1 Nov 2022

THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT

Had an outstanding spring day out at The Petrel Station on our latest pelagic seabird trip out of Tutukaka (in northern New Zealand). Conditions on the day were fine, with light winds (7 knots which dropped away in afternoon) and a 1.5m swell.

The highlights of the trip were:

  • 2 x SOUTH POLAR SKUA (inc 1 potential dark morph) - this is now the third year in a row that South Polar Skua have turned up on the late October pelagic trips - think they might be a regular now :)

  • A CHATHAM ALBATROSS

  • A Mottled Petrel

  • Another day of mind-blowingly huge feeding frenzy boilups; In the morning we had 50,000+ Buller's Shearwaters busily chomping down on krill, and then in the afternoon we came across approx 30,000+ Fairy Prion doing the same.

During the trip we saw 23 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching just short of 100,000 wonderful seabirds in total!!! An exceptional day out :) The full seabird species list is below.

If you’re interested in coming out to The Petrel Station then check out the upcoming trip dates and get in touch – it’s always a great day out.

Here’s the full trip results from the day:

Seabirds seen:

  • 1 x Chatham Albatross

  • 4 x Salvin’s Albatross

  • 10 x White-capped Albatross

  • 35,000+ Fairy Prion

  • 1 x Mottled Petrel

  • 1 x Pycroft’s Petrel

  • 60 x Cook’s Petrel

  • 12 x Black Petrel

  • 3 x Grey-faced Petrel

  • 5 x Sooty Shearwater

  • 225 x Flesh-footed Shearwater

  • 60,000+ x Buller’s Shearwater

  • 500 x Fluttering Shearwater

  • 30 x Little Shearwater

  • 7 x New Zealand Storm Petrel

  • 50 x White-face Storm Petrel

  • 850 x Common Diving Petrel

  • 5 x Little Blue Penguin

  • 1,200 x Gannet

  • 2 x South Polar Skua

  • 350 x Red-billed Gull

  • 4 x Black-backed Gull

  • 48 x Pied Shag

  • 1 x Welcome Swallow out at the boat!

Other marine life included:

  • 2 x Mako Sharks (leaping out of the water!)

  • 1 x Blue Shark

  • Sunfish

  • NZ Fur Seal

  • School of Bottle Nose Dolphins (approx 40)

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23 Oct 2022