any educated guesses on numbers of Spotted Shag on Stewart Island and Fiordland?

[andrewcrossland]

Hi team, these are two other black holes. I've seen reasonable numbers of Spotted Shags around Stewart land and outliers and would guess there's maybe 500 breeding pairs. Can anyone offer a more educated guess or point me to a census figure?

And again for Fiordland - can anyone with local knowledge suggest a educated guestimate?

And by-the-way, there's records of Spotted Shags in lakes and waterways i western and central Southland that surely can't be right?

Many thanks for any information.

[Peter R]

I put in an e-bird record for a Spotted Shag for Lake Hayes near Queenstown a couple of years ago that I will guarantee is correct

[Jan]

i went on a Heritage Expedition in feb 2021, [ i think], to Fiordland and Stewart is. there were a lot of Spotties on an island in one of the bays, but my zodiac driver wouldn't oblige with a closer look and I don't think these trips are very suitable for birders, any longer. Unless they go back to having birdlists every day, as Rodney Russ used to do, the bird counts on these trips are useless. On my trip, the Antarctic Terns at the Snares were called White-fronted ts. Really disapointed [sp] with that trip.

[Colin Miskelly]

Kia ora Andrew

All the spotted shags that we found on 217 Fiordland islands between 2016 and 2020 are in eBird (including breeding records)

Ngā mihi
Colin

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi Andrew Pete McClelland reported a juvenile spotted shag at the Wairaki bridge in Western Southland back in 2015 so they do turn up in more central parts of Southland.