Trip Report
13 January 2003
17 of us set sail about 10.00AM from Ti-Point and headed out in to the Hauraki Gulf for a seabird day! Seabirds have been coming in very close to shore due to persistant NE winds and we caught up with 1000's of Shearwaters around the coast off Leigh - Fluttering, Bullers, a few black and Flesh-footeds.
As a general guide to the day:
Ti Point/Cape Rodney/Little Barrier/Mokohinaus/Hen & Chickens/Ti Point
Between Cape Rodney and Little Barrier
White-fr Terns 10s
Arctic skua 1
Buller's Shearwaters 1000s
Fluttering Shearwaters 100s
Flesh-footed Shearwaters 10s
Black Petrels 100s
Common Diving Petrel 1
Gannets 100s
Blue Penguins, several
White-faced Storm-Petrels 10s
Cook's Petrel 50+
2 Bryde's Whales feeding in lee of Te Titoki Point for over a period of three quarters of an hour!!
Little Barrier to Mokes
Buller's Shearwaters 100s
Fluttering shearwater 100s
Black Petrel 100s
Cook's Petrel 100s
Gannets - colony at Mokohinaus
Grey ternlets 15+ on two stacks
Mokes to Hen & Chicken
Buller's Shearwaters 1000s
Fluttering Shearwater
Little shearwater, a few
Black Petrel, dozens
Flesh-footed Shearwaters ? good numbers of dark birds too distant to ID
Cook's Petrel, 100's
Pycroft's Petrel - not sure as very difficult to distinguish from Cook's but we were in the right place - off their breeding colony, but bad weather prevented us staying out long enough to watch them coming in!
Fairy Prions 100s
White-faced Storm-Petrels 10s
Blue Penguins, a few heading to shore
+ 2 bottle-nosed dolphins
Hen &Chickens to Ti-Point (into the gathering gloom, wind and big seas)
Buller's Shearwaters 100s
Black Petrel several
Flesh-footed Shearwaters ? good numbers of dark birds too distant to ID
Cook's Petrel/Pycroft's Petrel ? 100s
Fairy Prions 100s
Gannets 10's
--Chris Gaskin & Karen Baird
Pterodroma Pelagics - Hauraki Gulf Seabird Tours
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