Let me fix the numbering for the herps:
Reptile:
3. Dekay’s Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi) (Lifer)
Amphibians:
5. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
Herptiles:
7. Dekay’s Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi) (Lifer)
8. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
Zoochat Big Year 2022
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
Reptile:
3. Dekay’s Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi) (Lifer)
Amphibians:
5. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
Herptiles:
7. Dekay’s Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi) (Lifer)
8. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus)
5/18/22
Invertebrates:
13. Eastern Parson Spider (Herpyllus ecclesiasticus)
Total:
Mammals: 3
Birds: 49
Reptiles: 1
Amphibians: 1
Invertebrates: 13
Ticked off tree weta after my sister shouted at me to get rid of one chilling on the kitchen floor. Was actually quite surprised to see one as I haven't seen any in the past couple years and with how many winged wetas I saw when I went out at night, assumed it was something similar to what was happening with nz and sa mantises, (that being the invasives would displace the endemics), but just like how a nz one randomly showed up, the weta also appeared out of the blue so it's always nice to see an endemic. (also got some decent photos out of it)
30. Auckland Tree Weta (Hemideina thoracica)
Another bi-weekly update. Have managed to add a few birds since my Norcal trip:
- picked up a common flycatcher
- saw a couple of new birds (including a lifer) at SDZ and SDZSP respectively
- picked up 3 new birds during a casual return to the coastal lagoons I reported from several weeks ago. One of them was both a lifer and my first tern ID for the year!
Birds
163. Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens)
164. Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata)
165. Western Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
166. Bonaparte's Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia)
167. Forster's Tern (Sterna forsteri)
168. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Some other neat but not new animals seen recently include another Great Horned Owl, another Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, and at the safari park American Coot chicks floating around in the lakes (along with huge flocks of White-faced Ibis and Black-crowned Night Herons). While I was in San Diego I also went on a short quest to a known location for Black-throated Magpie-jays; as you can tell from the list, it was unsuccessful... didn't even get to see the Yellow-breasted Chats that were calling from the marsh either!
Mammals
26. Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Birds
165. Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum)
166. Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)
167. Wilson’s Warbler (Cardellina pusilla)
168. Purple Finch (Carpodacus purpureus)
169. Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)
170. Broad-Winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus)
171. Hairy Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus)
Reptiles
14. Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta)
15. False Map Turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica)
16. Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta)
Birds:
100. Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)
101. Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)
Herptiles:
14. Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)
Mammals: 9
Birds: 101
Herptiles : 14
Fish: 10
Invertebrates: 19
Total: 153
Birds
51. Oak Titmouse Baeolophus inornatus
Inverts
Nothing truly new, but the dragonflies have emerged and there have been a few of them recently!
45. False Black Widow Steatoda grossa
46. Dot-tailed whiteface Leucorrhinia intacta
47. Black Saddlebags Tramea lacerata
51. Oak Titmouse Baeolophus inornatus
Inverts
Nothing truly new, but the dragonflies have emerged and there have been a few of them recently!
45. False Black Widow Steatoda grossa
46. Dot-tailed whiteface Leucorrhinia intacta
47. Black Saddlebags Tramea lacerata
Family issues and a bout of COVID have severely limited my wildlife watching recently. A business trip to Sydney last week did not improve matters, as the wildlife viewing around Darling Harbour where I stayed was extremely limited. Botanic gardens can be refuges in big cities so I made my way to the Sydney Botanic Gardens one spare morning. E-bird listed a couple of passerine species that I have not seen, so I was quite hopeful. What a disappointment. The only passerines I saw were noisy minors, currawongs, magpies and butcher-birds, in other words the bullies of the bird world. Not even a willy wagtail or fairywren lurking in the bushes. In total I only saw 11 bird species, none new. However one new species of fish was seen:
6. Australian longfin eel Anguilla reinhardtii
6. Australian longfin eel Anguilla reinhardtii
Two really nice May birding sessions made up a little for the absolute lack of birding in April:
BIRDS:
14/05/2022 (Embouchure de l'Oued Souss, Morocco [140-144])
140 - Common tern, Sterna hirundo
141 - Lesser crested tern, Thalasseus bengalensis
142 - Black tern, Chlidonias niger
143 - Little gull, Hydrocoloeus minutus
144 - Red knot, Calidris canutus
---
22/05/2022 (Oued Massa-- Champs d'Imallalen [145-150], Oued Massa-- Toubouzar [151-154])
145 - Western olivaceous warbler, Iduna opaca
146 - Rufous-tailed scrub robin, Cercotrichas galactotes
147 - Little bittern, Ixobrychus minutus
148 - Black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax
149 - European pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca
150 - Eurasian golden oriole, Oriolus oriolus (Moroccan lifer)
151 - Western black-eared wheatear, Oenanthe hispanica
152 - Purple heron, Ardea purpurea
153 - European goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis
154 - Black wheatear, Oenanthe leucura
Little bittern was one of my biggest Moroccan blockers (as in one of the easiest species still left to see in my region) so I'm happy to finally get it after many attempts (although it only gave brief fleeting views, the rumours about the shyness of these birds are definitely true!)
I have doubts about the identity of my Ring-necked Snake. Please omit it from my list.
Birds
207. Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus
208. Stilt Sandpiper Calidris himantopus
209. White-rumped Sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis
210. Alder Flycatcher Empidonax alnorum
211. Olive-sided Flycatcher Contopus cooperi
Platypusboy
Well-Known Member
A couple from the last few days or so
Birds
47. European goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis
48. Great crested crebe, Podiceps cristatus
49. Northern wheatear, Oenanthe oenanthe
50. Thrush nightingale, Luscinia luscinia
Invertebrates
3. Common brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni
Can't believe I've already gotten to fifty birds before the halfway mark. Never even thought I'd get this far.
Birds
47. European goldfinch, Carduelis carduelis
48. Great crested crebe, Podiceps cristatus
49. Northern wheatear, Oenanthe oenanthe
50. Thrush nightingale, Luscinia luscinia
Invertebrates
3. Common brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni
Can't believe I've already gotten to fifty birds before the halfway mark. Never even thought I'd get this far.
Mammals:
10 Striped Skunk - Mephitis mephitis
Birds:
A few last spring migrants.
201 Yellow-billed Cuckoo - Coccyzus americanus
202 Tennessee Warbler - Leiothlypis peregrina
203 Magnolia Warbler - Setophaga magnolia
204 Greater Roadrunner - Geococcyx californianus
205 Northern Bobwhite - Colinus virginianus
206 White-rumped Sandpiper - Calidris fuscicollis
207 Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri
208 Blue Grosbeak - Passerina caerulea
209 Black Tern - Chlidonias niger
210 Ring-necked Pheasant - Phasianus colchicus
Retallied Reptiles:
1 Red-eared Slider - Trachemys scripta elegans
2 Spiny Softshell Turtle - Apalone spinifera spinifera
3 Plain-bellied Water Snake - Nerodia erythrogaster
4 Ornate Box Turtle - Terrapene ornata ornata
Amphibians:
2 American Bullfrog - Lithobates catesbeianus
Inverts
Couple of new guys. The sweat bee was a rarity, I was excited to see that!
48. Western Lynx Spider Oxyopes scalaris
49. Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus
50. Pure Green-Sweat Bee Augochlora pura
Couple of new guys. The sweat bee was a rarity, I was excited to see that!
48. Western Lynx Spider Oxyopes scalaris
49. Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus
50. Pure Green-Sweat Bee Augochlora pura
Birds
212. Black Tern Chlidonias niger
213. Black-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus erythropthalmus
214. Sedge Wren Cistothorus stellaris
215. Prothonotary Warbler Protonotaria citrea
Herps
5. Common Snapping Turtle Chelydra serpentina
5/25/22
Invertebrates:
14. Southern Masked Chafer (Cyclocephala lurida)
15. Asiatic Garden Beetle (Maladera formosae)
Total:
Mammals: 3
Birds: 49
Reptiles: 1
Amphibians: 1
Invertebrates: 15
At the beginning of last year I had to take a couple of weeks off work because my excess annual leave had to be used up, so I went on a little birding trip around the top of the North Island.
The same thing has happened again and so this time I went in the opposite direction, to the South Island. I'm from the South Island but I have been living in Wellington for several years now, thanks to covid not allowing me to go overseas, and I haven't been back to the better island since 2017. The plan for this trip was to take the ferry across to Picton (at the top of the South Island) and then bus in stages down the east coast, go to Stewart Island (at the very bottom of New Zealand), and then head back up north again.
In the following account I have put all the year-birds and year-mammals in bold so that they are easy to see, but it doesn't signify them being lifers (the sole lifer was Orange-fronted Kakariki).
Surprisingly, despite the weather on my departure day being terrible the ferry wasn't cancelled. I managed my first addition to the year-list before even setting sail, with a Spotted Shag perched on a nearby wharf. I stayed on the less-rainy side of the ferry and, with the help of a seabird key I had drawn up the night before, managed to identify most of the birds I saw on the crossing of Cook Strait. No lifers, but most species were new for the year-list, including Common Diving Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Buller's Shearwater, Westland Black Petrel, Cape Petrel and Salvin's Albatross. A few New Zealand Fur Seals in the Marlborough Sounds went on the mammal list.
My main target for the whole trip was Orange-fronted Kakariki, one of the few mainland endemics I haven't seen yet. The last natural populations are in the mountain forests of two valleys in the Southern Alps, where I have looked unsuccessfully in years past. Since then they have been introduced to Blumine Island in the Marlborough Sounds, where they are doing well. Blumine Island is close to and technically easy to reach from Wellington, but the weather in Cook Strait is notoriously fickle and the chance of paying out for ferries and then having them cancelled meant I kept putting it off. With this trip, though, I could work it in at the start and if the weather messed up the first try then I could have a second chance on the way back north again.
Once I had dropped my pack at the hostel, I headed to the water taxi company I had been in contact with to see if I could confirm a ride for the next day. Blumine Island lacks a jetty (you jump off the boat and wade ashore) so getting onshore depends on the swell, which means that you can't get any definite answers too far in advance. Turned out the company had no boats going out the next day, despite advertising regular runs through the day, so if I wanted a boat I'd have to charter one which was much too expensive. I decided to ask at Eko-Tours instead. I knew they do take people to Blumine, but I also knew that they are just dropping you off on their way to Motuara Island and then picking you up on the way back, only giving you an hour or so there, which seemed a bit risky time-wise if you're paying quite a bit of money specifically to look for one bird. As luck would have it, they were taking some people to Motuara Island in ten minutes and they could drop me at Blumine. Excellent! The only problem was that my camera was back at the hostel because I had only gone down to the waterfront to check with the water taxi company for tomorrow. The lesson I never seem to learn - always take your camera with you!
It was a successful trip nonetheless, with amazing photo opportunities along the way of a roost of Spotted Shags and then a large group of NZ King Shags. Amazing photo opportunities if I'd had my camera, that is! On Blumine Island itself there were Weka (which I hadn't expected to add to the year list until I reached Stewart Island), and after not too long I found an Orange-fronted Kakariki. When I'd gone looking for them in the Hawdon Valley (in the Southern Alps) I had always been worried that I wouldn't be able to easily distinguish them from the Yellow-crowned Kakariki which are common there, but now having seen them they are actually a very different bird indeed.
The next day I had nothing much to do - this was the day I had planned for going to Blumine - so I took a walk around the hill tracks on the east side of town, where 95% of the birds seen were Waxeyes, big flocks of them. In the afternoon I tracked down the local White Heron which hangs out at the waterfront cafes. At least I got one year bird today.
After Picton I took a bus down to Christchurch. I was really just passing through on my way to Dunedin, but I had enough of a gap that afternoon to head out to the Pegasus Lakes where a vagrant Northern Shoveller had been reported recently. I spent ages trying to see shovellers resting around a reedy island, and waiting for birds to put their heads up to see if it was green or blue, but it was to no avail. I did add Mute Swan to the list, a rare bird in New Zealand where the wild population is centred around Lake Ellesmere but with scattered groups extending out through smaller waterways to Pegasus. Then I walked a few kilometres along the beach to the Ashley Estuary where the only new birds were some over-wintering Bar-tailed Godwits. There was no sign of the resident Black Stilt, although I did see two of his hybrid progeny.
The next morning I carried on to Dunedin. There was a half-hour stop in Oamaru which I used to make a rushed visit to see the aviaries at the botanic gardens. The gardens were further from the bus stop than expected, so it was a case of arriving, taking a couple of photos, and leaving immediately. In Dunedin I used the remainder of the afternoon to visit the Otago Museum, which I discovered has a Falklands Island Wolf on display, one of only nine known specimens!
The main reason I was stopping in Dunedin was to do a Monarch Wildlife Tour, which ran from 11am to 6pm, starting off with a drive around the peninsula's inlets and lagoons, then there was a boat trip in the harbour, and finally a visit to Penguin Place (a rehabilitation centre for local and vagrant penguins). It rained for literally the entire tour - and at the end when we got back from the peninsula to Dunedin there was no rain in the city and the streets were completely dry! The tour was great, despite the weather. There were Hooker's Sealions at Hooper's Inlet - too far away for proper photos, and sadly none were at Allan's Beach where photos would have been much more possible. From the boat trip on the harbour there were quite distant views of the colonies of Otago Shags and Northern Royal Albatrosses on the headland. On the water there were also a lot of Southern Buller's Albatrosses and various other tubenoses including a Northern Giant Petrel. Penguin Place was also great. Unfortunately I missed a couple of rescued Erect-crested Penguins by just a couple of weeks, but they still had several Yellow-eyed Penguins. Out in their reserve we also managed to see a couple of Australian Blue Penguins in a nest-box, and then a Yellow-eyed Penguin returning from the sea.
The next couple of days were non-year-bird-adding days, mostly involving getting from Dunedin to Invercargill and then Invercargill to Stewart Island. The ferry crossing from Bluff to Stewart Island was fine, but with precious few birds seen (only Southern Buller's Albatross and Sooty Shearwater). I was on Stewart Island for three days, only one of which had good weather. That one good day was (fortuitously) spent on Ulva Island where the birds were just everywhere. Flocks of birds in the trees, robins along every track; it gave a saddening impression of how amazing New Zealand's forests would have been before people came along and stripped them bare of life. Best moment of that day was coming across a large mixed flock of Yellow-crowned Kakariki, Brown Creepers, Yellowheads and Saddlebacks, a sight basically impossible to see anywhere else now because Yellowheads are vanishingly rare and Saddlebacks are extinct in mainland forests.
The only other year-bird added from Stewart Island was Foveaux Shag (the former "Stewart Island Shag" has been split between Otago Shag and Foveaux Shag, which look really similar but genetically are not as close as expected, with one of them being more closely related to the Chatham Island Shag than to the other one). There was always a small group on one of the rocky islets in the bay by town, but at a distance which meant the photos were more record-shot than anything - hopefully I can crop one into something useable. I did see a few others very close from boats but they always dived before I could get a photo, or the light was too low. Very frustrating.
I also didn't manage to find any kiwi. I spent hours out at night at Traill Park, a favoured kiwi-spotting area which officially is a rugby field but clearly is really a marshland turning into a swamp. The weather certainly didn't help! I skipped the final night because of hail. I've seen Stewart Island Kiwi before, about 15 years ago now, but it still would have been nice to see one again.
I had half a day in Invercargill, visiting Queens Park for the aviaries where I got hailed on twice, and then the nearby estuary where the weather alternated between storm and gale and I got hailed on a third time. It was pretty miserable.
Next was back to Oamaru, where the skies were clear. The Oamaru Backpackers were much further from the bus stop than it looked on the map, but fortunately very close to the harbour. From the window of my room I could see the Otago Shag colony on the old wharf! The wharf had three colonies spaced along its length, first Spotted Shags, then Red-billed Gulls, and finally Otago Shags. Naturally the ones I wanted to photograph were the furthest away, although still much closer than the colonies from the boat in Dunedin, and very much closer than the distant Foveaux Shags I'd photographed on Stewart Island. I think I might even be able to crop some half-decent images from these shots.
Oamaru is famous for its Little Blue Penguins. Most of the colony is behind a wall so you have to pay to see them when they come ashore at night. However they also come up at various other spots along the shore and I got good views of them for free (as it should be). Quite recently genetic studies showed that the New Zealand Blue Penguins and the Australian Blue Penguins are quite distinct, and that the populations in Otago are actually Australian birds which colonised a few hundred years ago. There (of course) is debate as to whether the genetic differences amount to them being separate species or not, but I split them on my lists.
After overnighting in Christchurch again (where I found a Brush-tailed Possum in Hagley Park), I caught the TranzAlpine train to Arthurs Pass in the Southern Alps mountain range. When I lived in Christchurch I used to come up here all the time. The train arrived at 10.50am; check-in at the Mountain House backpackers wasn't until 2pm and the place was locked up tight. So I walked up to the Otira Valley to look for birds. Luckily I'd left my main pack back at the hostel in Christchurch so didn't have much to carry. Unusually there hadn't been any Kea around the village, but as I started up the Otira I heard one calling and looked up to watch it fly overhead. Kea on the year list as bird number one hundred. I was keeping an eye out for Chamois, which I sometimes see up here, but no luck. Also no luck with the Rock Wrens, although I didn't go anywhere near as high as I usually would when looking for them on account of snow (it's an avalanche-prone area in the winter).
There are Great Spotted Kiwi around Arthurs Pass too, the one species of kiwi I haven't seen in the wild and my absolute Nemesis Bird. I've been looking for them so many times, and never get closer than hearing them calling, or finding footprints or feathers. I actually felt really hopeful this night. After six hours of walking around in the forest in the dark I was feeling somewhat less hopeful. I did hear a couple calling distantly around midnight. Eventually I gave up and crawled back to the hostel.
Finally, back in Christchurch before my flight back to Wellington, I made a visit to one of the local zoos (Willowbank) and then to the Styx Mill Reserve next door to try for Marsh Crake. I wasn't exactly hopeful for this, given that the reports from there were a year ago, but when I got to the spot it was only about two minutes before a Marsh Crake came wandering out into the open. Pretty sure none of the photos turned out well though.
BIRDS:
76) Spotted Shag Stictocarbo punctatus
77) Common Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix
78) Sooty Shearwater Puffinus griseus
79) Buller's Shearwater Puffinus bulleri
80) Westland Black Petrel Procellaria westlandica
81) Cape Petrel Daption capense
82) Salvin's Albatross Thalassarche salvini
83) Black-billed Gull Larus bulleri
84) NZ King Shag Leucocarbo carunculatus
85) Weka Gallirallus australis
86) Orange-fronted Kakariki Cyanoramphus malherbi
87) White Heron (Great White Egret) Egretta alba
88) Mute Swan Cygnus olor
89) Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
90) Otago Shag Leucocarbo chalconotus
91) Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi
92) Southern Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri
93) Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli
94) Australian Blue Penguin Eudyptula novaehollandiae
95) Yellow-eyed Penguin Megadyptes antipodes
96) Foveaux Shag Leucocarbo stewarti
97) Yellow-crowned Kakariki Cyanoramphus auriceps
98) Brown Creeper Mohoua novaeseelandiae
99) Yellowhead Mohoua ochrocephala
100) Kea Nestor notabilis
101) Marsh Crake Zapornia pusilla
102) Redpoll Carduelis flammea
Just as a matter of interest, my previous highest year total for birds within New Zealand was 98 species in 2012.
MAMMALS:
4) NZ Fur Seal Arctocephalus forsteri
5) Hooker's Sealion Phocarctos hookeri
6) Brush-tailed Possum Trichosurus vulpecula
The same thing has happened again and so this time I went in the opposite direction, to the South Island. I'm from the South Island but I have been living in Wellington for several years now, thanks to covid not allowing me to go overseas, and I haven't been back to the better island since 2017. The plan for this trip was to take the ferry across to Picton (at the top of the South Island) and then bus in stages down the east coast, go to Stewart Island (at the very bottom of New Zealand), and then head back up north again.
In the following account I have put all the year-birds and year-mammals in bold so that they are easy to see, but it doesn't signify them being lifers (the sole lifer was Orange-fronted Kakariki).
Surprisingly, despite the weather on my departure day being terrible the ferry wasn't cancelled. I managed my first addition to the year-list before even setting sail, with a Spotted Shag perched on a nearby wharf. I stayed on the less-rainy side of the ferry and, with the help of a seabird key I had drawn up the night before, managed to identify most of the birds I saw on the crossing of Cook Strait. No lifers, but most species were new for the year-list, including Common Diving Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, Buller's Shearwater, Westland Black Petrel, Cape Petrel and Salvin's Albatross. A few New Zealand Fur Seals in the Marlborough Sounds went on the mammal list.
My main target for the whole trip was Orange-fronted Kakariki, one of the few mainland endemics I haven't seen yet. The last natural populations are in the mountain forests of two valleys in the Southern Alps, where I have looked unsuccessfully in years past. Since then they have been introduced to Blumine Island in the Marlborough Sounds, where they are doing well. Blumine Island is close to and technically easy to reach from Wellington, but the weather in Cook Strait is notoriously fickle and the chance of paying out for ferries and then having them cancelled meant I kept putting it off. With this trip, though, I could work it in at the start and if the weather messed up the first try then I could have a second chance on the way back north again.
Once I had dropped my pack at the hostel, I headed to the water taxi company I had been in contact with to see if I could confirm a ride for the next day. Blumine Island lacks a jetty (you jump off the boat and wade ashore) so getting onshore depends on the swell, which means that you can't get any definite answers too far in advance. Turned out the company had no boats going out the next day, despite advertising regular runs through the day, so if I wanted a boat I'd have to charter one which was much too expensive. I decided to ask at Eko-Tours instead. I knew they do take people to Blumine, but I also knew that they are just dropping you off on their way to Motuara Island and then picking you up on the way back, only giving you an hour or so there, which seemed a bit risky time-wise if you're paying quite a bit of money specifically to look for one bird. As luck would have it, they were taking some people to Motuara Island in ten minutes and they could drop me at Blumine. Excellent! The only problem was that my camera was back at the hostel because I had only gone down to the waterfront to check with the water taxi company for tomorrow. The lesson I never seem to learn - always take your camera with you!
It was a successful trip nonetheless, with amazing photo opportunities along the way of a roost of Spotted Shags and then a large group of NZ King Shags. Amazing photo opportunities if I'd had my camera, that is! On Blumine Island itself there were Weka (which I hadn't expected to add to the year list until I reached Stewart Island), and after not too long I found an Orange-fronted Kakariki. When I'd gone looking for them in the Hawdon Valley (in the Southern Alps) I had always been worried that I wouldn't be able to easily distinguish them from the Yellow-crowned Kakariki which are common there, but now having seen them they are actually a very different bird indeed.
The next day I had nothing much to do - this was the day I had planned for going to Blumine - so I took a walk around the hill tracks on the east side of town, where 95% of the birds seen were Waxeyes, big flocks of them. In the afternoon I tracked down the local White Heron which hangs out at the waterfront cafes. At least I got one year bird today.
After Picton I took a bus down to Christchurch. I was really just passing through on my way to Dunedin, but I had enough of a gap that afternoon to head out to the Pegasus Lakes where a vagrant Northern Shoveller had been reported recently. I spent ages trying to see shovellers resting around a reedy island, and waiting for birds to put their heads up to see if it was green or blue, but it was to no avail. I did add Mute Swan to the list, a rare bird in New Zealand where the wild population is centred around Lake Ellesmere but with scattered groups extending out through smaller waterways to Pegasus. Then I walked a few kilometres along the beach to the Ashley Estuary where the only new birds were some over-wintering Bar-tailed Godwits. There was no sign of the resident Black Stilt, although I did see two of his hybrid progeny.
The next morning I carried on to Dunedin. There was a half-hour stop in Oamaru which I used to make a rushed visit to see the aviaries at the botanic gardens. The gardens were further from the bus stop than expected, so it was a case of arriving, taking a couple of photos, and leaving immediately. In Dunedin I used the remainder of the afternoon to visit the Otago Museum, which I discovered has a Falklands Island Wolf on display, one of only nine known specimens!
The main reason I was stopping in Dunedin was to do a Monarch Wildlife Tour, which ran from 11am to 6pm, starting off with a drive around the peninsula's inlets and lagoons, then there was a boat trip in the harbour, and finally a visit to Penguin Place (a rehabilitation centre for local and vagrant penguins). It rained for literally the entire tour - and at the end when we got back from the peninsula to Dunedin there was no rain in the city and the streets were completely dry! The tour was great, despite the weather. There were Hooker's Sealions at Hooper's Inlet - too far away for proper photos, and sadly none were at Allan's Beach where photos would have been much more possible. From the boat trip on the harbour there were quite distant views of the colonies of Otago Shags and Northern Royal Albatrosses on the headland. On the water there were also a lot of Southern Buller's Albatrosses and various other tubenoses including a Northern Giant Petrel. Penguin Place was also great. Unfortunately I missed a couple of rescued Erect-crested Penguins by just a couple of weeks, but they still had several Yellow-eyed Penguins. Out in their reserve we also managed to see a couple of Australian Blue Penguins in a nest-box, and then a Yellow-eyed Penguin returning from the sea.
The next couple of days were non-year-bird-adding days, mostly involving getting from Dunedin to Invercargill and then Invercargill to Stewart Island. The ferry crossing from Bluff to Stewart Island was fine, but with precious few birds seen (only Southern Buller's Albatross and Sooty Shearwater). I was on Stewart Island for three days, only one of which had good weather. That one good day was (fortuitously) spent on Ulva Island where the birds were just everywhere. Flocks of birds in the trees, robins along every track; it gave a saddening impression of how amazing New Zealand's forests would have been before people came along and stripped them bare of life. Best moment of that day was coming across a large mixed flock of Yellow-crowned Kakariki, Brown Creepers, Yellowheads and Saddlebacks, a sight basically impossible to see anywhere else now because Yellowheads are vanishingly rare and Saddlebacks are extinct in mainland forests.
The only other year-bird added from Stewart Island was Foveaux Shag (the former "Stewart Island Shag" has been split between Otago Shag and Foveaux Shag, which look really similar but genetically are not as close as expected, with one of them being more closely related to the Chatham Island Shag than to the other one). There was always a small group on one of the rocky islets in the bay by town, but at a distance which meant the photos were more record-shot than anything - hopefully I can crop one into something useable. I did see a few others very close from boats but they always dived before I could get a photo, or the light was too low. Very frustrating.
I also didn't manage to find any kiwi. I spent hours out at night at Traill Park, a favoured kiwi-spotting area which officially is a rugby field but clearly is really a marshland turning into a swamp. The weather certainly didn't help! I skipped the final night because of hail. I've seen Stewart Island Kiwi before, about 15 years ago now, but it still would have been nice to see one again.
I had half a day in Invercargill, visiting Queens Park for the aviaries where I got hailed on twice, and then the nearby estuary where the weather alternated between storm and gale and I got hailed on a third time. It was pretty miserable.
Next was back to Oamaru, where the skies were clear. The Oamaru Backpackers were much further from the bus stop than it looked on the map, but fortunately very close to the harbour. From the window of my room I could see the Otago Shag colony on the old wharf! The wharf had three colonies spaced along its length, first Spotted Shags, then Red-billed Gulls, and finally Otago Shags. Naturally the ones I wanted to photograph were the furthest away, although still much closer than the colonies from the boat in Dunedin, and very much closer than the distant Foveaux Shags I'd photographed on Stewart Island. I think I might even be able to crop some half-decent images from these shots.
Oamaru is famous for its Little Blue Penguins. Most of the colony is behind a wall so you have to pay to see them when they come ashore at night. However they also come up at various other spots along the shore and I got good views of them for free (as it should be). Quite recently genetic studies showed that the New Zealand Blue Penguins and the Australian Blue Penguins are quite distinct, and that the populations in Otago are actually Australian birds which colonised a few hundred years ago. There (of course) is debate as to whether the genetic differences amount to them being separate species or not, but I split them on my lists.
After overnighting in Christchurch again (where I found a Brush-tailed Possum in Hagley Park), I caught the TranzAlpine train to Arthurs Pass in the Southern Alps mountain range. When I lived in Christchurch I used to come up here all the time. The train arrived at 10.50am; check-in at the Mountain House backpackers wasn't until 2pm and the place was locked up tight. So I walked up to the Otira Valley to look for birds. Luckily I'd left my main pack back at the hostel in Christchurch so didn't have much to carry. Unusually there hadn't been any Kea around the village, but as I started up the Otira I heard one calling and looked up to watch it fly overhead. Kea on the year list as bird number one hundred. I was keeping an eye out for Chamois, which I sometimes see up here, but no luck. Also no luck with the Rock Wrens, although I didn't go anywhere near as high as I usually would when looking for them on account of snow (it's an avalanche-prone area in the winter).
There are Great Spotted Kiwi around Arthurs Pass too, the one species of kiwi I haven't seen in the wild and my absolute Nemesis Bird. I've been looking for them so many times, and never get closer than hearing them calling, or finding footprints or feathers. I actually felt really hopeful this night. After six hours of walking around in the forest in the dark I was feeling somewhat less hopeful. I did hear a couple calling distantly around midnight. Eventually I gave up and crawled back to the hostel.
Finally, back in Christchurch before my flight back to Wellington, I made a visit to one of the local zoos (Willowbank) and then to the Styx Mill Reserve next door to try for Marsh Crake. I wasn't exactly hopeful for this, given that the reports from there were a year ago, but when I got to the spot it was only about two minutes before a Marsh Crake came wandering out into the open. Pretty sure none of the photos turned out well though.
BIRDS:
76) Spotted Shag Stictocarbo punctatus
77) Common Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix
78) Sooty Shearwater Puffinus griseus
79) Buller's Shearwater Puffinus bulleri
80) Westland Black Petrel Procellaria westlandica
81) Cape Petrel Daption capense
82) Salvin's Albatross Thalassarche salvini
83) Black-billed Gull Larus bulleri
84) NZ King Shag Leucocarbo carunculatus
85) Weka Gallirallus australis
86) Orange-fronted Kakariki Cyanoramphus malherbi
87) White Heron (Great White Egret) Egretta alba
88) Mute Swan Cygnus olor
89) Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
90) Otago Shag Leucocarbo chalconotus
91) Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi
92) Southern Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri
93) Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli
94) Australian Blue Penguin Eudyptula novaehollandiae
95) Yellow-eyed Penguin Megadyptes antipodes
96) Foveaux Shag Leucocarbo stewarti
97) Yellow-crowned Kakariki Cyanoramphus auriceps
98) Brown Creeper Mohoua novaeseelandiae
99) Yellowhead Mohoua ochrocephala
100) Kea Nestor notabilis
101) Marsh Crake Zapornia pusilla
102) Redpoll Carduelis flammea
Just as a matter of interest, my previous highest year total for birds within New Zealand was 98 species in 2012.
MAMMALS:
4) NZ Fur Seal Arctocephalus forsteri
5) Hooker's Sealion Phocarctos hookeri
6) Brush-tailed Possum Trichosurus vulpecula
A post for me to get my inverts and herp lists updated:
INVERTS:
8 - Northern banded groundling, Brachythemis impartita
9 - Violet dropwing, Trithemis annulata
10 - Broad scarlet, Crocothemis erythraea
11 - Epaulet skimmer, Orthetrum chrysostigma
HERPS:
4 - Bibron's agama, Agama bibronii
INVERTS:
8 - Northern banded groundling, Brachythemis impartita
9 - Violet dropwing, Trithemis annulata
10 - Broad scarlet, Crocothemis erythraea
11 - Epaulet skimmer, Orthetrum chrysostigma
HERPS:
4 - Bibron's agama, Agama bibronii
Somehow forgot to list these two:
BIRDS:
20/03/2022 (Quartier Hassan, Rabat, Morocco [129])
129 - Peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus
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14/05/2022 (Embouchure de l'Oued Souss, Morocco [143])
143 - Little tern, Sternula albifrons
Which means I'm on 156 birds now
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Birding is winding down a bit, but everything else is picking up. I'm also writing this from a new location, where I'll hopefully find some more interesting additions. I'm definitely happy about the good views of the carnivorans, both of which were seen on the side of the road. Red Fox is one I missed last year, and I'm glad I spotted one lounging around with its sibling on the side of the road.
Mammals:
10. Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) (Lister)
11. Common Racoon (Procyon lotor)
Birds:
I've been seeing redstarts for the past week or two, just forgot to list it
123. American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)
Seen at Meadowbrook Park
124. Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus)
125. Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)
126. Nashville Warbler (Leiothlypis ruficapilla)
127. Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca) (Lifer)
128. Field sparrow (Spizella pusilla)
129. Blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata) (Lifer)
130. Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus)
Picked up at crystal lake park
131. Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)
132. Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)
Saw the watersnake at Kickapoo state park.
Reptile:
5. Common Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) (Ssp. Northern Watersnake (N.s. sipedon))
Herptiles:
10. Common Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) (Ssp. Northern Watersnake (N.s. sipedon))
Fish:
Also from Kickapoo. Lots of interesting fish there, these are just the easier ones to find.
3. Longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)
4. Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)
5. Redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) (Lister)
Insects/Invertebrates:
A whole lot of insects (And other arthropods)
51. Pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos)
52. Common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens)
53. Fragile forktail (Ischnura posita) (Lifer)
54. Triangulate combfoot (Steatoda triangulosa) (Lifer)
55. Spotted pink lady beetle (Coleomegilla maculata)
56. Putnam’s jumping spider (Phidippus putnami)
57. Bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax)
58. Margined calligrapher (Toxomerus marginatus)
59. Bluegrass billbug weevil (Sphenophorus parvulus)
60. Eastern black carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus)
61. Big-headed ground beetle (Scarites subterraneus)
62. Striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum)
63. Eastern pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis)
64. Narrow headed marsh fly (Helophilus fasciatus)
65. Common thick-leg fly (Tropidia quadrata) (Lifer)
66. Common striped woodlouse (Philoscia muscorum) (Lifer)
67. Rathke’s woodlouse (Trachelipus rathkii)
68. Orchard orbweaver (Leucauge venusta)
69. Pygmy backswimmer (Neoplea striola) (Lifer)
70. Common picture-winged fly (Delphinia picta)
71. Four-spotted sap beetle (Glischrochilus quadrisignatus)
72. Banded pennant (Celithemis fasciata) (Lifer)
These lists are already a bit longer but I'll update them when I get back.