A Lesson Learnt!!!!! in Misidentification.

On Birdguides yesterday there was a report of a Ist year Sabine's gull at Blanket Nook. As I was visiting my mother at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry, who had had surgery to remove bowel cancer the day before, I thought I would go to Blanket Nook on the way from the hospital to my parents home in Donegal.

When I got there there was one other birder, who I hadnt come across before and he asked me if I wanted to look at the Sabine's Gull. I have only seen an adult before so wasnt sure about the id and took the birder's advice and then I took a few photos.



I then sent them off to a couple of sites. I then decided to look up Sabine's Gull in "Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America" by Klaus Malling Olsen and realised that the photos I had sent were not a Sabine's Gull :-(

Joe Doolan of Irishbirding.comthen put me right.It was a juvenile Black Headed Gull. Thank you Joe.

I then went out to Killard NR and photographed this Ringed Plover (I hope)


There was also this Tiger Moth

Spotted Redshank at the Quoile Pondage

Spotted Redshank

There has been a summer plumaged Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus) at the Quoile for about a week. It has generally been on the far shore from the Castle Island Hide. It was the first time I have seen a summer plummage bird in Northern Ireland. I have seen them at Minsmere before.
I have a very distant image but here is a far better image by a Scottish Photographer Alister Benn, who lives in China. In my mind a very fine Landscape Photographer as well as Birds.

Birdwatch Magazine

Excellent Issue of Birdwatch Magazine this month. Firstly it has a couple of my photos adorning it's pages. Secondly on the front cover is a free CD "Birding from the Hip" A Sound approach anthology.
It is a foretaste of Anthony McGeehan's new book of the same name that is coming out at the Birdfair in August.it will also have accompanying CD's .It also has some nice illustrations by Killian Mullarney who in my opinion is one of the finest bird illustrators in the world.This particular CD has three stories. The first about the Dupont's Lark, The second about how he identifies a "peep" from a "British Birds" picture Quiz and thirdly a story from the RSPB Belfast Harbour Reserve.

The first is informative and if you don't know much about the Dupont's Lark you will hear how beautifully they sing. The second and third are amusing stories especially the Belfast Harbour story in light of recent events. Oh yes by the way The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland found there was no case to answer in the supposed illegal trapping on the Belfast Harbour Reserve for which he was sacked.. I think the RSPB will have difficulty at an Industrial Tribunal where I hope that intelligence will overcome stupidity.

Go and buy it!!!!!

A Confiding Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)

Last friday I stopped off on my way home from work at the Castle Island Hide on the Quoile Pondage. There wasn't much activity on the water but in the trees surrounding the hide there was lots of singing from both Blackcap and Willow Warbler. As I do not have any passable images of Blackcap I went home collected my camera and had a go. Five days later I still do not have any passable images of Blackcap. They are very difficult to photograph.These are my very poor efforts.


They can be quite close to you but now the ash trees have lots of foliage they are difficult to see. Even when you do see them they seem to move really quickly from perch to perch.

However there was this Willow Warbler that seemed to follow me around as I was looking for the Blackcap. It was so close that it was within the minimum focusing on my lens and I had to put an extension tube to make up for it. It was calling all the time. On one occasion it flew towards me landed on my shirt sleeve and then flew back to the branch. I am fairly sure it is a male. There is another Willow warbler that doesnt come quite as close and is the one that seems to have a beakful of insects all the time and disappears to its nest which I have not been able to locate. One minute she is there and the next has disappeared.

In the image above when you blow it up to maximum resolution you can see my reflection in its eye.

Well I have taken hundreds of shots over five days and these are the best images.






I showed Anthony McGeehan some of the images and he had this to say about them.

"The Willow Warblers that breed in Ireland are remarkably colourless. If they had about 1% lighter chests there would be no yellow tint at all. Autumn juveniles (technically, first-winters since they have a body moult in late summer) are such a contrast. They have the gorgeous yellow underparts. Adults, according to Neville McKee of the Copeland Bird Observatory, moult too but have only yellow on the chest after the moult - leaving the belly whitish. In spring, the differences between Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff are so subtle. Plumage colour is just about useless. Both are different beasts in autumn. Bird books haven't grasped the seasonal chameleon effect."

UPDATE: I was out again today and got this brief shot of the Blackcap that has been singing. Here it is singing

Finally took a photo of a Great Spotted Woodpecker in Northern Ireland

Ireland is one of the only countries in Europe that does not have any Woodpeckers. However over the last two it has been suspected that the Great Spotted Woodpecker are now breeding in a number of locations from Co.Wicklow, Co.Dublin Co. Louth and Co.Down. The pair in Co. Down are only about three miles from my house as the crow flies and were believed to have bred for the first time last year with two young. They are breeding this year and fortunately for me they go and feed at some peanut feeders of friends of mine. Last Sunday Jill asked me if I would like to come and photograph them. So I headed over and spent an hour waiting to no avail. Of course I had only left when Jill rang to say it was back and later on in the evening there were two of them.

I have been waiting for some nice weather and I spent nearly four hours yesterday sitting in a hide near the feeder and I first of all heard the chip, chip sound they make and the male flew onto the feeder that I didn't have my camera trained on. Typical !! as I tried to manouevre the lens around it caught sight of movement and was off!! Then shortly after the female did exactly the reverse it landed on the feeder I had just been focused on and same again it was off. It was also getting very cloudy and dark so I called it a day.

This morning I finished work and it was a beautiful morning so I headed back and as I pulled up in the car I could see it on the feeder so I crept out of the car and got quite close and started to fire away. This was the best shot.



This is a British race adult male. Bill and fawn wash indicate that it is not a Scandinavian. There has been some speculation that they may have originally come from Scandinavia.

American Wigeon (Lifer) and some Black Guillemots and a small RSPB update.

Earlier in the week I decided that as the American Wigeon that had been found at the Ballycarry Bridge near Larne about a week earlier was still around I should go and see it. I finished work and headed to the bridge. When I got there the tide was right out and I scanned both sides but to no avail. Lots of Shelduck,a few Curlew and when I looked over the side of the causeway I flushed four Whimbrel and annoyingly my camera was in the car so didn't get any shots. I was feeling slightly miffed that I hadnt seen the bird I was looking for so decided on one last scan when I noticed a Mallard asleep fairly close to the road and just beyond it almost completely hidden was the American Wigeon. No 437 to the life list. I use the Facebook Birdwatching app to create my Lifelist.

On Thursday I went along to Bangor Marina to see if I could get some shots of Black Guillemot. When I arrived I walked along the pier and noticed these Gull footprints in the concrete.


There was one Black Guillemot on the pier and about 20 in the water.
They are both easy and difficult to photograph. Easy in that they are not shy birds but difficult because of exposure. They have a very bright white patch on their wings and are extremely dark on the rest of the bird. An exposure nightmare.

They were mostly in pairs and displaying to each other. I watched one dive and it seemed to spend ages under water before reappearing. I decided to time their trips underwater and they ranged from 45 secs to 85secs and on one occasion this bird popped up with a very small Plaice.

This bird was calling to another that had just gone into the water.

I moved away from the main harbour down Ballyholme Road and saw this Rock Pipit collecting food for its young.

As I particularly like to photograph Birds in Flight I wasted many shots attempting to get a decent one. This is my best effort and I have cloned out a ring on his leg. These birds have been monitored and ringed for years by Julian Greenwood , who is on the main RSPB Council.


Talking of the RSPB I was very happy to hear that Anthony Mcgeehan's brother Gerard had received a letter from them saying that they were happy for him to work for the contractors on the Belfast Harbour Reserve after all. Also that Anthony's wife had been to a meeting with them and is going to continue to do the books for Reserve. Not what they were expecting I suspect. All power to her.

Last night I went to a party that the Belfast Harbour Reserve Volunteers had organised for Anthony and Mairead. There were twenty of us and it was a great night if tinged by a little sadness. There used to be a real sort of family atmosphere at the Hide amongst the volunteers and Anthony. David Lindsay gave a nice speech, he had known Anthony for nearly 40 years. Anthony responded and told everybody what he was upto. He was doing a Dawn Chorus for WWT at castle Espie today. Next week he is doing a Birdwatching Course on Inishbofin. Co Galway There are a few places available and you can book on the Dolphin Hotel website HERE and he is in the process of getting ready for the launch of his new book that is being published by the "Sound Approach" in a few months time. Hopefully he will let me review it here. I will be biased of course!!!

Out at Killard Nature Reserve over the last two days with lots of friendly Dunlin.

On Saturday there was the BTO Garden Birdwatch Conference at Oxford Island and I unfortunately for the guests did the second talk showing my photographs and talking about my three patches of Belfast Harbour Reserve, Quoile pondage and Killard Nature Reserve. I had never spoken in public and I never will again. So feeling pretty shitty about the whole thing I took Pickle and headed out to Killard.

The weather over the last two days has been absolutely brilliant (for a change) and the first bird I saw on getting out of the car was a Whitethroat. As you walk out to Killard there is a Sand Martin Colony on the left , which over the last couple of years has only had a few birds nesting. This year I counted 70 on Sunday and similar today. They are everywhere! I tried to photograph them but its not easy.


Out at Ben Derg beach there were Sanderling feeding
in the surfline. They flew off and I caught up with them feeding with a Dunlin on the seaweed. It was nice to see the Sanderling and Dunlin in their summer plumage.


I always keep an eye out to sea and I saw an Arctic Skua mobbing a Sandwich Tern which dropped its food and the Skua dived down and sat on the water feeding on the degorged prey. Infact over the last two days I have seen large numbers of Brent Geese heading northwards, a few Red throated Divers heading southwards. Lots of Gannets and today my first Manx Shearwater of the year. When I am sea watching I wish I had 10x42 rather than 8x42, too expensive to change now!!!

There were also a number of Wheatear around as well. As I got further round the peninsula I came across some Dunlin.

They were fairly tame and even with a dog with me I could get close enough to the odd individual to get reasonable shots.



The other thing that surprised me was that there were three Purple Sandpiper and I had it in my mind that they had left on migration by now. Here is one of them.


As I was leaving Killard I got talking to an elderly gentleman and we were discussing birds for a while and then he showed me his interest which was Archaeology. He took me to an area where there was evidence of stoneage knapping of flints. We both found some flint shards. He also pointed out various things on the shoreline of archaeological interest. He was Jack Smith ex Professor of Computing at Queens. It was a pleasure to meet him.

Godwits at Belfast Harbour Reserve

Today the RSPB in Northern Ireland are having a staff day out at Crawfordsburn Country Park (I love to see how the memberships are put to waste) I think it will probably be a Team rebuilding effort now that Anthony McGeehan has been sacked. I just hope they actually tell the rest of the staff why they have sacked him. I suspect it will all be glossed over.

Anthony told me some time ago about a previous staff day where the question was put "What should an RSPB employee be" and he rather succinctly put it that "An RSPB employee should be fired with enthusiasm or fired with enthusiasm" some didnt understand what he meant. Now ironically he has been fired with enthusiasm for being fired with enthusiasm.

Well in the last few weeks I have been taking a few photos of the Black Tailed Godwits at the Harbour Reserve now that food is being put out for them and are coming close enough to photograph.





If you click on an image they will appear at a larger size in a seperate window.

Whiskered Tern on Quoile Pondage. A first for Northern Ireland

Another Rare Tern on my local patch. Infact a first for Northern Ireland found by Keith Bennett. A Text came through saying there was a Whiskered Tern at the Quoile Pondage so I said to my wife Penny that I was heading off to see it. Instead of going for a walk at my other local patch Killard with her and Charlie my youngest son and on his birthday as well. Didn't go down very well. I drove down and there were so many cars parked outside the Castle Island Hide that I thought I would turn around go for the walk and come back later.

Went out to Killard. Initially saw a Heron being mobbed by a Hooded Crow. As I walked further there were quite alot of Whimbrel on the shore and about eight Eider offshore. All the time I was thinking I must get back to the Quoile.

Anyway we finished walk and when I had dropped of Charlie and Penny I headed down to the hide to find Gerard McGeehan and Shirley with the bird in sight a hundred yards in front of the hide. It was starting to spit with rain so chances of getting a reasonably good photo wasnt very likely. these are the ones I did get.



As I was leaving Breffni Martin from Co. Louth arrived so had a quick chat with him before heading off home.
So I have now seen both Whiskered and Foster's tern within a couple of miles of my house.

The Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybridus when I saw the latin name it made me wonder from what it was a hybrid. However it was so named because of its similarities between Black terns and White terns (Sterna). There are three geographical races of this bird.This was probably the Eurasian Whiskered Tern as opposed to the African or Australasian Whiskered tern.

Kea at Arthur's Pass

After leaving Kaikoura I made my way to Arthur's Pass in the Central Southern Alps. I stopped a few miles out of Kaikoura on the shoreline because I had seen some Terns that I hadn't seen before and was glad that I caught up with the Black-Fronted Tern (Tarapiroe)

They were on a bar where one of the braided streams met the sea. There were also a number of Caspian Terns (Taranui)

I love the Caspian Tern it is the biggest of the Terns and is distributed throughout the world. I saw them previously in Namibia.
On the beach there were quite a few black phase Variable Oystercatcher a NZ endemic. They were quite approachable.



The other bird on the beach were a number of Pied Shag (Karuhiruhi) also approachable but not to the same extent as the Oystercatcher.


I had three days before picking my son Jeremy up from Christchurch Airport and one of the stops I had decided on was Arthur's Pass to see and hopefully photograph the Kea. Then potentially onto Twizel to catch up with a very rare bird the Black Stilt (Kaki). It is the rarest wader in the world with at present no more than 61 adults in the wild, and of these only 14 are known to be female. Just seven productive breeding pairs exist in the wild.

However!!! after driving the very scenic route upto Arthur's Pass and at this stage having driven nearly 3000 kilometres in all I was exhausted and I decided to stay the three days in Arthur's Pass. I stayed in the Youth Hostel in a room of my own for NZ $55 per night which I thought was pretty good value. I ate in the Wobbly Kea Cafe and Bar each night and had excellent food. On the first night I was having a pint of beer outside and I saw my first Kea of the trip landing on top of the Arthur's Pass Store, which is opposite the Wobbly Kea Cafe.


It then flew down to the road and started to cross it towards me.

The road through the village is one of the main highways from the East Coast to the West Coast and many people stop and photograph the birds.

The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is one of the few Alpine Parrots in the world and found only in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. There population is unknown but thought to number around 5000. they are now a protected rare endemic. It has an omnivorous diet and also feeds on carrion. They have the reputation as sheep killers while they may feed on dead sheep and occasionally kill sick and injured sheep only a very few birds have been known to kill healthy animals. They are attracted by the prospect of scraps and will often carry off unguarded items of clothing. They also will attack the rubber on cars and many a tourist has returned to find his windscreen wipers in shreds. In Arthur's Pass there are a number of signs requesting the public not to feed the Kea.



The following day I thought I would take a day off from photographing birds and went down to the Dept of Conservation (DOC) office to buy a local map and ask where I might find Blue Duck another rare endemic known to be in the region. The lady behind the counter told me and I rather naively said that I would walk over the hill to the river on the other side of the valley. Whereupon she told me that it was a mountaineers track and suggested very politely that I didn't. In the end I saw a small track that went from the youth hostel upto a peak behind Arthur's Pass so I decided to climb that instead. When you go hill walking or tramping as they call it in NZ you fill out a form and leave it with DOC saying where you are going and then you return the bottom portion of the form when you return. If they do not hear from you within 24 hours they then call the police.

It was a beautiful day around 24C or 75F and I started off on what was to be an epic day for me!!! (It also taught me to map read properly in future) The climb to Avalanche Peak (1875m) from the village was 1200metres or about 4000 feet in 2 kilometres. In Scotland there are only seven mountains over 4000 ft. It took me 7.5hrs to get up and down. I had climbed to above the bush line and was feeling absolutely knackered and was seriously doubting whether I could go on as I had about 500m to climb at this point. When out of the blue a Kea landed on one of the waymark poles within twenty feet of me.




This bird completely changed my frame of mind which at the time were very much in the negative: thinking I wouldn't be able to get to the top and I didn't feel very good about it. I sat down and for twenty minutes this bird stayed around me. First of all it landed on my backpack

Then it walked around and started picking things off the bottom of my hiking boots.

I put on my wide angle lens and it came to within a few inches of the camera which meant I could get some quite interesting angles to photograph it.



I also quite like this shot of the bird in its true habitat.


I had at the point just before the Kea landed been cursing myself for bringing a camera and two lenses with me as they were quite heavy but now was delighted and the rest of the journey to the top was alot easier. When I finally got to the top I was ecstatic and reckoned it was the most energetic thing I had done in the last twenty years. This is a self taken photo.


These were the views from the top the first looking towards MT. Rolleston at (2275m)


The journey down was exhausting and even though I had taken a few litres of water with me I was desperate for water and probably had one of the best pints of beer I had ever had when I got back to the village. My legs were killing me and I got cramp a few times in the night.

The following day I walked 10 kilometres up to the head waters of the Mingha River climbing 400m and then back again looking for Blue Duck which I failed to see. So all in all I had a very energetic few days before I headed back to Christchurch to pick Jeremy up from the Airport before driving to Kaikoura to take him on another Albatross watch.

Jeremy and I then stayed with my Aunt Sally and her husband Bob near Nelson at Stafford Place their Bed and Breakfast. Jeremy and I went out for a day in the Abel Tasman National Park and we saw this Arctic Skua chasing a White fronted Tern


All in all I had an absolutely wonderful holiday and now I am back can't wait to go back there. I must also thank my father very much for funding most of the trip. Here is a photo of three generations of Nash in New Zealand.

Kaikoura: One of the Best Birding Experiences of my Life with Albatross Encounter

Having left Kapiti Island we stayed in Wellington with my father's first cousin Jan for a few days before we headed to the South Island and went our seperate ways. I wanted to see Albatrosses at Kaikoura and Kea in Arthur's Pass and my father wanted to visit friends and go fishing.

I arrived in Kaikoura and stayed in the Adelphi Backpackers Lodge.I had booked to go out with Albatross Encounter about a week earlier on the internet. I got up on a beautiful morning and headed to the Encounter building. I had made sure I had taken my seasickness tablets the previous night and an hour before we were to leave. At the Encounter centre there is a really nice cafe serving excellent breakfasts and great coffee. so i had a quick coffee before our group of seven were to meet up with our guide Alastair Judkins.


Alastair drove us from the centre around a headland to where we would board the boat. Pretty much the same as Kapiti we got onto boat and it was then reversed into harbour. We made our way out to an offshore canyon which is pretty close to the shore.It is about a mile deep. It is here that two currents converge and forces nutrient rich water upwards which in turn supports a wide variety of fish and marine animals creating a wonderful feeding habitat for many different species of seabird.

The first we were to see were the Cape Pigeon or Cape Petrel.

They have a black and white colour and were named cape pigeons because they frequent Cape Horn. They are not a pigeon but a Petrel and in NZ follow fishing boats looking for scraps.

Once we were over the canyon Alastair put a bag of frozen chum overboard and what felt like seconds birds were coming in all directions. There were Great Northern Petrels,
Mollymawks,
Albatrosses and as they came in Alastair was pointing them out and naming them as they came in, as I was trying to photograph them. Westland petrel, Sooty Shearwater, White Chinned Petrel,
Buller's Shearwater,
Hutton's Shearwater, Salvin's Mollymawk,
Gibson's Wandering Albatross.

The shear beauty of these very large birds cleaving the water as they bank over the waves was awe inspiring. Also the backdrop of the Kaikoura Mountains made it all the more spectacular. To me it was one of the greatest birding experiences I have ever had.

Alastair then shouted Chatham Island Mollymawk.

This had to be the bird of the whole NZ trip for me. It is critically endangered on the IUCN red list. There are about 4500 pairs in the world and they breed on a rock called the Pyramid 800 miles to the East in the Chatham Islands. They would be a very rare visitor to New Zealand and this was only the third time in six or seven years that Alastair had seen one.It is one of the three sub species of Shy Mollymawk. It flew round the boat before coming into land right next to the chum. It really was a beautiful bird.

It then flew off not to be seen again. I then tried to take photos with my sigma 10-20mm lens with my camera body as low to the water as possible. I got a range of shots. In this one immediately below the tip of his bill is only about an inch away from the lens!!!







Then we were visited by a Black-browed Albatross of the Campbell Island Race. It is one of the most widespread albatrosses. It looks as though it is wearing eyeshadow.



The only other Mollymawk we saw was a New zealand White -capped Mollymawk. This one is immature.


Alastair then headed to show us the Spotted Shag Colony on a rock just a few hundreds from the shore when we stopped at a group of Buller's Shearwaters sitting on the water. We looked and photographed them and then he chucked the remaining chum into the water. The albatrosses and the giant petrels went into a feeding frenzy.It was a pretty noisy affair.


As a photographic experience it was second to none.It had to be one of the best mornings of my life. The next time I am in NZ I will definately go out on an earlier trip in the day to experience the early morning sunlight. I would also love to photograph the birds from an underwater perspective.

I entered this photograph, which I changed to Black and White, into the Birdforum Monthly Photo Competition (In this case the title was Monochrome Birds) and it won so I was pretty pleased with that.

Kapiti Island

[Remember click on an image and it will come up in a larger size on a seperate screen]

Having travelled South from Hawkes Bay and spending a night at Herbertville further down the coast. We then visited Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu the longest place name in the world!!! Not alot to see apart from a hill after which this is named.

We then went across the North Island and stayed a couple of nights at Foxton Beach adjacent to the Manawatu Estuary. I had heard this was one of the best spots for waders on the West Coast of NZ. It is a RAMSAR site. The Manawatu estuary is a large coastal inlet in the lower half of North Island. It is a site used by migratory waders mainly from Alaska and Siberia during their winter. Here I saw Bar-Tailed Godwit, Red Knot, Wrybill, Pacific Golden Plover, NZ Dotterel, Caspian Tern, Pied Oystercatcher and Pied Stilt but not the Royal Spoonbill that I was told were there.

I also met an American guy who was studying the Bar Tailed Godwits and was noting all their plumage changes especially in the ringed birds.

We then left to go to Paraparaumu Beach where we were to collect the ferry to Kapiti Island. Kapiti Island is about four miles from the South-West Coast of North Island New Zealand. It is about 6 miles in length and about a mile wide. The west coast of the island has precipitous cliffs and at the highest point is 521metres or 1700ft.

It is one of New Zealand's top publicly accessible Nature Reserves. Well having said that you do have to get permits to go on the Island infact you have to have two one for each end of the Island. These can be obtained in Wellington at the Department of Conservation or DOC as everybody in NZ knows it. I had pre-booked my stay on Kapiti with Minnie at Kapiti Island Alive Kapiti has the largest single area of lowland coastal forest that is free from introduced animal herbivores and predators. It took nearly a hundred years to eradicate the possums that were introduced in the 1890's and until as recently as 1996 to eradicate all the rats on the island.It now is the home to about 65 species of bird including a number of relocated endemics. The Brown Teal(Pateke) Kokako, Stitchbird (Hihi), Takahe, Saddleback (Tieke). Of which I didn't see the Kokako or Stitchbird.

You get onto the ferry on the beach and it is then reversed on its trailer by a tractor into the sea.
Then once it is afloat off you go! We were staying the night on the North end of the Island so didnt visit the South end of the Island. We dropped off about fifteen people and then headed upto the other end where we were met on the beach and had our luggage taken upto the lodge. Meanwhile we went to a covered building near the Okupe Lagoon. It was here we were given a talk about the birds and the history of the Island. As we were being lectured there were birds everywhere. It was my first sighting of the Weka.

There are four subspecies of Weka of which most disappeared before 1940 in North island . There are only very small populations remaining on South island. They are quite an endearing bird and you have to watch your lunch as they are always on the lookout to see if they can pick up a scrap. The other problem with introduced birds such as these is that they prey on some of the native animals. They will also eat nesting groundbirds lizards and giant land snails. We were told how some birds will try and force the Long Tailed Cuckoo into the ground where it has difficulty taking off and the Weka will get them.

The other bird that was everywhere particularly feeding on the pollen from the New Zealand Flax was the Bellbird (Korimako) anthornis melanura

The yellow on their heads is the pollen.


After the lecture Daddy and I made our way to the Lodge where we were going to stay the night.
It was here that we met Amo Clark and Rodney who it turned out were absolutely wonderful hosts:we were to have an absolutely wonderful 48 hours in their company.,
Amo along with her brother and sister in law are the owners of Kapiti Nature Lodge. Amo is a Maori and her tribe or (iwi) have been living on Kapiti since the early 1800's and have great knowledge of the Island's history and flora and fauna.
We were the only visitors to be staying the night. The remainder of the visitors would be leaving the island at around three thirty.

I decided to go on a walk and see what birds I could see and photograph. One of the first ones I came across was this Keruru or New Zealand Pigeon that was eating berries from a tree right in front of the Lodge.


It was a beautiful afternoon and I made my way towards the lagoon on the island where I came across the New Zealand Pipit.

I have to say I find pipit identification quite difficult and was glad there was only one species in NZ. As I walked along this track I saw a Whitehead and then a New Zealand Robin appeared. They are a lovely little bird and virtually unafraid. They will perch within a few feet of you infact I found they were almost too close to photograph.

My eldest son Jeremy who went on the Outward Bound Course at Anikiwa in the Marlborough Sounds in March said that when he was doing his solo a NZ Robin landed on his foot. (Solo is when the participants have to spend three days and three nights in the bush in a 10m square area on their own)

The other bird one heard and saw alot of was the Tui. It is a NZ endemic and one of the largest of the Honeyeater family. Early New Zealand emigrants called it the Parson Bird as at first glance it looks black with a bit of white around its neck. They feed on the pollen of the New Zealand Flax.


Another bird that was fairly common was the Silvereye or Waxeye. a small passerine native to Australia, New Zealand and some pacific islands.


One of the other birds that was everywhere was the Red Crowned Parakeet. There are three species of Parakeets in NZ. The Red Crowned,Yellow Crowned and the critically endangered Orange Fronted Parakeet.All of which have become endangered because of habitat destruction and nest predation by introduced species.


Having walked quite along way in the midday sun I headed back to the lodge for a cup of tea. As I was having the tea outside a Takahe walked past. There are a number on the island that have been introduced here. The Takahe is a remarkable bird.The Takahē is the largest living member of the Rallidae or Rail family. It is about 2 foot long and can weigh upto 6 lb's. It has a massive bill it reaches up and feeds on the seeds of grasses. The amazing thing about this bird is that it was thought to be extinct in 1898 after the last four known remaining birds were taken. However in 1948 more were found by Geoffrey Orbell in the Murchison Mountains near Lake Te Anau!!! There are at present only about 250 birds remaining.


As I was sitting outside the lodge a Kelp Gull ( Larus dominicanus) kept on landing on the roof and I liked this shot I got of it as it came by.


Daddy and I were shown to the hut
we were going to be sleeping in by Rodney, the brother of Amo's sister in law . He was also to take us out to look for Little Spotted Kiwi later. We had a really good supper with Amo and Rodney. Rodney then produced an envelope of Kiwi feathers. They were very soft indeeed. Then we went with Rodney to look for the Kiwi. We went round the back of lodge and sat on a bench and listened while Rodney with his red torchlight searched for them. We heard one and then a little later finally saw one. It was bigger than I expected about the size of a small chicken. Even though the Little Spotted Kiwi is the smallest of the Kiwi species. They have powerful legs and it wasnt long before it ran off into the grass.

I was really chuffed as this was my third visit to NZ and I hadn't seen any on my previous visits. We then continued to look for them further away from the lodge and the one sound that penetrated through the dark was the sound of the Morepork (Ruru). It is a small brown owl and it sounds exactly as it is called. Then one called very close by and Rodney shined the torch up into the branches and there it was. It didnt seem concerned by us and we were able to get pretty close. It was really exciting to get so close to an owl.

Then we went back to our hut and went to bed. In the morning the weather had changed and was very grey and drizzly and Rodney told us that the ferry had been cancelled. We of course didn't believe him. It had been and we tried to see if we get a helicopter of the Island but the cloud level was too low. So we spent a highly amusing extra 24 hours being entertained by Amo and Rodney.

Out in the bush there was a bird that made quite a racket which I learnt was a Long tailed Cuckoo and it made the noise just before flying off from where ever it was. I got this distant photo of it.


That evening Amo treated us to the Maori delicacy of Paua. It is a mollusc found on New Zealand shores. In other parts of the world it would be called Abalone. Well it was a revelation to me it has to be one of the best seafoods. It was absolutely delicious.


Just before I went to bed I thought I would try and see a Kiwi again. No further than 30 yards from our hut there was one and I got to look at it for alot longer than the previous evening. Brill!!

In the morning I heard some birds right beside the hut that I didnt recognize and was glad to catch up with the Saddleback.
After breakfast we made our way down to the shore along which was walking a White faced Heron.


The ferry appeared and Amo and Rodney came to see us off.



I would heartily recommend Kapiti to anyone remotely interested in birds. It was one of the highlights of our trip. I cannot wait to go back and hopefully I will be in November 2010 this time accompanied by my wife Penny.

Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colony

My father and I left Miranda and visited the Coromandel Peninsular before heading south via Tauranga, where my father used to go on holiday as a child. He reckoned that the place he used to stay was now a ten story block of flats. We walked round the Mount a strange hill virtually surrounded by the sea. We then stayed a night at Whakatane before heading further south to Gisborne and then onto Hawkes Bay. The weather at this stage was amazing.



One of the bird hotspots that I wanted to visit was the Cape Kidnapper's Gannet Colony. It is one of the only mainland Gannet colonies in the world.There are three species of Gannet in the world. There is the Northern Gannet Morus bassanus which is based in the North Atlantic. There is the Cape Gannet Morus capensis from South Africa and then there is the Australasian Gannet Morus serrator known in Maori as Takapu.


They are usually found in large colonies on offshore islands around New Zealand and southern Australia and have been nesting here at Cape Kidnappers since the 1870s. There are around 6000 pairs here. The lifespan of the Gannet can range upto forty years. When the young gannets learn to fly they take off on a journey of about 2000 miles across the Tasman sea to Australia. Here they will stay for a few years before returning to breed at around five years old and then from then on spend their lives in New Zealand waters.

The Cape Kidnappers Gannet Reserve is managed by the Department of Conservation to protect the gannet nesting sites. the reserve covers about 30 acres, which includes the Saddle and Black Reef colonies both of which are closed to the public.It is the Plateau colony that is the main viewing area on this headland.

We spent the night in a fairly decrepit overflow camp at Clifton before taking a tractor tour to the Cape Kidnappers Colony. We went with Gannet Beach Adventures which is eco-friendly beach tour to the foot of the gannet sanctuary. You travel on cushioned trailers pulled by these vintage tractors along the beach below these towering cliffs at low tide.

Meanwhile the guides stop regularly and point out the various geology and earthquake faults.


My father and I thought the commentary was going to be dreadful as when we got on the trailers Colin the owner said "Good Morning" and virtually nobody responded and in good pantomine style he said he was going home. He then said "Good Morning" again and everybody answered this time. However we were wrong the whole trip was really professional and loads of information was given to us. Every now and again we would stop and Colin would tell us another snippet of info whether about the Gannets or the Geology of the area. And here he is below teaching us to count Australian style!!!!


You spend about one and a half hours at Cape Kidnappers which leaves ample time for a swim or a picnic but not enough time in my mind to visit the Gannet Colony which is a 25 to 30 minute walk uphill to view the Saddle and Plateau colonies .You only get about 30 mins to photograph the birds. On the return journey, a brief stop is made at the Black Reef Colony.


The Gannets can be viewed from a very close distance.


At the end of the beach and before you climb upto the plateau colony there is a Department of Conservation rest shelter which provides information boards on geology and Gannets. The shelter also provides fresh water, along with picnic and toilet facilities.

The photographic opportunities are excellent and I would have loved to have more time.



Excellent opportunities for flight photography at close range.





You can watch the adults preening

and there are lots of juveniles in their soft downy plumage


A nice danish couple were interested in me photographing the birds and asked if I wanted a portrait with Gannets in the background.


When we got back to the campsite we made our way to a Te Awa Winery for a fantastic lunch.

Miranda Shorebird Center New Zealand

I Left Ireland on a pretty chilly, windy and wet day. My Father and I flew from Dublin to Copenhagen then to Bangkok and then onto Auckland. It’s a bloody long way is all I can say.

We arrived in Auckland on a beautiful sunny afternoon and waited and waited to be picked by our rental which did not come so we eventually took a taxi and picked up our Maui Campervan. At the airport there were numerous House Sparrows, a few Welcome Swallows
and a Red Billed Gull.


Our initial plan was to to drive to Gulf Harbour and then get a ferry to TiriTiri Matange Island, however when my father made plans he had not factored in the fact that the ferry was not running on Mondays and Tuesdays.

So it was decided to head to Miranda instead. We stopped off at a supermarket and filled the campervan with water, wine and a bit of food. It was a very pleasant drive from Auckland through Cleveden and onto the coast. Trying to drive and birdwatch at the same time isn’t easy. There were lots of European introduced birds such as Starling, Goldfinch and Skylark. From America the Wild Turkey. Myna birds from Asia and from Australia the Australian Magpie, Black Swan and also an Eastern Rosella flew across the road in front of us..I also saw the Rare African introduction the Barbary Dove. I saw Yellowhammer, Song Thrush and of the Native new Zealand birds a couple of Tui and pleasingly a Kingfisher, infact I saw Kingfishers all over NZ, also a Pukeko, Paradise Shelduck, Pied Shag and Grey Duck. There were also Australasian Harriers working the margins between the shore and the road.

After about an hour we got to the Miranda Shorebird Center a little after five and it was closed . So we headed back down the road a few kilometers and parked right on the shore with a number of other camper vans. On the beach there were some Black Backed Gull, Red Billed and Black Billed Gull. Quite a few Pied Stilts making a racket , a few Bar Tailed Godwits, Pied Oystercatcher. And not much else.

My father and I then headed up the road for Fish and Chips in Kauaia We had snapper and it was very tasty along with some very nice NZ wine. Infact had to be one of the best fish and chips I had ever had.

Then it was off to bed.

Miranda Shorebird Centre.


After a pretty bad nights sleep I got up and was getting a bit frustrated with the campervan as we weren’t sure where half the switches were. Like the waterpump for example to enable us to get some water for tea and coffee; eventually we looked in a few cupboards and found the necessary switches.

It was a nice sunny day but with lots of cloud in the sky. You can see why New Zealand’s Maori name is Aoterea. Which when translated means the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Miranda is at the bottom left of the Firth of Thames between Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula. At low tide there is about 20,000 acres of mudflats which makes a great feeding ground for the Arctic nesting waders over the northern hemisphere’s winter. Every year New Zealand has about two to three hundred thousand waders arriving in September and leaving again in March. There are Bar Tailed Godwits,
Red Knot, Pacific Golden Plover, Sharp Tailed Sandpipers, Turnstone and a few numbers of Red Necked Stint, Eastern Curlew, Pectoral Sandpiper and the even less common Terek Sandpiper.

I was getting worried that we were going to miss high tide when the waders are pushed up towards the shore.

When we arrived at the centre we were told that high tide was 1.00pm so had at least a few hours to wait. I was relieved that they rented out scopes. $10NZ for the day. A bargain.

The one bird that I had really wanted to see on my previous visit to NZ was the Wrybill,and having not done so was very pleased to see them here.The Wrybill is a rare endemic and there are only about 4000-4500 birds. The really strange thing about this wader is its bill bends to the right. The only bird in the world to do this.


Father and I made the 2 kilometre trek to the hide .

Passing a dried out pond where another birder had just seen a Banded Rail. It decided not to appear for us though.(I saw it a day later) It was a nice walk predominantly through flowering fennel. So there was a really nice scent in the air. I still hadn’t at this point not really seen any waders. Then about a hundred yards from the hide a few wrybill flew very close by
and I could see a large amount of Bar Tail Godwits out on the mudflats. At this time of year there are between 10,000 and 15,000 Bar Tailed Godwit and 7000-10000 Knot. 500 Wrybill . We arrived just after 10.30 and I started chatting to this Swiss Birder who was with his Girlfriend. He had just seen a Sharp Tailed Sandpiper amongst the Wrybill. This was the first of 6 Lifers all of which were waders. Pacific Golden Plover, Wrybill, NZ Dotterel, Banded Dotterel
and the Sharp Tailed Sandpiper. The other American Migrant was a Pectoral Sandpiper which I have seen a few times at the Belfast Harbour Reserve.

The view from the hide was towards the Coromandel Peninsular.

It looked over a small bank made from thousands of shells. On it were Caspian Tern ,Varied and Pied Oystercatcher and Royal Spoonbill.


Photographic opportunities are excellent and would be exceptional if the high tide were at an hour before the evening golden hour. As the sun was straight overhead at 1.00pm .

Every now and again an Australasian Harrier would fly overhead and all the Godwits and Knot and Wrybill would explode upwards .
It was quite exciting to watch. I reckon if I spent a week there I could get some stunning images.

After I had spent about 3 hours in the sun I was feeling decidedly hot (Stupidly with no suntan lotion I was later to suffer) We headed back to the Miranda Shorebird Centre.

It was here we met Keith Woodley the Centre Manager
and expert on Bar Tailed Godwit. He had recently taken a sabbatical and had followed the path of the Bar Tailed Godwits to their breeding grounds in Alaska. On his return he wrote a book about that is to be published by Penguin in September 2009.

He is also a talented Bird Artist and this was the A-Board out on the road.



The Bar Tailed Godwits here at Miranda are remarkable. Over the previous few years they have been satellite tracking a number of birds and one called E7 had her whole migration monitored by satellite. She first of all flew 6500 miles to Yalu Jiang in China where she remained for five weeks before flying another 3000 miles to Alaska . Then four months later she made her way back to New Zealand over the pacific on a non stop flight of 7500 miles.

A Month of Taking Photographs of Birds in New Zealand

I have spent an absolutely wonderful month in New Zealand. I have decided to blog about my birding experiences in five parts.

1. Miranda Shorebird Center


2. Cape Kidnappers


3. Kapiti Island


4. Kaikoura


5. Arthur's Pass