Boat trip from Akaroa 19th or 20th Oct

[Jan]

Canterbury BirdsNZ/OSNZ are trying to organise a pelagic with Coastupclose
on 19th Oct for 4 hours from Akaroa. Backup day would hopefully be 20th
if the boat isn't booked for someone else then.

If anyone is interested please contact birdiebev@xtra.co.nz

The boat costs $750 for 4 hrs, so we really need 10 people minimum.

[Davidthomas]

What sort of birds would you be looking to locate?

[Jan]

There is a trip report in the Wrybill for June 2012 from our last trip with this boat.

Look at www.osnz.org.nz Publications, Regional Newsletters, canterbury.

It is not as predictable as Kaikoura as free bird food isn't available every day as it is up there.
But the boat is better, so is the scenery, there are Hector's Dolphins, and you don't have to
travel as far to get to the boat.

[Lacertae]

What a great boat trip that was, I loved every single minute of it ! And we saw so many Hectors too, it was fantastic.
Anyway I know more birds were spotted than what I've photographed, so here is the list of the most interesting ones solely based on my shots (I'll post more tomorrow) :
- Northern Royal Albatross
- NZ White-Capped Mollymawk
- Salvin's Mollymawk
- Hutton's Shearwater
- Westland Petrel
- Snares Cape Pigeon
- Blue Penguin
- Australasian Gannet
At some point I thought a Buller's Mollymawk was around but looking back at the shots it happens to be a Salvin's, so I hope my claim this morning isn't gonna induce an error in the final count/list.

NZ White-Capped Mollymawk

NZ White-Capped Mollymawk

(100.8 KiB) Viewed 6958 times

NZ White-Capped Mollymawk

(97.36 KiB) Viewed 6958 times

White-Chinned Petrel

White-Chinned Petrel

(43.87 KiB) Viewed 6958 times

[Lacertae]

Snares Cape Pigeon

Snares Cape Pigeon

(147.92 KiB) Viewed 6958 times

Northern Royal Albatross

Northern Royal Albatross

(64.15 KiB) Viewed 6958 times

Hutton's Shearwater

Hutton's Shearwater

(137.28 KiB) Viewed 6958 times

[Lacertae]

If it flies, I count it !

(113.81 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

Is the middle one a Fluttering or a Hutton's ? I'm tempted to say Fluttering, but ...

(95.98 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

Salvin's Mollymawk

(145.41 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

[Nick Allen]

Sounds like it was a good trip today. Wish I could have been there. Great photos.

The Westland Petrel looks like a White-chinned to me, with an all pale unguis.

Not convinced about the Fluttering Shearwater. Proportionally it looks the same as the Hutton's around it. Some can unfortunately have fairly pale underwings. Don't like the long bill and dark collar, as a Flutterer should have a shorter bill and be less dusky.

[Lacertae]

Hi Nick ! Thanks for your help with birds ID, the Shearwaters gave some troubles to everybody and I'm sure Bev can double-check her infos with you. It may well be I don't have a single shot of a Fluttering if any was around yesterday.
As far as the Petrel goes you are right, and I didn't make a call for a White-Chinned 'cause while on the boat I couldn't see the white patch on the chin. But I have a shot which after heavy tweaking might show the beginning of something ? Not that we need it to confirm the ID, but ...

(67.22 KiB) Viewed 6931 times