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Dianne and I finally made it down to Milford Sound, with a stop to see the Rock Wrens at Homer Tunnel. Found the birds quickly near the car park, but then they disappeared behind the rocks and we didn't see them again despite sticking round for about 30 mins. The pair was banded (see photos). Also a Crested Grebe at Lake Te Anau near the jetty and town centre.

I am sure the number of pairs at the tunnel has reduced this year. We saw this pair as well.
But i heard there has been a cat up there this year which i suspect at the cost of the rock wren !!

Cats would be bad news. We saw DoC 200 traps up there, but maybe they need a cat trap as well. But good to see at least a few birds are still around.

Interesting that you’d heard numbers were down. I’d generally heard across the board that numbers of birds were well up. But I’ll ask my mate who’s doing the rock wren monitoring up there.

There is a lot of the birds nesting at the moment so they are a bit more hidden, there was two pairs that were nesting when I was there.
Did you see any birds with insects in there mouths as chicks would have just left the nest or about to leave.

Didn't appear to be feeding chicks. The pair were flying and feeding together, but we didn't observe them for long before they disappeared off up into the rocks. But maybe they went back to their chicks and that is why we didn't see them further.

I made a couple of visits to the area at the beginning of December with another photographer. We found two pairs, and located one nest where the birds were bringing in food for their young – including cicadas and small wetas.

Paul Sorrell

Beautiful photos