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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

emperor penguin on NewZealand mainland (1 Viewer)

Must admit I'm a bit surprised that the link to this thread has been removed from the rare birds section, as this is such a whopping extralimital, and I for one could easily have missed this thread on this part of the forum which is rarely about vagrants.

I just thought it might make a change to have a thread on the rare birds forum that wasn't just about British and Irish twitching, with the token Western Pal or American thread.
 
I'm not too surprised — to be fair, it did turn up in three different forums (that's what you get when the BBC reports something) and anything outside Europe appears to lead to confusion with the moderators. It should definitely be in the Rarities section...
 
Larry Wheatland said:
Must admit I'm a bit surprised that the link to this thread has been removed from the rare birds section, as this is such a whopping extralimital, and I for one could easily have missed this thread on this part of the forum which is rarely about vagrants.

I just thought it might make a change to have a thread on the rare birds forum that wasn't just about British and Irish twitching, with the token Western Pal or American thread.
Click to expand...
actually that last bit was why I put it in this section, because it seemed like the Rare Birds section was all UK stuff. What's funny is your thread got merged into this one so now post #7 is you saying "hey check this out"...with a link to the thread that the post is now in! I don't mind at all if this whole thread gets moved to the Rare Birds section, or some other more widely-read part of the forum, if the mods want to do that.

The story has really gone global. I was searching the Google feeds yesterday and it is being reported in news worldwide, from India and China to Europe and South America.

Anyway, I don't think I'm going to top Emperor Penguin so I might just give up birding for the rest of the year and relax :)
 
So for those thinking this is a cheap way to see emperors, what about Adelie and Chinstrap Penguin and Antarctic and Snow Petrel? I count five birds you are not going to see anywhere except below the Antarctic Convergence. Oh and throw in Weddell, Crabeater, and Leopard Seal along with the longshots of Ross Seal and Arnoux's Beaked Whale and Antarctica seems like a pretty good place to visit.
 
leopard seal is not an uncommon vagrant to NZ coasts (usually one or two each year); I've seen one myself. Rather more extraordinarily, when I was at the emperor penguin site yesterday, a DoC worker there said a Ross' seal had come up on that same stretch of shoreline several years prior!! (I think he may have said 2003 but I can't remember)
 
BrightonBirder said:
So for those thinking this is a cheap way to see emperors, what about Adelie and Chinstrap Penguin and Antarctic and Snow Petrel? I count five birds you are not going to see anywhere except below the Antarctic Convergence. Oh and throw in Weddell, Crabeater, and Leopard Seal along with the longshots of Ross Seal and Arnoux's Beaked Whale and Antarctica seems like a pretty good place to visit.
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But most visitors to Antarctica go to the western tip of the peninsula, where EP is pretty much a vagrant. I suspect the majority of birders who have been to Antarctica have not seen the species.
 
DMW said:
But most visitors to Antarctica go to the western tip of the peninsula, where EP is pretty much a vagrant. I suspect the majority of birders who have been to Antarctica have not seen the species.
Click to expand...

Exactly the point; the other Antarctic stuff is fairly easy on a "bog standard" trip to the Peninsular. Emps are seen on only about 10% of trips so really require a lot of luck or another trip. The hardest Antarctic speciality is the Ross Seal - now that really is a mega!

Cheers, alan
 
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it has been pointed out on the NZ forum (www.birdingnz.net) that this appears to be an older juvenile and may be staying on the beach because it is about to moult into adult plumage.....so it may stick around there for a while.
 
Glad to hear you got the bird - and it appears to be doing alright. Congratulations mate :t:

Matt Prince said:
Cheapest trip to see a colony... since the demise of the KK trips to snow hill is now £22,500 by air from Punto Arenas.
Click to expand...

Hehehe :-O :-O :-O I got paid to see mine - and I didn't have to pay taxes 'n stuff :-O :-O :-O I know, shadenfreude isn't pretty - but it is does give you a warm feeling deep in your jet black soul ;)

chris
 
Just keep an eye on the Chilean volcanic ash cloud before you all rush to book - all Qantas flights into and out of NZ tomorrow are cancelled...
 
lewis20126 said:
apparent Royal Penguins in the Falklands?

cheers, a
Click to expand...

In the last few years we have had the following vagrant Penguins

Erect Crested Penguin. Same bird returned to a colony of Southern Rockhopper Penguins for 11 years on Pebble Island. Different bird seen on mainland East Falklands

Snares Penguin. 2 different birds seen and photographed on New Island

Royal Penguin. 1 bird photographed on New Island

Northern Rockhopper Penguin. I bird in a colony of Southern Rockhopper Penguins in Berkeley Sound in 2009/10 returned again in 2010/11

Cheers

Alan
www.surfbirds.com/blog/falklandbirder
 
I doubt anyone who's been away from the internet for a while will find this thread in this section of BF, so I thought I'd bump it to the top again, to give some people who might otherwise miss it a chance ;)
 
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