17 Jul 2023
THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT
Had a great day out on the latest pelagic seabird trip to The Petrel Station, offshore from Tutukaka (in Northland, New Zealand). Conditions the day were fine, with strong 20+ knot SW winds, and a 1-1.5m swell.
The highlights of the trip were:
1 x Brown Skua
Our first winter sighting of a Pycroft's Petrel
Some large Fairy Prion feeding workups around the islands
We also had a potential Kerguelan / Dark Morph Soft-plumaged Petrel but only very briefly seen and we didn't quite get onto it enough to confirm ID (and no-one managed a photo) ... so it goes into the ones that got away bin
During the trip we saw 17 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching nearly 5,500 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 trip dates and get in touch – it’s always a great day out.
Here’s the full trip results from the day:
Seabirds seen:
9 x White-capped Albatross
4,000+ x Fairy Prion
5 x Cook's Petrel
1 x Pycroft's Petrel
50 x Grey-faced Petrel
25 x Fluttering Shearwater
10 x Little Shearwater
2 x New Zealand Storm Petrel
1 x White-faced Storm Petrel
700 x Common Diving Petrel
1 x Brown Skua
350 x Australasian Gannet
1 x Caspian Tern
265 x Red-billed Gull
6 x Black-backed Gull
32 x Pied Shag
1 x Little Black Shag
Other marine life included:
12 x NZ Fur Seals
1 x Mako Shark