BirdingNZ.net

Te Papa curator and Birds New Zealand Councillor Colin Miskelly is heading out of the museum and walking the length of Aotearoa to document and count every single bird he sees and hears along the way!

He is heading to the Far North to start his trek along Te Araroa Trail later this week, and he will be 'on the trail' until March 2024.

He spoke to RNZ's Jesse Mulligan today:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programm ... f-aotearoa

You can follow his adventures along the way via his blog here:
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/10/30/ ... roa-trail/

Colin Miskelly's first blog post from his marathon 'Atlas' trek the length of the country along Te Araroa Trail includes a 90 Mile Beach Patrol and his first Unusual Bird Report - a Common Tern found among a flock of White-fronted Terns:
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/11/10/ ... 392ea2cb84

Here is Colin's latest blog 'From Kaitaia to Kerikeri':
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/11/17/ ... 392ea2cb84

Here's Colin Miskelly's third blogpost from his marathon trek along Te Araroa Trail - this one features encounters with Weka, Wandering Tattler, Australasian Bittern and a flock of 81 Pāteke Brown Teal on the edge of Ngunguru!
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/11/24/ ... i-harbour/

Here's Colin Miskelly's latest blogpost from Te Araroa Trail which features the section from Whangarei to Auckland and includes encounters with NZ Fairy Terns, a Little Egret, and plenty of pelagic seabirds out at 'The Petrel Station'.
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/12/01/ ... NqfII2VTGU

In his 5th blogpost from Te Araroa Trail covering the section between Auckland to Hamilton, Colin Miskelly reports finding an Australian Chestnut-breasted Shelduck south of Meremere and seeing some interesting wading birds including a Grey-tailed Tattler among the Bar-tailed Godwit and Red Knot flocks at Ambury Regional Park:
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/12/08/ ... -hamilton/

In his 6th blogpost from Te Araroa Trail covering the section between Hamilton and Te Kūiti, Colin Miskelly reports his first encounters with long-tailed cuckoo koekoeā, bellbird korimako, and whitehead pōpokotea:
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2023/12/15/ ... -te-kuiti/

You can read the rest of Colin's blogposts via this link:
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/author/colinmiskelly/

Wow! didn't realise just how close he is to completing it now, fantastic stuff!

Te Papa curator and Birds New Zealand council member Colin Miskelly recently finished his marathon 124-day walk covering 3,200 km along the full length of Te Araroa Trail!

In total he saw 111 bird species, counted 104,429 individual birds, and submitted 1,790 complete eBird checklists!

Congratulations Colin (and his brother Gordon), what an incredible achievement!

Here in his 19th and final blogpost, covering the section from Te Anau Highway to Bluff, he reports on the Sooty Shearwater, Spotted Shag, Foveaux Shag and Little Owl that he saw on the last leg.

And here are the summary statistics for section 19 (the final section) with the cumulative totals for the length of Te Araroa Trail given in brackets:
Days on the trail = 9 (124)
Kilometres travelled and surveyed = 239.9 (3,225.6)
eBird/Atlas checklists completed = 136 (1,790)
Number of bird species = 59 (111)
Total birds seen or heard = 11,435 (104,429)
Most abundant species = (the native) grey teal | tētē-moroiti (2,058, all on the New River Estuary, Invercargill)
Most abundant endemic species = South Island pied oystercatcher | tōrea (1,169, all between Riverton and Invercargill)
Most frequent species = (the endemic) bellbird | korimako (45.7 % of checklists), followed by tomtit | ngirungiru (34.1 %)

Link to blogpost: https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2024/03/15/ ... -to-bluff/