Chatham Island Pelagic - Jan 2024

[Steve Wood]

Hi Mike,
Yes- I know, and you know, but there are a lot out there that are not up to speed.. Thanks.

[Jan]

Thanks for clearing that up, Steve! It's been a while since I last saw one at the Chathams. Even nzbirdsonline doesn't mention the genetic difference.

[David Riddell]

Had a great trip with Brent Mallinson from the Flowerpot Bay Lodge going around the islands within reach of Pitt Island last Saturday. We had a good range of birds though sadly not a single prion! Things started well when we found a Chatham Island shag just a couple of minutes out from Flowerpot Bay. It was a beautiful calm morning and we were able to pull up right beside Black Robin Bush on Mangere Island and drift slowly past, where we watched several Forbes' parakeets flying above the canopy. Also Chatham Island fantails, starlings and a couple of pipits, but unsurprisingly no black robins!
We then withdrew a short distance from the shore and put down a line to catch half a dozen big blue cod in 15 minutes (most of which we later used for chum to bring in the mollymawks), before heading around to the far side of the island, where there were a couple of shore plover on the rock platforms near the DoC hut. We'd actually had much better views of an adult (and a brief sighting of a juvenile just before it flew) on Pitt Island itself the day before, but it was wonderful to see them in such a special place.
After passing through the narrow gap between Mangere and Little Mangere we headed towards the Pyramid, but were diverted by a group of white-fronted terns working over a school of fish. As we got closer we saw there also several dozen sooty shearwaters flying around, as well as the first mollymawk of the day - a Buller's. Several more Buller's mollymawks joined us as we headed between the Twin Nuggets (aka the Murumurus) - glad to have Brent's highly manoeuvrable and shallow-draft jetboat!
It wasn't until we were almost at the Pyramid that we saw our first Chatham mollymawk, a recently fledged juvenile. And coming closer to the island it was clear that most of the adult birds had finished breeding and already left. We did a circuit without seeing any, but once we started throwing out bits of the cod a few came in to join the Buller's and we had excellent views of them right beside the boat. A northern royal albatross came past but didn't stop, and there were a couple of giant petrels around - probably northern, though again they didn't come close. The brown skuas had also largely departed, though there was at least one flying high around the cliffs.
With not much sign of anything else forthcoming we headed across to Rangatira, where there were a couple more shore plovers and a few Chatham Island oystercatchers and Pitt Island shags (again, we had much better views on Pitt). On the way we passed a single grey-backed storm petrel - a new bird for me which I initially had trouble placing as a storm petrel as it flew quite differently - as it says on NZ Birds Online, "they flutter more and use their legs less than other storm petrels".
We then headed out to the Star Keys - not part of the original itinerary but the sea conditions were good and Brent was easily talked into going, not having been out there before. Saw a white-capped mollymawk on the way (with unusual white flashes on its upper wingtips) and when we threw out some more blue cod it was joined by another, as well as several Buller's which accompanied us for most of the trip. From what Brent says white-caps seem to be rather uncommon around Pitt.
Approaching the Star Keys there was suddenly a lot more bird activity, the reason for which was soon revealed to be a big school of small kingfish, which at one point were right around the boat. Brent dropped a line over the side and almost immediately was able to watch one take the lure, just a couple of metres from the boat. He quickly hauled it aboard but I was busy watching the birds. There were several Buller's and Chatham mollymawks, lots of white-fronted terns, sooty shearwaters, gulls and a few Pitt Island shags, but the big feature was several dozen subantarctic shearwaters, which breed on the Star Keys.
It was a fairly quick trip back to base after that with the only new bird being a diving petrel. Then a delicious home-cooked meal from Bernie back at the Lodge while we reflected on an amazing day. Not a huge range of oceanic birds but some pretty special ones among them, and spectacular surroundings.

Bird list:
Buller's mollymawk - 40
Chatham Island mollymawk - 10
White-capped mollymawk - 2
Northern royal albatross - 1
Giant petrel (prob. northern) - 3
Sooty shearwater - 60
Subantarctic shearwater - 30
Common diving petrel - 1
Grey-backed storm petrel - 1
Chatham Island shag - 2
Pitt Island shag - 6
Brown skua - 1
White-fronted tern - hundreds
Shore plover - 4
Chatham Island oystercatcher - 4
Red-billed gull
Black-backed gull
Forbes' parakeet, Chatham Island pipit, Chatham Island fantail

[Michael Szabo]

Great pelagic trip report/photos David. We missed Subantarctic Shearwater and Common Diving Petrel when we were there. Very interesting that you you didn't see a single prion - even a Broad-billed, which should be back breeding there now.

[David Riddell]

Yes I was a bit surprised too. May have been too calm a day for birds to be up and zooming around. Brent thought we may have had more things later in the day when birds were returning to their breeding grounds - we were home by 2.30. First time he'd run a trip out to the Pyramid and still working things out a bit.