Arthur's Pass, Am I doing this right? (Days 3-6)
Although I haven't been having the most success with Arthur's Pass, and a lot of thoughts and insecurities have poked up and risen, I must say being in alpine country is beyond amazing, definitely highly recommend people visiting here.
The walking track's felt great, the forest there is amazing! Huge stands of temperate rainforest, moss and patches leaf litter carpeting the ground, and a sense of seasonality that one doesn't get in the North Island, with leaves flowing off the trees (It's the austral autumn currently). First morning even though I wasn't up the earliest was still quite nice, got my first taste of the ever present tomtits. I'd only had a good view of them once before on Rangitoto, so it was really nice seeing them basically all the time, black and white blorbs, which would come real close, showing off the yellowy-wash on their bellies [a trait which they share w. the chatham ssp., but not the north (white belly) or snares (all black!)]. The avifauna of the southern forests, feels a bit strange from an Aucklander's perspective, complete lack of tui and basically never see any invasives (think I may've seen blackbirds once or twice but they instantly flushed), yet replaced by the constant cacophony of korimakos (bellbirds), also feeding flocks! Haven't really experienced those before, I'd been brushing them off as constant flocks of silvereyes, but pretty sure I spotted a pipipi in one of them (believe I caught a glimpse of brown and grey on the nape), but I didn't get all that good of a look, didn't see them in the Hawdon, though I'm sure I'll be able to tick them off on Ulva... But I'm really not too sure with this forest-birding, like I've been trying to pinpoint calls but I just struggle, and I'm still trying to scan for movement with just my eyes, but I'm not sure if I could catch said movements without optics, but then I worry about not seeing the full picture/aiming wrong with optics.. Really feel like I'm contesting for that worst birder record rn... Also makes me a bit worried about birding elsewhere, since it feels like the only things I can find are robins and the like, but with those jobs it's more like they're finding you! I still try although of course, and the scenery is pretty enough that it soothes the nerves a lot of the times, titipounamu (riflemen) as well! So glad that they felt quite common in the forest around Arthur's Pass, with me running into a flock or pair every now and then (with pairs distracting me from possible pipipi twice..), but even though I've seen them before but they're just the cutest wee little things, I simply can't get enough of them.
Of course I also hiked up the Otira Valley track every chance I got, and whilst I saw hardly any birds, it was beyond worth it. The scenery there, especially above the bridge, (the track, at least before avalanche season I assume, is actually quite manageable, ran into birders up there on both occasions, and it wasn't all that hard to hike, and the route was very straightforward, [far more than the Hawdon!!]) The first hour or so up the track is rather simple, with it being the 'most birdy' (ie, saw the greatest amounts of birds, but I wouldn't say it was the best part of the track!), with me semi-regularly seeing tomtits around the track, as well as picking up my first good views of dunnock, (glad to have gotten it on the Otira, in the mountains like where a true accentor should be!
) and going up the track at 7, and a run in with a fellow birder, allowed me to see a very confiding pair of fernbirds, who due to the thick shrubbery of the track would've been no more than maybe a ruler's length apart from us (I'd heard them and didn't know the call, and the man pointed out the birds and the call haha), was not expecting those at all! Past the bridge and the track feels like genuine rock-wren country, scree fields, vast expanses of rocks with boulders abound, and after a squeeze next to the river, rolling hills of tussock gold and emerald shrubbery, with boulders interspersed everywhere, and the mountains! Rocky gorges enveloped you, glints of snow hanging on in the foreground, sun on the right, and the one on the left enveloped in vegetation and the occasional waterfall. But of course even being in this country doesn't seem to guarantee finding rock-wren anymore(I'd ran into a lady who said she's tried 7 times up here and found none! Though another birder said they were rather common, not sure if he found them or not) .. Unfortunately I dipped
, also dipped on chamois as well (a hunter pair had seen a herd of six when I was there! Of course when I went up to ask if they'd seen any apparently they'd already hightailed it out of there, even though I was already there for probably an hour..). But even with the lack of wildlife the scenery, and the feeling of scrambling up and down boulder fields made up with it, and of course it wasn't devoid of life! Up on the track there was a stunning amount of alpine short-horned grasshoppers which had red-flanks, also found a nice alpine jumping spider whilst scrambling around for wrens. Best bird (only thinking about it!), was a distant flock of 5 kea which would screech and flap around on the opposite mountain-side.
And then there was the Hawdon...
Now this valley is one of the only places where you can find orange-fronted kakariki in the wild (and even then they had to be reintroduced again this year.. [Believe probably went locally extinct around 2019? earlier?]) As well as one of the last mainland strongholds for mohua and meant to be good for great-spotted kiwi. The trek is 3 hours from the car-park to the Hawdon Hut, where I would be staying as I'd assumed the further into the Hawdon, the more likely I'll find one of my targets, and I had been told it had been an 'easy' hike by the DOC office, and the other birder had told me there was a few river crossings, so I wasn't thinking it'd be too bad.
But I'd still managed to goof up, firstly I set off rather late (around 2pm, but still definetley managable before nightfall), until I wasted an hour climbing up a hill for half an hour and then backtracking.. (The hill was brutal by the way! It was an old track and most likely not in use too much, and was just inclines on inclines on inclines, up muddy slopes, tree roots and stream-beds.), Though I did see a black-morph fantail, they must be more common down south, as I've already seen 2 of them when I've never seen any of them before up north. The river crossings were also way larger then I expected, it was all quite draining, along with me wanting to not be trapped in the forest at night, led to no birding on my part. I'd been following the track quite well, also picked up hare along the way as I flushed one off the track, and then there was a particularly rough bit of track, where combined with the evening light, I lost track of the orange markers... But I had at least some indication of where I was along the valley, (screenshotted the map under the suggestion of someone I passed going back down the hill track), so then I just started fording the river upwards and hoping that I'd be able to make it to the Hut before nightfall, stumbling, falling, just trying to make it out. I did not make it to the Hawdon that night, instead I tuckered into a bunch of vegetation, changed into dry clothes, put on all the clothing that I had in my hiking bag (thankfully I had brought quite a bit, expecting no blankets at the hut), shoved my shivering feet into my hiking bag and had a fitful night of sleep hoping to make it out. Thankfully I refound the orange markers and finally made it to the hut, (10 minutes away.. but I wouldn't have found the way without daylight). I tried birding for around an hour around the hut but only found robins, wanting to make my way out, I decided to head back, a much more leisurely 2hrs30min walk out, although there were still some parts where the track-markers felt evil!! Finally stopping for a break at the last river crossing (first coming in, where I believe I may've seen black-shag and falcon the evening before) came across my first lifer, a pipit. Quite nice little bird, the white outer-tail primaries are startlingly clear! And that was my experience of the Hawdon, I feel with an earlier start, and maybe packing more to stay at the hut for a day or two would've been nice, but in my personal experience, after what I'd gone through I had just kind of wanted out... And that was my time at Arthur's Pass, not the most birdy per-say but still amazing!! Heading out, we stopped at Lake Pearson, where after initially mistaking a little-shag for a grebe on the car (2 for 2...), after around 5 minutes finally had a crested grebe pop-out, good bird that one is!
Haven't done much since, milled around Christchurch today and visited the 2 zoos (may write reviews, but personally I enjoyed Willowbanks more, with all it's 'hodgepodge' charm, though skipped out on the left-side, which I now regret knowing there was a citron-crested cockatoo). Dipped on the frogs at Orana too..
I've still been enjoying this trip though!! Heading down to Dunedin by bus tomorrow, where my bird-list should finally pick up again!
