Hoping to ignite the flame of big day birding in NZ once more, as it is excellent for the NZ Birds Atlas and good competitive fun. Looking into the the Otago region I was told that the
record is now held by Lei Zhu with 71 species on 4 May 2019 (he also saw 68 on 5 May 2018): [url]https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Otago-1905.pdf
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Ela Hunt, Oskar Ehrhardt, Nick Beckwith and myself completed an impromptu Otago big day (practice run for future plans) in lieu of the Moeraki pelagic cancellation yesterday, and scraped together
68 species despite not being able to scope out a single mollymawk! I've seen dozens of Buller's and White-capped off the coast on the last few weeks so this was unprecedented:
https://ebird.org/tripreport/74669The day began at Tomahawk Lagoon where everything easy was easily found, and the local kotuku posed for some photos. No sign of Marsh crakes for two weeks now, likely moving into denser vegetation to nest. The resident shags and Northern royals on the hill didn't disappoint and the seabird front was further bolstered by many Northern giant petrels cruising the coasts and a Fluttering shearwater flock feeding just metres from the mole in Aramoana - I could've reached out and touched one! There was one with white feathers on the head, and a sole Hutton's shearwater among them allowing for great comparisons. We then moved over to Orokonui where kaka were flying around, and in the bush adjacent to the reserve saw Rifleman, Tomtit, South Island robin and Brown creepers.
Next we wove our way north towards the recently re-opened Katiki Point with short stops to pick up easy but elusive species such as Caspian tern, Pied shag, Grey teal and geese, had a quick look for an Australasian crested grebe that was present on a reservoir two weeks prior (no luck), and a quick Cirl bunting hunt through all the small passerines we saw. One hoiho was on the beach when we arrived, with others calling from the bushes. The new fence provides less opportunity for people to disturb or frighten the birds - but still allows for easy viewing.
Back to Orokonui after dark proved worthwhile with a few ruru calling consistently, a couple honks from the nesting takahe, and a male Haast tokoeka song. Stopped by a friend's en route home to Dunedin who has resident Little owls, and by then the wind was picking up so we went inside for tea after a fruitless listen. As we were closing the gate at the end of the drive, one swooped in backlit by the full moon and called a few times before disappearing like it was never there. All in all a very fun way to spend the day, and didn't have to travel far at all!