7 Oct 2023

2023SPRINGTRIP REPORT
Written By Scott Brooks

THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT

Had a brilliant day out on a chartered pelagic seabird tour to The Petrel Station, offshore from Tutukaka (in Northland, New Zealand). Conditions on the day were mostly fine, a 1-1.5m swell, and fantastic strong 15-20 knot NW winds throughout the day which had the seabirds up and about, and flying all around us - just stunning seabird conditions.

The highlights of the tour were:

  • 7 Albatross/Mollymawk species - the most we've had on a trip, and great for this far north in NZ.

  • A Westland Petrel which is a scarce this far north

  • Approx 60 NZ Storm Petrel off the back of the boat at once - huge numbers again for this early in spring!!

  • Several big seabird feeding workups with thousands of Buller's Shearwater and Fairy Prion chomping on Krill.

During the trip we saw 29 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching nearly 28,000 stunning seabirds in total! See the full trip list below..

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

This was a special seabird charter tour out to The Petrel Station to celebrate the release of my very good friend Harry Boorman’s book called “New Zealand’s Biggest Year”. It’s about Harry’s mission in 2021 to break the NZ record for bird species seen in NZ in a single year, following all the adventures he went on along the way, as well as the competition for the record title he hadn’t anticipated from a few other birding mates 🙂. During the year Harry travelled throughout New Zealand (inc most of the offshore islands). I got to be part of his adventures as well when he came out to The Petrel Station for some cracker seabirds (there’s even a chapter about it), also on an expedition to the very distant Kermadec Islands that I organised to coincide with his Big Year, and then I joined him visiting NZ’s Subantarctic Islands at the end of the year. Was an awesome year!! Well done Harry - it’s a great read mate 🙂. “ New Zealand's Biggest Year ” can be found at bookstores or online at Amazon.

Here’s the full trip results from the day:

Seabirds seen:

  • 2 x Northern Royal Albatross

  • 5 x NZ Wandering Albatross (ssp Gibson's)

  • 3 x Buller's Mollymawk (1 Northern, 2 Southern)

  • 2 x Salvin's Mollymawk

  • 1 x Campbell Mollymawk

  • 2 x Black-browed Mollymawk

  • 22 x White-capped Mollymawk

  • 7 x Mollymawk sp

  • 3 x Northern Giant petrel

  • 5,000 x Fairy Prion

  • 90 x Cook's Petrel

  • 1 x Cape Petrel

  • 10 x Grey-faced Petrel

  • 1 x Westland Petrel

  • 4 x Black Petrel

  • 15,000 x Buller's Shearwater

  • 5,500 x Fluttering Shearwater

  • 110 x Sooty Shearwater

  • 45 x Flesh-footed Shearwater

  • 32 x Little Shearwater

  • 60 x New Zealand Storm Petrel

  • 11 x White-faced Storm Petrel

  • 80 x Common Diving Petrel

  • 3 Little Blue Penguin

  • 1,100 x Australasian Gannet

  • 1 x Caspian Tern

  • 1 x Little Black Shag

  • 39 x Pied Shag

  • 750 x Red-billed Gull

  • 6 x Black-backed Gull

Other marine life included:

  • 10 x Bottlenose Dolphins

  • 25 x NZ Fur Seals

  • 1 x Mako Shark

  • 1 x Blue Shark

Scott Brooks
Previous

16 Oct 2023
Next

1 Oct 2023