Canterbury Big Year

General birdwatching discussion, help with bird identification, and all other things relating to wild birds and birding in NZ that don't fit in one of the other forums.
Anita#
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby Anita# » Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:30 pm

Sorry I'm a bit slow with a reply to this. We did the Rennie's Bay section last Saturday on the Te Waihora bird survey. Lots of the usual suspects but we did find a banded kaki amongst a flock of pied stilt. We just got the information back from the Banding Office;

'The bird that you spotted has been identified as a male that hatched on the 28th of October 2012. He was released at the Tekapo scientific Reserve, near Tekapo township, on the 14th of January 2013 as a juvenile. He was last seen on the 11th of December 2015 in the Rangitata River.'

The only other unusual thing we saw was a ferret hunting right on the lake edge, it came within 2m of us before we chased it into some rushes and lost it.

Cheers
Anita
PS. The true right of Saltwater Creek below the SH1 bridge is public conservation land for a few hundred metres until a stream comes in. You can use the fence as a guide (although the PCL continues into the fenced farmed area).
andrewcrossland
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby andrewcrossland » Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:49 am

Hi folks - some hot tips - there's a few Reef Herons around the Kaikoura coastline easily seen at present. Nice views of 3 birds yesterday - 1 at the seal colony and 2 around the reefs between sharks tooth and the gull colony (see Kaikoura seawatching post). All allowed reasonably close approach.

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andrewcrossland
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby andrewcrossland » Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:38 am

Just an update on the Canterbury Big Year: 33 people have reached 50 species to date, and around 100 have logged sightings on ebird, which is great! I never knew there were that many birders in Canterbury!"
I had a blinder of a seawatch at Kaikoura Peninsula last Friday so have moved past the 100 mark, but I'm just the "pace car", expecting dozens of people to see more than 100sp by year's end.
In the regional race, Canterbury is doing pretty well, 10 species ahead of mighty Auckland (and its rare-bird stacked islands!), so great work folks.

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RussCannings
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby RussCannings » Tue Feb 26, 2019 2:24 pm

Can't believe I'm defending Auckland here but...

They might have "rare bird-stacked islands" but Canterbury has something even better--vast and diverse territory (which includes a few rare endemics as I recall ;) )

In all seriousness, love following along--keep up the great "work" everyone!

Russ
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GrahameNZ
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby GrahameNZ » Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:14 pm

Tip:
Cape Barren Goose at Travis Wetland.
viewtopic.php?f=9&p=39427#p39427
There's a lot of freshly mown grass at Travis at present so it may stay around.
But also a large amount of suitable habitat south of Travis back to Bexley wetland and of course Horseshoe Lake.
It was loosely associating with Canadas but also flying on it's own.
Happy Hunting

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Davidthomas
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby Davidthomas » Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:49 pm

Another hot tip for those who’re after white-winged black terns. The non breeding adult was seen this morning by myself and Fraser Gurney at the end of Whedons Ross road, slightly downstream of the road end associating with a large flock of 150+ blackfronted terns. It stands out with how white, small and dark it’s bill and legs are.
Davidthomas
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby Davidthomas » Sun Mar 03, 2019 11:42 am

Following on from Grahames Post. The Cape Barren Goose was showing again today well in the cattle paddocks. If you park in the carpark and head left it was associating with Canada geese just past the cattle yards.

The long staying Myna was also present in the redzoned land on the corner of Hawkes Road and New Brighton Road. Very responsive to playback I’ve heard and it’s worh checking the nearby reserve at the corner of Owles terrace and hardy street which is where it’s also been seen recently.

Embankment Road and Wolfe’s road were relatively quiet last night according to Mike Ashbee, with the only arctic wader being a Curlew sandpiper.
Davidthomas
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby Davidthomas » Sat Mar 09, 2019 7:46 pm

This might be of interest to some of you. I was up the Nina Valley today doing tracking tunnel work and ended up having to walk along the Lewis pass road towards the pass itself and was lucky enough to observe two kaka flying across the valley relatively high up, as well as a tui flying across the tree tops.

Worth keeping an eye out should you ever be driving/wandering up those ways.
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GrahameNZ
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby GrahameNZ » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:56 pm

Tip: Barbary Dove Travis
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8231
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Adam C
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Re: Canterbury Big Year

Postby Adam C » Sat Mar 23, 2019 3:21 pm

Hi all.

Not big news really at all, but I was stoked to get good views of a dark-phase Arctic Skua at the Avon-Heathcote estuary this afternoon just out from the poo ponds. It was chasing a few red-bills and then landed on the mud for a while. I managed to walk out to it and get reasonably good views before another flock of red billed gulls flew over, to which it couldn't resist lifting off and attacking like a spitfire intercepting a gaggle of Heinkels! Although in this case maybe its more fitting to compare it to a Me-109! Also of note were the amount of shoveler on the ponds and especially on the estuary. easily 1000+. However despite keeping an eye out no Northerns that I could see. Anyone know if the Northern Shovelers sighted at Ellesmere will hang around over winter?
“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Samuel Ullman

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