Trip Report
8 January 2004
We did another run out into the Hauraki Gulf on 8 Jan. This is quite habit forming! Yet another glorious day - flat calm initially with finally a 10kn N breeze by the end of the day. Great for our landing at Little Barrier! 20 on board including the skipper.
Left Ti Point Wharf at 9AM. Stopped briefly to check out a big mob of EB-t Godwits at Omaha Spit. Goodlnumbers of NZ Dotterel plus Variable Oystercatcher, Pied Stilt and Caspian Terns. A nice little mob of 35 White-fronted Terns on a breakwater.
Ti Point to Little Barrier
A Gannet - good numbers across the whole run
Fluttering Shearwater 10s
Buller's Shearwater - a nice group of 15 that allowed us in for a close look, then further individuals
White-faced Storm Petrel - a few scattered individuals, then picked up more (about 10) further into the run. We noticed that a few amongst them appeared to have dark faces. At first we thought a trick of the light but then had fairly good looks that seemed to confirm this...
Sooty Shearwater 1
Cook's Petrel - groups of 10-15 birds
Pycroft's Petrel - individuals mixed in with Cook's
Little Barrier
Landed for a couple of hours ashore. Most in the group did part of the Valley Track for a taste of what the island has to offer. Others stayed on the flats for birding.
Birds seen included: Kaka, Red-crowned Parakeet, Tui, Bellbird, Stitchbird, Saddleback, Whitehead, Grey Warbler, Tomtit, Rifleman (heard), Long-tailed Cuckoo (heard), NZ Pigeon
Fantail.
Little Barrier to Mokohinaus
Again very flat calm seas with very little to show for the first few nms. Mostly Blue Penguins.
Changed our chumming locations from previous trips to take account of wind direction when we finally picked up some breeze. By this stage we were amongst a lot of Pterodromas scattered in loose groups across a lot of sea. Some of these came very close to the boat - including taking fish scraps.
In time the W-f stormies started to appear. Great viewing of these dainty birds pogo-hopping. 20+ over the course of an hour.
Also 10+ Flesh-footed Shearwaters
And - yes some of the these fascinating black/white Storm-Petrels. Whatever they may be they certainly behave very differently from the WFSP. Flying fast, very rarely pogo-hopping. Occasionally would trail their feet IN the water. We saw at least six of these birds during this chumming session exhibiting varying degrees of streaking. Feet extending well past the tail. It was noted that some of these birds appeared to have rounded wings - not broad, but certainly not pointed when seen side on. They could appear pointed from some angles of course.
Back to the day, noted again thick plankton slicks. While chumming had a couple of very large sharks cruised by obviously picking up some of the chum/burley.
Once we started steaming again we picked up more birds:
Flesh-footed - individuals
Cook's - 10s
WFSP - 1
Blue Penguins - individuals and small pods
Sooty Shearwater - 1
Fluttering Shearwater - individuals
A Gannet - individuals resting scattered, then more and more as we closed in on the Mokes
And one large hammerhead shark
Mokohinaus - Maori Rocks
Grey Ternlets - 27 on two stacks (24 + 3) - noted that the White-fronted terns had finished breeding - saw none on the rocks.
A Gannets
Red-billed Gulls
Black-backed Gulls
Pied Shag
In vicinity of the rocks
Little Shearwater 2
Fluttering Shearwater 10+
Common Diving Petrel 1
As we rounded the islands and steamed NW with a 5kn breeze) again picked up more Pterodromas - mostly Cook's with a few Pycrofts identified. Dave Pons saw one Pterodroma go past with very solid black line on underwing (much more than Cook's).
Stopped at another chumming location.
Cook's Petrel
Flesh-footed Shearwater
Buller's Shearwater
Fluttering Shearwater
WFSP - 5+
Black/White Storm Petrel - 3 (noted that with a little more breeze these birds adopted a zig-zag erratic sort of flight pattern - otherwise same behaviour as noted above)
Run back to Ti Point from northernmost chumming location (further west than the last two previous return runs).
Quite quiet with Pterodromas, Flesh-footed, Fluttering and Bullers Shearwaters seen. Also one WFSP.
Notes
Overall a quiet but beautiful day on the Gulf. Note, no Black Petrels, Fairy Prions and few Diving Petrels seen.
Must add it certainly has been great to see these black/white Storm-Petrels in the flesh as frequently as we have done over the past three months - first a glimpse on 1 Nov (which placed them in the HG), 13 Dec (which included a definite Black-bellied Storm Petrel), 2 Jan and now this trip. A number of the photos and video has been sent to us by people on these trips. There's more to come which is fine as far as it goes. We stress the importance of observing these birds and their behaviour - including a nice touch of landing belly-in-the-water! Whatever all these little stormies turn out to be - NZ Storm Petrel, Black-bellied Storm Petrel, White-bellied Storm Petrel or whatever - the birds themselves can now be recognised as a another fascinating component of the Gulf's rich seabird life.
--Chris Gaskin & Karen Baird
Pterodroma Pelagics - Hauraki Gulf Seabird Tours
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