New Zealand Part 6 - Dunedin and Albatross!

We left Milford Sound in the rain, and had another long drive to Dunedin. We have quickly realised that New Zealand is much bigger than you think!
Dunedin from Signal Hill.

Up at Signal Hill we saw Blackbird, Tui, and Bellbird.

The town was full of Red-billed Gulls

and Feral Pigeons of course. But the highlight for us and what we were really looking forward to was a wildlife trip out to the Otago Peninsula.

We started by going to see nesting Yellow-eyed Penguins and Little Penguins, with the added bonus of a vagrant  Erect-crested Penguin and Fjordland Penguin.
Erect-crested Penguin,

 Fjordland Penguin,

 

Yellow-eyed Penguin and

 Little Penguin.

As we were viewing the Yellow-eyed Penguin a visitor came in to the adjacent pond,
Royal Spoonbill,

although the local Paradise Shelduck with ducklings weren't too happy with its arrival and chased it off after a few minutes. The offending Shelduck!

We walked along to the beach after viewing the penguins, and had a nice view of some New Zealand Fur Seals

and a New Zealand Sea Lion down on the beach.

After the Penguin views we boarded a boat to take us out to see the coastal birds and wildlife. We soon spotted Pied Stilt (aka White-headed) flying around, but I didn't even try a record shot as the boat was pitching a bit and the light wasn't good, we had just had some rain and the skies hadn't cleared.

Anyway we soon saw the primary target for this trip,
Northern Royal Albatross

Just a few of the many photos I took!

There were lots of other brilliant birds about too, large numbers of different species of cormorant;
Bronze (or Otago or Stewart Island) Shag

  Spotted Shag,

 as well as Great Cormorant, Pied Cormorant and Little Pied Cormorant.
We had some great views of NZ Fur Seals,

 Lunchtime for the Pup!

Around the headland we came across the Spoonbill colony:

The Albatrosses were magnificent so I can't resist another photo....

Finally on cruise back to Dunedin, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some Dusky Dolphins;

So that was New Zealand. We saw 71 species of bird while we were there, with our itinerary it was much more difficult to see birds and unlike Australia where we saw lots of birds in the cities, it wasn't the case here. However we did see some quality!

So time to wend our way home, via Christchurch and a two night stop in Hong Kong. So sorry one more post to do, before we end up back in Birmingham.

New Zealand Part 5 - Milford Sound

Another long drive took us from Queenstown to Milford Sound. Sadly a bad weather day, lots of rain and low cloud, but that didn't spoil the scenery, in fact it added to it, especially in the mountains, there were waterfalls absolutely everywhere.

One of our stops was at a wetlands on the way, there were some NZ Scaup on the ponds, Swamp Harriers flying over the reed beds and this Bellbird in the bushes

 As I said lots of waterfalls,

 Another stop gave us a close up of a Kea

 it was still pouring of rain and the light was terrible,

 but the photos had to be taken!

So on into Milford Sound, our boat for the night..

 More fantastic waterfalls and scenery.

We saw a distant glimpse of Fjordland Penguin from the boat, some cormorant the following morning as we cruised out into the open sea, but otherwise with the very overcast and wet weather. Not much troubled the scoreboard.
So a few more scenic shots,
A cruise ship sailed into the sound and out again,

 one of the other boats on the sound,

 Heading into a waterfall!

Next stop Dunedin....

New Zealand Part 4 - Queenstown

From Franz Josef we travelled across to Queenstown, with a few stops on the way.
Thunder Creek Falls,

Makarora,

and Lake Wanaka,
weher we saw our first NZ Scaup,

 and Black-billed Gull

plus some Great-crested Grebe.

So Queenstown..... we loved it, a great smallish town on a lake surrounded by mountains, what's not to like. A view of Queenstown from Bob's Peak.

We went on a tour around the area on our first full day in town, stopping to see where the first bungee jump was made, then ended up in a mining town, called Arrowtown where we had a coffee opportunity and a wander.....
where apart from Goldfinch, Blackbird and Myna we saw our first Mealy Redpoll, it's something when after years of never seeing one in the UK, you get one in New Zealand!
Mealy Redpoll

We ended up at the Gondola to go up Bob's Peak, where the earlier photo was taken, but before we went up we visited the Kiwi Conservation Centre nearby. This is a great place to visit, it's a family run centre, where Kiwis are bred to put back into the wild, we were privileged to see a couple just ready for release. No photos of course, as they are kept in a nocturnal house.
They do have other birds there, to bring the punters in! That's the only bit I'm not sure about, I hate to see birds kept just for display, but they have to fund the Kiwi programme somehow I suppose.

From Queenstown we took a boat trip on the S.S. Earnslaw

across to the other side of Lake Wakatipu to a working farm for a great BBQ lunch. No birds life seen as we crossed the lake, but by the farm we saw Goldfinch and Blackbird! With just a few birds at the waters edge,
Great Crested Grebe,

 Black-billed Gull and

 Kelp Gull

After a boat trip back in Queenstown we went for a walk around the lake shore and through the Gardens, nothing much was seen around the shore, but quite a few birds in the gardens.
NZ Scaup,

 Paradise Shelduck, these were common all over New Zealand.

 Muscovy Duck and

 of course Mallard.

Next stop Milford Sound!