THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT

Epic day on the first spring season seabird tour for 2024 out to The Petrel Station, offshore from Tutukaka (in Northland, New Zealand).

Without doubt the highlight of the day was a stunning young Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, which had a leg band. These stunning Albatross are extremely scarce off the New Zealand coast with few records in the last 20 odd years. Back in the 1980's they were the most common albatross species in our area but due to fishing bycatch and disease at their Indian Ocean breeding sites their numbers have plummeted resulting in fewer now reaching the NZ coast. The French research team which banded this bird told me 'This individual was ringed on Amsterdam Island during the 23/24 season as part of our long-term monitoring programme funded by the French Polar Institute. Based on the pictures it is a chick fledged in 2024'.

As usual the huge spring season feeding workups were simply breathtaking with over 30,000 each of Buller's Shearwater and Fairy Prion in big flocks (over 65,000 seabirds in total!) chomping on the dense swarms of krill.

The Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross is a new seabird species for The Petrel Station and we've now recorded 69 seabird species (of which 52 species are tubenoses).

During the tour we recorded 18 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching just over 72,500 stunning seabirds in total! See below for the full list of seabirds recorded on the tour. Conditions on the day were fine, light winds (5 to 10 knots) and a very small swell.

If you’re interested in coming out on a pelagic seabird tour to The Petrel Station(offshore from Tutukaka, New Zealand) then check out the upcoming tour dates and get in touch – it’s always a great day out.