[leovb]

Kaikoura NZ 30122005

In the morning 3, Banded Dotterels and 7 Ruddy Turnstones were present along with Spotted, Pied, Little Pied Cormorants. Of course White-fronted Tern, Red- and Black-Billed Gulls and Black-backed Gulls were also present.
In the Afternoon also 3 Reef egrets were spotted at the Seal colony.
A bitout on the water were rafts of Hutton's Shearwaters (100s).

In the afternoon out on the water we saw;
-Northern and Southern Royal Albatrosses
-Wandering Albatross (Gibsoni)
-Salvin Albatross
-Southern Buller's Albatross
-Giant-Northern and Giant-Southern Petrels
-Westland Petrel
-White-chinned Petrel
-Cape Pigeon
-Fairy Prion
-Huttons Shearwater
-Bullers Shearwater (1)
-Flesh-footed Shearwater
-Sooty Shearwater
-Fluttering Shearwater
-Australasian Gannet

Unfortenately no Common Diving Petrel were sighted.

Cheers,
Leo

[albatross02]

Hallo,

I saw also Skua and Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses there.

Best regards
Dieter

[leovb]

Originally Posted by albatross02

Hallo,

I saw also Skua and Antipodean Wandering Albatrosses there.

Best regards
Dieter

Hi Dieter,

Aren't these albatrossess amazing!
I hope to see Antipodean wanderers on a next visit. First I go to Stewart Island for a short week. Of course I hope to see birds there too. I'll let you know about it.

Dieter, I noticed you are from Germany and I was wondering whether you could inform me about birdfestivals, birdwatching-sites "und so weiter" in Germany. I'd like to know about birdwatching in Germany and the birdwatchingmagazines, clubs etc. It would be great if you could help me.

Cheers,
Leo

[albatross02]

Hi Leo,

for me is very impressive the flying ( or better gliding ) of albatrosses.
Gulls on so on moves very often there wings, but albatrosses only do 2 - 3 times wings beat and than follow long quick gliding.
For Stewart island I wish You good luck, day active Kiwis are there.
Also interesting is Ulva island, an sanctuary for day visting near Stewart island.

http://www.terranature.org/NZ_ecology.htm

Here in Germany we have not so much wilderness like New Zealand or other countries in Europe ( e.g. Sweden, Finnland, Norway and Island ).
But we are an transit country, which is important for bird migration.
Around Berlin is federal country Brandenburg which has the most water ( lakes and rivers ) in Germany.
70 km east of Berlin is river Oder and 100 km west is river Elbe. Between are lot of lakes.
In the north is lakes area of federal country Mecklenburg.
On Baltic sea a special bays which are ( maybe ) only on Baltic sea.
We called it Bodden, which is a bay with small connection to the sea and is rather very flat. This are very important very water birds in winter.

Paper for birdwatcher is called "Falke".
http://www.falke-journal.de/cms/

For different areas in Germany I give informations here
http://www.birdforum.net/thedirector...p?ppuser=20816

Special books are "Die Vogelwelt von Berlin und Brandenburg", but only in german language give informations about, breeding, migration and so on.
http://www.naturmagazin.info/shop/de...=2&start=0&nr=

Important birds are e.g.
White-tailed Eagles ( I red 500 breeding pairs 2005 )
Red Kite ( I red we have 60 % of world population )
Great Bustard


Best regards
Dieter


Best regards
Dieter

[leovb]

Hi Dieter,

Thanks for the information, most usefull!

Well and wilderness is a relative thing really. NZ has relative large areas of forest and mountains. But to me " wilderness" is not in quantity but in quality.
What I have seen and what I know of Germany the quality is great (Eiffel, Lunneburger Heide, Rugen)! Lots of variety of wildlife.

I put my best day on Stewart Island on Birding day-forum so if you are interested you can view it there.

As far as the gliding of the albatrossess concerned you are right. It's magic! We were lucky to stay in a motel from which we daily saw white-capped and southern Bullers mollymwaks gliding through the harbour in pursuit of a fishing boat.

Cheers,
Leo

[albatross02]

Thank You for information.
Hopefully You visited also Ulva island.
Near Kaikoura is also Craigeburn Forest. Seems a forgotten area. The enviroment centre was closed.
Birds not much there. But in December the tree had much Red Mistletoe.
One of the reason of my NZ vacation was flora.


Best regards
Dieter

[leovb]

Hello again Dieter,

Well flora!! Than there is a lot to see over here! The varation in plants (Ferns, Tree-ferns, Podocarps, mosses etc, etc) I find overwhelming. Though diversity is not a big as in e.g the Queensland rain-forest and specieciation is not as varied as in e.g the Australian eucalypts, NZ has a beautifull varied and exciting flora. To me the most impressive place in NZ botanical-wise, were the forest on Mount Egmond/Taranaki and a forest near the Fransz Jozef Gletsjer. Quit a difference with a Dutch forest (I come from the Netherlands), that seems a "botanical-boring place" in comparisson.

Unfortunately I am not a botanist and time to realy get into that is not available. (In that sense travelling through Oz and NZ has made me realize that studying Botany and Geology in these countries to me is more stimulated as in good-old holland because of the presence everywhere of botanical and geologocal features that bring up al kinds of questions.)

Quit nice to "talk" about botany on a seabirding page! Well there is a link because of the kelpforests along the rocky shores.

Cheers,
leo