Hello all,
Latest New Zealand updates to my website (www.wildlifing.com) are up.
They cover my time on Stewart Island and Ulva Island (to the south of
the South Island). On Mason Bay I went on a guided walk to Mason Bay on
the western side of Stewart Island, with Ruggedy Range Adventure Tours.
Here we saw a couple of Southern Tokoeka (Kiwi) after a few hours of
spotlighting (no photos). The adult bird (if thats the right word) was
much bigger than the Little Spotted Kiwi that I had earlier seen on
Kapiti Island. Their bill is quite long, hence the maori name "tokoeka",
which translates as Weka with a Walking Stick! I also went on a
spotlighting trip at Ocean Beach with Bravo Advennture Cruises and saw
tokoeka here also.
While spotlighting at Mason Bay we had a mystery sound fly overhead
which sounded a bit like recordings I've heard of winnowing snipe
(winnowing being the noise that tail feathers make when snipe are in
courtship flights). It was a quite unnatural eerie sound. This by the
way is pretty unlikely- the Stewart Island Snipe being supposedly extinct.
I also took a water taxi over to Ulva Island, a small offshore island
that has been de-mammaled (my word). Bird life was abundant here
including Yellowhead, SI Saddleback, Brown Creeper, Robin, Kaka, Stewart
Island Weka, Kakariki (Red-crowned and Yellow-crowned- inc. a nest). A
definite must if you are visiting Stewart Island.
Cheers
Mick
--
Michael Todd
Wildlifing
Images & Sounds of Nature
Latest Additions: New Zealand (Kaikoura, Arthurs Pass, Otago Peninsula)
www.wildlifing.com
Toronto, NSW, Australia
04101 23715
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