BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andrew Whitehouse" data-source="post: 1366727" data-attributes="member: 3550">Day Eight: 30th November, KaikouraI caught a very early bus from my awesome hostel in awesome Christchurch and headed up the coast to Kaikoura.  I settled into my amusingly named hostel - the Lazy Shag - and then headed along the coast to the offices of 'Encounter Kaikoura'.Birding in Kaikoura is rather a straightforward affair.  You book on one of the Albatross Encounter boat trips and you see loads of albatrosses and other tubenoses at close range, binoculars barely required.  The only tricky bit is holding on to the contents of your stomach and making sure the trips are actually running.  At the Encounter offices I was greeted with the bad news that I was the only person booked on the afternoon boat.  If no one else booked, the trip would either be cancelled or I'd have to pay for the whole boat - around NZ$240.  In the words of Max Bygraves, that's bi-ig money.I had an hour or two to see what happened so I headed a bit further around the Kaikoura peninsula and watched a large flock of Hutton's Shearwaters massing offshore and a couple of New Zealand Fur Seals hauled out on the rocks.  A couple of Arctic Skuas were out to sea.Happily, when I returned to the Encounter office I was told that four others had booked on the trip, so I had no tricky decision to make.  We headed off around to South Bay and then got on the small Albatross Encounter boat.  The weather was good now - with only a slight breeze and sunny skies.  The boat bombed out a kilometre or so at speed and then slowed to a halt near a fishing boat.  There were loads of big seabirds suddenly off the end of the boat, which I stood and stared at.  The big birds were albatrosses and the garrulous Northern Giant Petrels.  Wandering Albatrosses tended to take charge.  Most of these were Gibsons but there were a couple of smaller and darker Antipodean Albatrosses.  Even larger were four Royal Albatrosses, including one Southern Royal.  Perhaps most numerous were the smart, and rather dark Salvin's Albatross and there were a couple of the other 'Shy' species, White-capped Albatross.  3 Black-browed Albatrosses also joined in the fun, including one orange-billed adult.The smaller birds were also of interest.  There were good opportunities to compare two species of Procellaria petrel, the pale billed White-chinned Petrel and the darker billed Westland Petrel.  There were plenty of Cape Pigeons, almost all of the Snares Island form, and three Sooty Shearwaters.After enjoying lots of full-on seabird action at a couple of different spots we had some close up fun with a large pod of Dusky Dolphins.  At one point the whole boat seemed to be surrounded by these smart looking cetaceans.And then we headed back to port.  So, seabirds.  I love em.  And I was going to see more of them tomorrow.The action:1. This is what you see at Kaikoura2. This is what it's like3. A big bad Northern Giant Petrel4. An immature Black-browed Albatross5. A dinky Cape Pigeon.</blockquote>

Verification