BirdingNZ.net

I wasn't going to post this as an alert, cos everyone seems to think their kaka or falcon etc sighting is special... but this may interest some because, as far as I am aware, they don't crop up in the Richmond Ranges often... or in Marlborough. I heard Kaka (one or two) as I was headed up the Timms Creek Track. I couldn't get a good audio record though and figured it was one of those things that I'd miss out on the bragging rights over. I carried on towards the Mt Fell Hutt but wasn't holding my breath... after a couple of kilometers I noticed a crunching and pattering sound: It was this bird digging into dead branches, and dropping good-sized bits of chip from the trees: lucky encounter. It'd be a decent coincidence if it was the same bird that I had heard earlier

Here's my ebird submission

https://ebird.org/checklist/S62794796

Dead right - must be one of the few sightings around there for a while.
Great to hear.
Cheers Jim

Great stuff!

Hi Jake,
A fantastic record, great that you have recorded it on e bird. There are Kaka up at Nelson Lakes and a few kaka left in the Sounds but in-between just the odd record over the last twenty plus years.
Well done and great photos as well.
Cheers Bill

Cheers Bill! I meant to hit you up about a trip to Lake Jasper to see about dabchicks - I'd forgotten until I read your thread from last breeding season about them at the dam... bit of a shit, I'd planned a few things and had to do the family thing too.

There could very well have been more kaka in that area too: I heard them lower (a good 100-150m lower) and towards Fishtail direction and then saw this one after the track goes north, but before it veers around to the hut. Okay numbers of kakariki encounters (counted them six times) up there compared to ten years ago but I didn't see a single weka, which was a disappointment. I'd never seen riflemen or tomtits up there prior to this trip either, so it was a good overnighter. Had a suspected brown creeper group too, but cannot confirm - I would love to have them on my ebird count

That's interesting - I ws up the Pelorus track to Rocks Hut not that long ago and birdlife (particularly native) was very disappointing- there were a few robins higher up and heard a few weka but definetly no parakeet let alone kaka.
You would have been higher up so maybe missed the worst of the rats?
Cheers Jim