Juan Fernandez petrel and long-tailed skuas Cape Palliser

[igor]

I had an excellent seawatch at Cape Palliser this morning. Initially conditions didn’t look too promising as there was only a moderate southerly blowing and generally quite pleasant weather (which happily gave excellent viewing conditions). However, as the southerly change passed passed through the region last night there was strong squally wind and heavy rain so I think that did the trick in pushing birds in.

The highlight was a Juan Fernandez petrel. There was a constant stream of Buller’s shearwaters and a steady trickle of Cook’s petrels going by for comparison. I was extremely lucky to see this bird in the middle distance directly alongside a Buller’s shearwater. The wingspan was exactly the same as the shearwater, but the bird was an obvious gadfly petrel. The grey on the back reached up in uniform colour to meet the dark cap with no white collar. I also saw the underwing well, which was very white and had hardly any black discernible on the leading edge. Given good viewing conditions (bright but overcast, not direct sun) I’m confident I would have see any dark carpal bar on the underwing. The bird was flying in very lazy gentle arcs compared to the rapid sharper arcs of Cook’s. This flight behaviour led to achieving good views.

The other major highlight was a flock of four breeding plumage long-tailed skuas. Just offshore there was a loose work-up of about 1000 white-fronted terns which had constant attention from 5-6 Arctic skuas and at least one pomarine skua. The long-tails in comparison though flew straight by heading towards the north-leading coast without any interaction. I also saw what I think was a South Polar skua, again flying straight through, but I know these birds are tricky to pin down.

Full list of seabirds birds seen:
Northern royal albatross
White-capped albatross
Salvin’s albatross
Buller’s albatross
Fluttering shearwater
Hutton’s shearwater
Buller’s shearwater
Sooty shearwater
Flesh-footed shearwater
White-chinned petrel
Juan Fernandez petrel
Cook’s petrel
Gannet
Possible South Polar skua
Arctic skua
Pomarine skua
Long-tailed skua
White-fronted tern
Black-fronted tern

[Michael Szabo]

That's an impressive list - how many BFTs were there please?

[igor]

At least 3 black-fronted terns, but could easily have been more out over the water. There were another 4-5 at Lake Ferry.

[Michael Szabo]

Thanks Igor, that's interesting - I've always wondered what their migration route is from the South Island to Hawke's Bay. Perhaps at least some of them fly across to the south Wellington coast, along to Cape Palliser, and then up to Hawke's Bay.