17 Oct 2020
THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT
With great excitement, and after several cancellations over recent months due to Covid 19 or bad weather, we finally got out again to The Petrel Station for an utterly fantastic day out. Swell was around 2 meters and the winds were light at 5 knots.
The highlights of the trip were:
2 Chatham Island Mollymawks - without a doubt the major highlight of the day. They were a pair and put on a great display of mutual preening courting behaviour.
2 Wilson's Storm Petrels, and the always delightfully entertaining NZ Storm Petrels (23 seen)
Some huge boil ups (one with over 8000 seabirds!)
This was our 19th trip out and thanks to the Chatham Island Mollymawks we've now had 40 different tube-nosed seabird species visit us out at The Petrel Station! During the trip we saw 25 different seabird species, and nearly 17,000 seabirds in total! A amazing day out.
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
2 x CHATHAM ISLAND MOLLYMAWK
1 x Black-browed/Campbell Mollymawk
4 x White-capped Mollymawk
2 x Northern Giant Petrel
6,000+ x Fairy Prion
50 x Cook's Petrel
8 x Grey-faced Petrel
1 x White-chinned Petrel
7 x Black Petrel
9,000+ x Buller's Shearwater
8 x Flesh-footed Shearwater
4 x Sooty Shearwater
200 x Fluttering Shearwater
55 x Little Shearwater
23 x New Zealand Storm-Petrel
2 x Wilson’s Storm-Petrel
10 x White-faced Storm-Petrel
450 x Diving-Petrel
850 x Australasian Gannet
800 x Red-billed Gull
2 x Black Backed Gull
1 x Black Shag
42 x Pied Shag
1 x Little Black Shag
Other marine life included:
25 x Common Dolphins
2 x Blue Sharks
4 x Fur Seal