Eastland & Mahia Birding

[RussCannings]

Hi all,

Lisa and I have recently returned from a 6 day camping roadie around the East Cape (from Opotiki around to Gisborne), as well as a day trip to the Mahia Peninsula. This is truly one of NZ's most beautiful areas, and for anyone looking to get away from the 'usual' spots, there are plenty to choose from out there. Starting on the north coast, we camped at Maraehako Bay, Te Araroa, and Anaura Bay (all fabulous spots!), then stayed with friends in Gizzy before heading home via one night at the Ohiwa Holiday Park. Our daily routine mainly consisted off checking out every rivermouth (For birds) and beach (for swims) along the way, with a few jaunts into towns or native bush. I was pleased to note bellbird in good numbers throughout, along with fairly regular Whitehead numbers in both native bush and pine plantations. Freshwater wetlands are a rarity on the East Cape, but where present, Spotless Crake was easily detected using playback, and a few dabchick and grey ducks were noted. Banded Dotterels appeared to be at virtually every sizeable stream-mouth or beach, and as per usual, the east coast showed off its tubenose potential (compared to the 'shearwater-only'-style seawatching in the shallow Bay of Plenty and western Waikato bights. While some spots (e.g. East Cape Lighthouse) are probably well-known, I would like to highlight three spots in particular that might be more under the radar, and worth more visits. They are in bold below.

Here are the highlights in chronological order:

Te Kaha area--Spotted Dove

Maraehako Beach--NZ Falcon juvenile seen in the evening

Whangaparaoa River mouth--Reef Heron, and 4 Grey Duck

Matakaoa Point, Hicks Bay--Scoped a fishing vessel offshore and noted 60+ mollymawks (Mostly White-capped with some Salvin's), 1 Northern Royal Albatross, and a few Flesh-footed Shearwater.

Te Araroa--Fernbird heard in a raupo wetlands near north end of beach. Seems to be an underdocumented species in this part of the country.

East Cape Lighthouse--Seawatched for close to an hour at dusk (from up by the lighthouse) and noted many hundreds of Buller's Shearwaters along with numerous Fluttering Shearwater, around 10 Cook's Petrel, a handful of Flesh-foots, and single Sooty Shear, little penguin, and diving petrel. This was a flat calm day with little wind--imagine what some wind could bring in out there!

Maraehara/Waiapu delta- (Just south of East Cape)-This spot looks very promising. I was there for less than an hour around midday under sweltering sun so only checked the north side as best I could. The combination of tidal mudflats, brackish lagoons, braided river-bed, bars, size of the area could attract some interesting birds at any time of year. There is clearly a decent breeding population of Banded Dots here, and I noted at least 1 Wrybill. There appeared to be a large tern roost on the south side of the main river mouth but I didn't have time to explore further and heat haze made scoping a little tricky. I would imagine this would be a good spot for Black-fronted Terns in winter, and who knows what else has dropped in over the years.

Table Cape, Mahia Peninsula--Lisa and I walked out to the NE corner of this gorgeous peninsula back in April and noted good numbers of turnstone and banded dots. I had been meaning to try in summer and finally got to do so. While we failed to find a hoped-for tattler, the bird list on the hike out to to the cape (from road-end to Table Cape) was still impressive, including: 234 Greylag Geese, 1 Reef Heron, 4 Pacific Golden Plover, 2 NZ Dot, 41 Banded Dotterel, 101 Bar-tailed Godwit, and 44 Ruddy Turnstone. Most notable to me are the godwits, as they all appear to be foraging exlusively in the limited mud/sand near the point, on rocky wave platforms, and in the piles of kelp and seaweed on the beach (Think Point Kean, Kaikoura but with godwits!). Both times I've been here, I have not seen them fly over to the tidal lagoons at the base of the peninsula. Those godwits roost on a sandspit, while these birds roost on Table Cape itself. None are banded. Offshore I noted regular movements of Buller's and Fluttering Shearwater, as well as 2 Arctic Skua, 1 White-capped Albatross, and 1 Common Diving-Petrel. Like at East Cape, this was a flat-calm day. I would love to be out on the cape during a storm! In the mammal department, there were 5 NZ Fur Seals out at the cape.

Waipaoa River mouth (south of Gisborne)--Unfortunately we didn't have time to check the larger Te Wherowhero Lagoon, but the river mouth produced well with 24 golden plover, 27 wrybill, 34 godwit, and 1 GREY-TAILED TATTLER (Presumably the same bird MD, HH, DT, and myself found back in October in Te Wherowhero.

Motu Falls/Whinray Reserve--If you ever have some free time and are driving between Gisborne and Opotiki, turn off for the Motu valley (north of Matawai), and check out Motu Falls in the Whinray Scenic Reserve. This isolated patch of mature bush has all the usual North Island specialties but most significantly is home to 40+ pairs of North Island Brown Kiwi, which locals are very proud and protective of. The falls are right by the carpark, but you can also take a long walk through the bush, or visit the Kiwi creche in Motu village (details online or by checking at the Motu general store). If you call/email beforehand, it is apparently possible to handle juvenile kiwi. Finally, even though it was the middle of the day, we spotted at least 3 weka in different locations around the Motu area so it seems their population on this side of the mountains is still doing okay in this local area.

Ohiwa Beach--female elephant seal!

And finally--no sign of Laughing Gull or Whiskered Tern sadly.

Great times on the road! Hope you're all enjoying what the summer has to offer.

Russ & Lisa Cannings
Cambridge, NZ

[GrahamB]

A great account of a road trip. I was up there last June with Rick Webber of Te Papa doing some marine-invertebrate collecting, based at Mahia Beach but getting as far North as Lottin Point. Not too much birding but I was surprised by the number of Sacred Kingfishers - they seemed to be on wires every few hundred metres or so. Also two NZ Dotterels at the lovely Anaura Bay.
Cheers
GrahamB