Unknown species of shearwater/petrel, seen on ferry crossing to Great Barrier Island from Auckland. Other species seen on the crossing include: Common Dolphin, Little Blue Penguin, Australasian Gannet, Red-billed Gull, Black-backed Gull, and a couple of other unidentified shearwater/petrels.
Cheers Chlidonias, I didn't really know where to start identifying these shearwaters. I've never really seen wild Procellariiformes, so I wasn't sure what to look for. None of my NZ bird books were very useful, although I don't have them all with me.
The bird in the photo was one of a very large flock, part of the large northern New Zealand population (50,000-100,000 pairs), the following photo shows some of the flock.
The location is wrong, I meant Hauraki Gulf, not Gulf Harbour (which is a small harbour in the Hauraki Gulf, but no-where near where this photo was taken.).
