10 Jan 2022
THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT
The 2022 Tutukaka Pelagic Seabird season kicked off today at 'The Petrel Station', and we were met with no wind and a calm sea. While this made it a bit quieter as the birds were less active, it did provide some fantastic photo opportunities, especially with the New Zealand Storm Petrels and White Faced Storm Petrels which put on a great display. I was fascinated by the stunning, often peculiar, reflections these little birds produced as they flitted around very close by the boat. We still had the usual summer Buller's Shearwaters feeding frenzy boilups with vast numbers of them, and the 34 Grey Noddy's we saw were as delightful as ever. An awesome day out.
During the trip we saw 18 different seabird species, and over 11,000 seabirds in total. And also had the odd sighting of 4 x Black Swans about 25km offshore. Plus a whale and some sharks to top things off. 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 Northern Royal Albatross
250 x Fairy Prion
30 x Cook's Petrel
1 x Pycroft's Petrel
4 x Grey-faced Petrel
24 x Black Petrel
10 x Flesh-footed Shearwater
8,000 x Buller's Shearwater
1,200 x Fluttering Shearwater
8 x Little Shearwater
28 x New Zealand Storm-Petrel
50 x White-faced Storm-Petrel
25 x Little Blue Penguin
34 x Grey (Noddy) Ternlet
1,250 x Australasian Gannet
200 x Red-billed Gull
1 x Black-backed Gull
40 x Pied Shag
Other marine life included:
1 x Brydes Whale
2 x Mako Sharks
1 x Hammerhead Shark
1 x Sunfish