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Rick Goater
Rick Goater

Rick Goater

Keen on the natural world and its wildlife. Czytaj więcej🇬🇧Doune
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  • Aotearoa
    A distant Beverly gets water in the spartan waiting area
    Our aircraft, with interesting window reflectionsMeals delivered by polite robots identifying as cats

    Dublin

    12 marca, Irlandia ⋅ 🌬 9 °C

    No joy yet with the lost Kindle, and Los Angeles information people, military in style, were utterly uninterested in Beverly’s request for help - suggested earlier by a much more friendly airport employee.

    An easy, 10 hour flight from LA to Dublin with Aer Lingus but too little legroom compared, especially, with the aircraft from Fiji to LA.

    A rather cold and miserable set of buildings at Dublin compared with others we have been at, reflecting the wet and windy conditions outside. Now a 4+ hour wait for a delayed aircraft to Edinburgh - our first delay in the whole trip.

    Much fun watching the antics of AI “waiters” delivering plates of food to customers while we waited and had a beer.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa

    Los Angeles

    11 marca, Stany Zjednoczone ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Nothing much to report here. A long wait for our Aer Lingus connection, a fellow traveller exhibiting concerning psychotic behaviour, and Bev stressed by leaving her Kindle on the Fiji plane. Hoping that phone calls and emails will have solved this before we fly out this evening. But unlikely. Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The greeting in Nadi
    Looking west from the airport

    Fiji

    11 marca, Fidżi ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Flight north to Fiji from Auckland. The land and islands looked interesting as we came in through towering cumulus clouds and it had rained recently. Plenty of Common Mynas in the airport.

    Next flight out, in a couple of hours’ time, to Los Angeles, will take us across the International Date Line. Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Wonderful friends
    The sorry detailsOne of about 9 species of Moa. Long goneAnd another. GoneAnd one of many wren species. More recently goneSeverely overgrazed and erosion visible

    Thoughts on leaving New Zealand

    11 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    A fabulous country with dramatic and fantastical scenery, interesting land uses and wonderful seabirds and seascapes. Extremely hospitable and friendly people and most roads so free of traffic that the UK will seem desperately busy and overcrowded when we return there.

    Also a place of exciting weather and natural phenomena, though not without jeopardy, even peril - cyclones, landslips, seismic events such as earthquakes, tsunami and volcanoes.

    All this with a backdrop of sad misuse of the place, which is partly being recognised by more people. Very intensive land use, whether for meat and dairy production, huge areas of one-species forestry (all Monterey Pine), very little native forest remaining and many deliberately introduced non-native predators.

    Humans, from the earliest settlers about 800 years ago, have been responsible for most bird extinctions, but rats, cats, stoats, weasels and ferrets have played a huge and on-going part too.

    What an incredible place it must once have been!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Lemons ripe in the garden
    Oranges on their wayBeverly waits for the bus - in vain; the wrong placeAdvertising Wrybill Tours at Auckland

    Auckland and homewards

    10 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We said final goodbyes to Jody, Sav and their garden full of citrus and other fruits, boarding an Air New Zealand flight for Auckland - the first leg of the homeward-bound journey to Edinburgh via Fiji, Los Angeles and Dublin. The original plan was to return the way we came but events in Dubai put paid to these.

    The night spent in the Jetpark Hotel, in readiness for a three hour flight to Nadi, then two 10 hour flights and a one hour flight from Dublin, with prolonged waits in between.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The explanation
    On the walk at the springsEpiphytic fernsThe Silver Fern of New ZealandBeverly bringing more green to the sceneHers and mine

    Back to Havelock via hot springs

    9 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After a wonderful relaxing time at Cushla and Mike’s, we drove back to Sav and Jody’s, stopping briefly at Morere hot springs where upwelling hot water was piped to pools for swimming. We walked a circuit in mostly native forest with a stream running through but didn’t really see hot springs. A very interesting phenomenon though, explained in one of the photographs.

    Nearing Napier, we could not resist Real Fruit Ice Creams - a bit of a “thing” here.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Zephyr - worth a visit
    The sceneA really good carrot cake muffin, plus coffeeTwo people - amazing in their own waysQuite a story - if you can read itCook's circumnavigation of the globe - in redTaking in the view

    Having a muffin for friends

    8 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Friends of ours at home, familiar with “Gizzy”, said when they heard that we were here, “Have a muffin for us”. So we did, with excellent coffee, at ‘Zephyr’.

    We followed this with a relaxing walk to Waikanae Beach and the area close to Captain Cook’s landing place where his statue and interesting words are located. What an amazing place it must have been in those days! And what an intrepid voyage to undertake in the 1700’s.

    For a long time we watched the world go by - swimmers, dogs, children, fishers, boats, a Caspian Tern and the extensive view of Poverty Bay.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The vista from the house
    Beverly chats with Cushla while Mike seals a deal on his boatThe view againRelaxing at the backDomestic workThe frontageSome explanation about stingraysPart of the group enjoying a Short-tailed RayA smallish Eagle RayApparently the fish love itThe Murphy family history book. A really interesting read

    Gisborne

    7 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    A three and a half hour drive north to Okitū, near Gisborne to stay at the home of Jody’s sister Cushla and brother-in-law Mike Murphy. A fabulous dwelling with a fine view. An evening of chat and fine food made a good end to the day.

    Mike insisted on conditioning my Amish-made leather belt, which he considered very high quality owing to the thickness of the leather but he was less impressed with the use of poppers (which he called domes) rather than his preferred screw fixings.

    The following day Cushla and Mike left for a three-week holiday to Wānaka and we were left to our own devices. Most of the day was spent relaxing, watching the view and reading, after which we drove north a little way to join an organised event paddling at Tatapouri with Eagle and Short-tailed Rays. A pretty magical experience.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Home via Auckland

    Fernbird and Australasian Bittern

    6 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Drive back to Havelock via the west side of Lake Taupo to search for the elusive and skulking Fernbird in reed-mace wetlands. We heard a couple call but never saw one. However, the equally hard to find Australasian Bittern was flushed from the side of a track, making the detour well worthwhile. Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The Dome - where Jody used to roller-skate as a child
    The CriterionThe Daily Telegraph buildingBrown and BatesAustralian Mutual ProvidentNational Tobacco Company

    Napier

    4 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    While Sav and Rick enjoyed seabirds in the north, Beverly and Jody spent a day in Napier, famously rebuilt after a 1931 earthquake in the Art Deco style of the times. The photos show a few of the fine buildings. Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Watching Dotterels and Fairy Terns
    New Zealand Dotterel - in summer plumageThe Fairy TernVariable Oystercatchers roostingTo the boat, Marsden BayLunch break in the lee of the Hen and ChickensApproaching Mokohinau IslandWhere rare Grey Ternlets roostFlesh-footed shearwaters and Black (Parkinson's) PetrelsA useful book, which includes a plate of the NZ Storm-petrelThe original plate, owned by Sav, the first person to see the rediscovered bird. Top right two birds

    The Hen and Chickens and beyond

    4 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Sav and I continued north first thing, visiting the sandy/stony shore at Waipo. The tide was exceptionally high as the moon was at full and waders were roosting in good view. Banded and New New Zealand Dotterels, tame birds, gave wonderful views and amongst them were three Fairy Terns. Rare and unexpected, and somewhat like our Little Terns.

    Then on to Marsden Bay to meet up with a Wrybill Birding tour for a pelagic trip, particularly to search for the New Zealand Storm-petrel, fairly recently rediscovered by Wrybill after being thought extinct for more than 150 years.

    Two hours in a fast fishing vessel took us through large congregations of Fluttering and Buller’s Shearwaters to our furthest point, Mokohinau Island, the rocky home of a few roosting Grey Ternlets - a kind of Noddy.

    This was followed by three stops on the return trip for ‘chumming’ with minced salmon to bring in petrels. It turned out that what we saw was an unusually poor list of birds, lacking even the most likely - White-faced Storm-petrel. However, three New Zealand Storm-petrels appeared and the wonderful Cook’s Petrel passed a dozen times.

    A fantastic trip with added common and bottlenose dolphins and some excitingly rough seas.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The predator-proof entrance to Tawharaniu
    Pukeko - one of hundreds hereBrown Teal and Northern Brown Kiwi - both ticksNorthern Brown Kiwi

    More Kiwis

    3 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    The long drive north for a few days’ birding with Sav to Warkworth and a visit to the nearby Tawharanui Regional Park - a headland reserve fenced securely from rats and stoats etc. The endemic and rare Brown Teal was new for me and we saw more endemics including Whiteheads, Kakas and Northern Saddlebacks. The real goal though was Northern Brown Kiwi, which needed a return visit at dusk after we’d eaten.

    On site again a long-ish walk through dry sloping woodland produced two very brief sightings in the red beam of Sav’s torch and then a prolonged view of an adult Kiwi feeding, located by another group of birders. A much darker bird than the Stewart species and with a shorter bill and more obvious ear. We also heard calls from quite a few other Kiwis. I never imagined I’d see a Kiwi, let alone two species.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Wooden items and veg for sale
    Our two ladies and an impressive treeKnife sharpening at the marketIn the fish shop - Albacore Tuna etc.Bird of the day - Spotless CrakeHome for lunchAmazing limestone scenery above HastingsNew Zealand PipitEvening starter - before......and after

    A day of pleasures

    1 marca, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Three good things this morning: a farmers’s market at Toombs showground, the purchase and preparation of fresh green-lipped mussels for eating later, and a drive to Haumoana on the coast to look for Spotless Crake.

    The weekly market seemed to be a major community event with numerous stalls selling grapes, figs, honey, flowers, all sorts of meat, bakery products and fruit and vegetables. There was live music too, all around a large green space with impressive, but non-native trees, including a magnificent Plane Tree.

    Figs of five varieties, honey on the comb and macarons were bought for later consumption. Then to a small fresh fish shop for mussels, and the fish on ice looking impressive.

    This was followed by a short drive to a river mouth with three species of cormorant, Caspian Tern, many stilts and other wetland birds. Best of all though, a Spotless Crake (widespread but elusive) was tempted out of a sedgy area to run back and forth a few times across an inlet of mud. Red eyes and legs and blue-black plumage.

    A brief afternoon trip to Tamara Peak in nearby limestone country with a fantastic view and one or two New Zealand Pipits running about on the rocks and grass. An endemic species.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Goodbye rental car
    The start of a good eveningOn the veranda

    Christchurch to Napier

    28 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Time for bed at the end of the day with a Morepork calling outside. We had met up with Sav at Christchurch Airport and taken an Air New Zealand flight to Napier where his partner Jody collected us all and drove to their home 20 minutes away at Havelock North.

    A very civilised evening with fine company food and wine.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    On the road to Arthur's Pass
    On the café terrace at Arthur's PassUnsuspecting customersNice visitors from SuffolkSceneryBeautiful feathers, shame about the ringsWe lost just a few crumbsMore beautyGrey rock, grey whiskers and grey hairRiver eroded limestone high on the hill. Lord of the Rings scenery?Some gen on the areaOur last B&BThe rental car did wellNews from Sabine and Erica from mount Cook

    East via Arthur’s Pass

    27 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    A lovely sunny day today, which would have been great for the glaciers but too late as we needed to travel from Whataroa to Templeton, near Christchurch, via Arthur’s Pass.

    Probably the most diverse and interesting landscapes and scenery so far, with moraines, eskers, fantastic screes, braided rivers and also limestone features, to none of which a photo does justice.

    The settlement of Arthur’s Pass provided coffee, a date scone and endless fun with Keas - desperate for everyone’s bakery products. They succeeded in stealing a sandwich and a muffin, each carried off in its paper bag, from other visitors.

    Our last Air B&B is the cheapest, possibly the nicest, and extremely pleasant and a breakfast is provided. California Quail, Silvereyes and Fantails in the garden are an added bonus.

    Best of all, a wonderful evening with old friend Lorna Saville, Sav’s ex-wife, not seen for 25 years. Lovely to catch up, and share heartfelt words after so long. A rather good Indian meal within walking distance of her lovely home too.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Bruce Bay with much timber brought down by the glacial rivers
    Silt-laden meltwater from the FoxThe Fox River, rapidly reducing the size of its glacierCoffee break in Franz JosefAussie and Kiwi idiomsA common Kiwi sayingToo wet to walkRefuge towards the end of the day

    Rain

    26 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    A four hour drive north to Whataroa via the Haast Pass, through constant rain, often very, very heavy. We had hoped to pay our respects to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers but the rain and poor visibility made this pointless.

    A brief coffee break in Franz Josef township before continuing to our rather nice air B&B where sleep, reading, wine and a bit of telly may be the order of the rest of the day.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Satnav telling us what to expect
    Lake Hawea. And fencepost1Drawing attention to my paunchThe best accommodationBev in relaxed modeViews never as impressive when seen through the cameraReading matterLand under the ice

    To Makarora Township

    25 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We arrived at our next Air B&B at Makarora having taken the scenic route from Queenstown over the Crown Range Road and the picturesque gold mining and ski resort of Cardrona. Then through Wanaka, past the glacier-blue Lake Hawea and on, to the top of Lake Wanaka.

    The accommodation is the best yet; spacious, well equipped and clearly owned and lived in by ski-ing, mountaineering and Antarctic aficionados. We can learn all about Antarctic currents and the land-mass below the ice while sitting on the loo. Good books too, about the doings of Dougal Haston, Don Whillans, Chris Bonington and the like.

    We ended the evening as the half moon waxed (back to front compared to our view in the northern hemisphere) while somewhat incongruously listening to The Archers omnibus.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    A useful purchase - and something from RM Williams!
    More people than we've seen in a long time!One of many common European introductionsBlack-billed Gull - a rather smart head

    A break at Queenstown

    25 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Half way to our destination for today. Queenstown - not my kind of place but Beverly made a purchase and I’m hoping for a good flat white. Some very smart Black-billed Gulls at the lake shore - a much more inland species than the commoner Red-billed.
    Sooo many dead possums on the road! Plus one or two Hedgehogs.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The long white cloud
    The fiord from Milford Sound - low tideOne of very few permanent waterfalls thereSailing westU-shaped and hanging valleysMore of the sameTwo happy peopleThe foot of the Homer TunnelNo sign of a Rock WrenBeverly's friendHaving a scratchUseful information

    Milford Sound

    24 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    It rains for two days out of every three at Milford Sound but we had a day of hot sunshine and much blue sky. A day of scenery and not birds, though we did see a Weka run across the road. The lovely little South Island Wren (Rock Wren) was searched for by the Homer Tunnel, following Sav’s instructions but to no avail. And while I was doing this, Bev was having fun with a Kea where she parked waiting for me.

    Milford Sound is clearly a honeypot for tourists and has lately been extra-busy with Chinese visitors as it is the Chinese New Year.

    Like everybody else, we took a boat ride along the fiord to its mouth on the Tasman Sea and back. Absolutely stunning scenery with tall mountains, almost vertical, yet tree-clad flanks, much bare rock too and some snow at the top. Impressive waterfalls as well.

    On the way home we picked up a female hitch-hiker from Austin Texas who had been travelling in NZ for three months. Interesting company, and we took her back to near her homestay in Te Anau. Her name was Andra. I think she was in favour of Trump.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Last view of Oban harbour
    Te Anau, on the edge of the Fjordland National ParkOur cosy accommodation in Te AnauWhiskey - waiting to be sampledAn image of the perhaps, typical male New ZealanderAnother view of the garden

    Stewart island to Bluff to Te Anau

    23 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We caught the 08:00hrs ferry back to Bluff on the mainland. A very benign journey compared to the severe gale-affected one on the outward journey. Wonderful to meet our old friend Ian (Sav) Saville who was leading a Wrybill birding tour and about to embark for Stewart, as we arrived. We shall be seeing more of him later in the trip.

    On the road north to Te Anau we saw many road-killed Possums, several with attendant Swamp Harriers, which seem to be abundant here. Nice accommodation here in Te Anau, made even better by a friendly greeting from Dianne, the owner, who picked and cooked rhubarb for us and encouraged us to partake of some of her whiskey as she no longer drinks it.

    We decided to have a quiet evening in the B&B so we lay on the bed to read at about 5pm. I woke at 9:15 and Beverly is still fast asleep as I write! The last few days have been quite exhausting.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    The Stewart Island Tokoeka
    Tokoeka sometimes comes quite close1Kiwis and the aurora at the same timeThis is a female - told by its very long billMuch chasing by young malesAurora australis

    A night under the stars with Kiwis

    23 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Our “Beaks and Feathers” outing between 21:45 and about 23:30 took place in calm and clear conditions with a fabulous night sky showing the Milky Way beautifully. The aurora was expected and it did not disappoint, though it did not last long and was not very extensive.

    About 8 Stewart Island Kiwis (also called the Tokoeka) were watched in infra-red light. Most interesting was a chase of an adult female by two sub-adult males, which involved fast running back and forth with squeals and tripping and rapid changes of direction. There was also some prolonged calling by males from the adjacent woodland.
    All in all a fantastic experience and one hard to convey in words and phone videos alone.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    At the water taxi wharf in Golden Bay
    No rats allowed on UlvaSouth Island Robin. Wonderfully tameWe walked the full loopJust scratch the ground and he'll forage at your feetThe top ambition. YellowheadSouth Island SaddlebackBev and Sabine having a restSuch a rare bird - worth a second photoTui in song. Windy tooAn unexpected sit-down

    Ulva

    22 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    A day long looked forward to and which fully came up to expectation. An early water taxi over a turbulent sea to the predator-free island of Ulva, just 10 minutes from Stewart. There was a list of something like 10 endemic and other birds we really wanted to see, with Yellowhead perhaps top of the list. A walk of something over four miles through superb native rainforest produced everything available, including the three species of parrot, Brown Creeper, Weka and about six Riflemen. Superb views of all.

    Back on Stewart by 14.30hrs and some wonderful red wine from Napier area brought by Erica and Sabine. Then wandered to our place for a cup of tea (where we are as I write this) and a sleep before dinner at 7pm and then our Kiwi trip at the airport. Looking good as the weather fine, if a bit blowy.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Red-crowned Parakeet outside its nesting hole
    Fantail - a common bird hereThese signs erected by those not in favour of using poison to eradicate non-native animalsWould have made an excellent swimming spotErica Klim, a widely travelled birder with some great adventure storiesRick and Sabine taking a moment.1Exhausted on Horseshoe PointWaiting for the taxi

    More friends

    22 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Sabine and Erica, whom we first met on our Galapagos trip a few tears ago and with whom Beverly went to India, arrived on the 11 o’clock ferry. Wonderful to see them again and after a coffee, excellent Portuguese custard tarts in a Swedish-owned cafe and a walk to their accommodation, we set off on a scenic walk around Horseshoe Point. It took much of the day and we got a taxi home at the end of it as we all suffered knee problems.

    Good scenery and interesting vegetation but few birds, though many hundreds of “mutton birds” feeding offshore. These are Sooty Shearwaters - a much nicer name which does not hint at the over exploitation of these birds in the past. We learned in the museum yesterday that such exploitation was typical of the island’s history. The Māori finished off the giant flightless Moas, and later colonists over-fished and killed huge numbers of whales.

    Other birds we saw were Tomtits, a Brown Creeper, a few Kakas and, best of all, Red-crowned Parakeets.

    Evening meal together in the South Sea Hotel followed by a dusk watch for a few incoming Little Blue Penguins at the harbour. We saw about five in the poor light and the first heavy rain of the day.

    Ulva tomorrow and some good birding…     Czytaj więcej

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  • Aotearoa
    Stewart Island
    Ready for the crossing in a 'severe gale'Our rather basic accommodationFrom the South Seas Hotel - where most visitors eat

    To Stewart Island, a friend and Kiwis.

    21 lutego, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    We drove from our Invercargill B&B to Bluff for the ferry to Oban, on Stewart Island. In Bluff we passed old harbour -side “New Zealand Refrigeration Co.” and “New Zealand Shipping Co.” Buildings and I realised that these were almost certainly places that my dad’s grandfather had been familiar with in the days when he was involved with shipping frozen meat from here and the Pacific islands to the UK, last century.

    The one-hour crossing of the Foveaux Strait in a catamaran was fantastically rough with much sickness aboard, but constantly watching the horizon kept us unaffected. A few Sooty Shearwaters and a couple of probable Salvin’s Mollymawks seen on the journey but the view was mostly utterly obscured by the sea spray.

    After a very enjoyable meal with old Scottish friend and bird artist Derek Robertson, who happens to be travelling in NZ at the same time as us, he and I joined a night time Kiwi trip with the company “Beaks and Feathers”. We drove to the island’s aerodrome runway and walked in total darkness except for our guide’s infra-red torch.

    Rain fell a bit but generally the skies cleared and the night sky was fantastic. The Milky Way visible and Orion upside down compared with our view from home.

    At least 7 Kiwis performed and possibly 12 sightings all told. Birds of different ages probing the soft mossy ground for food. One walked over my foot. A brilliant experience. This was an “extra” for me as Derek had acquired a spare ticket. Our own expedition is planned for two days’ time. I enjoyed watching the spectacle of these incredible birds doing their thing.     Czytaj więcej

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