band them. They do put up a bit of a fight, much to the amusement of the Blue Penguins who sit in the middle of the path just watching the snarling and hissing pillowcase containing a Sooty inside. We spent around three hours catching the birds, weighing them and putting a leg band on their right leg. It's amazing to think these birds were flying off the coast of Alaska or even right around to the UK just a few short months ago.
October 2010
I'm back on Stewart Island and straight back into guiding. Spring has firmly put her roots down; clear skies, warm sunshine and very little wind to mention. It's a great time to bird watch on Ulva Island as the birds are holding territory and a lot of singing and nest building is taking place - and the bird watchers know this. My first few tours this season were all real serious listers who know exactly what they want to see. Most of these folks were Brits, including one couple from Scotland that I met a couple months earlier at the Birdfair.
We don't often lead one-to-one tours but as the season is building we occasionally make exceptions. Ulva Goodwillie and myself took Sandy, an American birdwatcher, across to Ulva Island with us, and used the trip as a bit of recce to find out what birds were where. Sandy was very laid back and enjoyed viewing flocks of Yellowhead, Brown Creeper and the displaying Saddlebacks. As we found new birds, I picked up on a few things Sandy was saying and asked him his surname. He said, "Komito" and then the penny dropped. Sandy Komito, America's top lister/twitcher from the book "The Big Year" and soon to be made film of the same name. He was a very pleasant guy who said he does not twitch so much these days. A few weeks later Ulva and myself received a parcel from Florida and Sandy had kindly sent both of us a signed copy of his book about the big year, called "I came, I saw, I counted". A pacey good read and if you find it, buy it!
Another trip to Ulva Island produced a daytime sighting of a large female kiwi that stayed with us for around five minutes, which is always such a privilege. On the water taxi crossing to Ulva Island you are pretty much guaranteed to see Blue Penguins but one recent morning there was not a penguin in sight. The answer to this mystery was soon found asleep on Sydney Cove - a moulting Leopard Seal - a penguin's nemesis!
September 2010
To break up the huge journey from London to Christchurch we decided to have a three night stopover in Singapore. 
A very modern expanding city, but if you look there are one or two rewarding nature reserves to visit not far from the busy centre. I spent a day at Sungei Buloh (north of the city) a magnet for waders even though it was not the best of time of year to visit, but I did connect with a few good birds; Marsh Sandpiper, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Curlew Sandpipers, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, Pink-necked Pigeon and Ashy Tailorbird.
A quick visit to Bukit Timah did not produce a large amount of birds, but the Long-tailed Macaques made up for it and were very photogenic. And I even found time to be tourist and enjoy a Singapore Sling at Raffles.
Returning to Stewart Island was a wee bit colder than Singapore, and it was straight back to work with a few tours on Ulva Island. After a couple weeks at home we were on the road again, with a two week road trip around the South Island. We drove the Catlins route from Invercargill to Dunedin, seeing Yellow-eyed Penguins along the way.
Across to Doubtful Sound to do an overnight trip where the scenery is always stunning and we also got to see Fiordland Crested Penguins and Bottlenose Dolphins. Next was a drive up the West Coast were the weather was playing its part. We spent the night at Arthur's Pass where the Keas were being their destructive selves and enjoyed trying to destroy the hire car. The next morning we awoke to a good fall of snow which was a bit of a surprise, but by the time we arrived at Kaikoura the sun was shining. I quickly got myself onto two pelagics run by Ocean Wings. Brent Stephenson of Wrybill Tours was also in town for a few days. Brent was also present at the British Birdfair. It's a small world these days - one minute you're in a marquee in the middle of England and a few weeks later you're with the same person on a boat on the other side of the world looking at Wandering Albatross.
The first Ocean Wings pelagic produced a Southern Fulmar, Buller's Shearwater, a few Westland Petrels plus a lot of the usual suspects (Wandering, Royal, Black-browed, Salvin's and White-capped Albatross. 
Also huge flocks of the endangered Hutton's Shearwater. Pelagic number two brought an unexpected visitor in the shape of a Grey-backed Storm Petrel which was probably blown north through the night with a number of Fairy Prions. We viewed a White-chinned Petrel and Short-tailed Shearwater which was a challenge finding it amongst the Sooty Shearwaters. Heaps of Cape Petrels and the always quarrelsome Northern Giant Petrels at the back of the boat. That afternoon with the sun still shining I was on another boat filling up a 4GB card with a massive pod of Dusky Dolphins that were trying to fight evolution as they seemed to spend more time out of the water than in it. Spring was in the air and I'm sure the females were just trying to get away from the advances of the males. Next stop was Twizel where I caught up with the ever delicate Black Stilt as well as Wrybill, Banded Plover and Australasian Pipit.
August 2010
The middle of August saw us leaving Stewart Island and heading to the northern hemisphere to represent New Zealand islands and the New Zealand Birding Network at the annual British Birdwatching Fair held at Rutland, the UK's smallest county.
This huge three day event is now into its twenty-second year with exhibitors from Alaska to Zambia plus all the latest optics on view for you to salivate over. Heaps of new books are out busily being signed by the authors so you can test the strength of your bookshelves once you get home.
The New Zealand stand was shared by operators throughout the country: Albatross Encounter at Kaikoura, Heritage Expeditions, Wild Earth New Zealand Travel, Kapiti Island Alive!, Wrybill Birding Tours and us guys from Ulva's Guided Walks, down here on Stewart Island. We were very busy for the full three days and got a lot of very positive feed back and bookings. Lots of comments were made that it was good to have all of New Zealand on one stand. We must have done something right as our stand won third best in show.
The Birdfair is always a great place to renew old acquaintances and talk about past trips, twitches and birds and of course to make new friends.
While I was back in the UK for a few weeks obviously there was a bit birding to be done. It was fun to return to old haunts; Oare and Elmley Marshes, Dungeness, Cley, and Grove Ferry to name a few.
I got the grand tour of the county of Dorset with my old birding buddy Pete Moore who moved there from Kent a few years back. It was great to spend time with Pete and his family again but sadly over all too quickly. While I was back in the UK I caught up with a lot of great birds - Arctic and Barred Warblers, Hoopoe, Wryneck, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Wilson's Phalarope, Purple Heron, Cattle Egret, Red-backed Shrike and a flock of 18 Glossy Ibis. And that's just a few of the highlights!
Updated: Monday 5th July 2010
Urban encounters
As alluded to in May's instalment, guiding has taken a back seat for the winter season so to keep the wolf from the door, I work two-four days a week on the ferry service between Stewart Island and Bluff. As I've mentioned, it does have its advantages. In the last few weeks we've encountered Southern Right Whale, a huge pod of Bottlenose Dolphins including youngsters, Yellow-eyed Penguins, and Royal and Wandering Albatrosses.
My commute to and from work is in darkness. Kakas have always been fairly abundant in the township, which we do take for granted somewhat (it's my most common garden bird and definitely the noisiest!). I've noticed this winter that Weka have become much more vocal in the dawn chorus and many island locals are seeing them around the township. A lot of this is due to the success of SIRCET and its volunteers trapping cats, rats and possums.
My commute last Saturday though, involved something a wee bit more special. It's a ten minute walk to work and within a couple of minutes of leaving the house I could hear tapping footsteps behind me, similar to a small dog. I turned around (with head torch on) and looked down to meet my stalker. A kiwi! At 7.10am in the middle of the township. I stepped back, gobsmacked. I've seen a fair number of kiwi on Ulva Island and in the bush, but would never expect to see one in the township, and certainly never this close. I attempted to observe the guidelines of keeping my distance from the kiwi, but as I walked backwards viewing the bird, it tagged alongside and actually ran to keep up with me! It began feeding on the grass verge so I stepped back and knelt down to watch. The bird then moved towards me and started to probe around my feet and seemed very relaxed. It continued its pre-dawn ramble, walking across the main road into a neighbouring garden to melt out of view. Pretty much guaranteed I was the only person on the whole planet that day to encounter a wild kiwi on their commute to work. Awesome!
Ulva Island
On a recent day trip to Ulva Island I had great encounters with Yellowhead, Rifleman, Brown Creeper, Saddleback and was lucky enough to catch a roosting view of Morepork. The disadvantages of winter birding is that the birds are a lot quieter, however the plus side for the seven hours I was there is that I had the island to myself!
Updated: Wednesday 26th May 2010
Into Winter
Our summer season officially came to an end on 1st May, which means less visitors arriving to this southern isle. There has still been a bit of guiding work during the month including a group from Alma College in the USA.
As guiding takes a back seat for winter, I do a few days here and there working on the ferry between Stewart Island and Bluff. A ten minute walk down to the wharf in the dark serenaded by Kaka and Weka calling is a good way to start the day. Working on the ferry is tough, but the advantages (so long as you can handle the puke bags) are that seabirds are plentiful on the Foveaux Strait. A strong easterly a week or so ago brought a good selection of birds out on the Strait including Royal Albatross, White-headed and Mottled Petrels, and a nice close view of an Arctic Skua.
Saying that, we do have pleasant sunny days and I think on the whole islanders enjoy having the island to themselves for a few months of the year. A few days ago a large bull Hooker's Sealion decided to relax in the middle of the road, probably the nearest thing to a Stewart Island traffic jam.
Ulva Island
Birds on Ulva Island have been very quiet, bulking up for the winter. Yellowhead, Saddleback and Rifleman can be quite elusive. At the beginning of this month the Ulva Island Charitable Trust launched its new website - see the links page for details.
Updated: Thursday 1st April 2010
Great White Shark
One of the great things about living on Stewart Island is that opportunities can arise that don't seem to occur in "normal life". On Monday 29th March, a beautiful, sunny, autumn day I was out on the Department of Conservation (DoC) boat, skippered by Barney. Also onboard was Clinton Duffy, probably New Zealand's leading marine biologist, who is studying the Great White Sharks that spend a lot of their time in this area, attracted by the huge New Zealand Fur Seal rookeries on the surrounding islands of Stewart Island.
Clinton has been studying sharks here and around the Chatham Islands for about 4 years. A lot of these studies mean getting up close and personal with these often misunderstood animals.
About 3 hours of drinking coffee, the waft of rotten tuna heads floating off the back of the boat and minced fish thrown over the side at intervals brought the bird life. Northern Giant Petrels, Shy and Buller's Albatross, Sooty Shearwaters, Black- and White-fronted Terms and the bulky shape of a Brown Skua. I was happy just snapping away with my camera, when the albatross I was taking a picture of, disappeared rather quickly. Out the corner of my eye a big dark shape appeared just below the surface of the water, the apex predator had arrived and I was no longer a Great White Shark virgin. Seeing one, that is.
Clinton and his team said, "Oh it's just a small one", as they guestimated it was two and a half metres long. It looked big enough to me. To I.D. the shark, an underwater camera on a pole was put over the side, operated by Kina.
Sharks, like dolphins, have unique dorsal fins with scarring and patterns on the side of their bodies. This turned out to be a young male the team had not seen before. He was very interested in the bait and spent 45 minutes or so just circling the boat. I found it hard not to quote movie trivia, "You're gonna need a bigger boat ...".
One of the first things Clinton told me was that the dorsal fin is very rarely seen slicing through the water (as depicted in the movies) although when they migrate the dorsal fin does come out more. Most sharks around Stewart Island migrate to north-east Queensland around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
The team decided to put a spot transmitter on the shark, which would send a signal to a satellite every time his dorsal fin came out of the water. It's hoped that the transmitter shows important data such as the migration route, depth and water temperature. But this meant actually catching him. So a fish head was put on a large hook with some buoys attached to the line, and it was thrown over the back of the boat.
The next few seconds were stunning. Frustratingly, none of it was caught on film. The shark took the bait, instantly diving taking the buoys with it. The buoyancy meant he was going to come up quickly, which he did - completely breaching out of the water, which even Clinton and his team said was bloody rare!
The shark gradually wore himself out and the team brought him alongside the boat. With the boat moving slowly forward all the time, so that water passed through the shark's gills, a rope was put around the tail and the shark's head was held tight against the side of the boat. It became apparent that I wasn't going to stand back and take photos. All hands were needed on deck to make this process quick and less stressful for the shark.
Clinton drilled through the dorsal fin and attached the transmitter (about the size of a pack of playing cards) with nuts and bolts. A sample of DNA was taken and the shark measured; he turned out to be 2.7 metres long, 8 feet 10 inches in old money. SMALL my arse! Females are normally bigger and the average size of a female around Stewart Island is 4.8 metres long.
Time to release the shark. First the tail is released and the hook in the mouth is cut with bolt cutters, leaving the tip in the mouth to be pushed out naturally. The cold black eye that's always associated with great whites, looked at us as he disappeared into the deep. Wow! I hope he's got the memory of a goldfish.
We went looking for another shark in a different area but with no joy. Just one lone juvenile Yellow-eyed Penguin appeared for about an hour, and then it was time to head for home.
See Stewart Island > Island images for more photos of the Great White Shark
Ulva Island
Autumn has arrived in my office. Birds are calling less, berries are appearing and birds are feeding up for winter. Yellowheads are still feeding young, as are the Saddlebacks. The damp spell at the end of March seemed to bring out quite a few kiwis during the day, which is always nice. The first one I saw was a huge female that slowly walked away from us after twenty minutes of good views and the one last week was a smaller male that started off about five feet in front of us, but after about ten minutes he melted into the bush in the background. Happy clients, happy Matt!
Thanks to Jules for revamping my website!