THE PETREL STATION TRIP REPORT

We reached a great milestone today with our 100th pelagic seabird tour out to The Petrel Station, offshore from Tutukaka (in Northland, New Zealand) … and it was an absolutely brilliant day out on the ocean :)

Highlights of the tour were:

South Polar Skua
A pod of Orca that went right under the boat
Huge Fairy Prion and Buller's Shearwater feeding workups
and of course celebrating the 100th seabird tour for The Petrel Station :)

During the tour we recorded 28 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching just over 86,500 stunning seabirds in total! Conditions on the day were fine with 8-12 knot winds and a 1-1.5m swell. See below for the full list of seabirds recorded on the tour.

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.

THE PETEL STATION’S 100th SEABIRD TOUR
The first seabird tour was back in 2017 when I got a gathered a keen group of local NZ birder mates and we headed out offshore Tutukaka to check what was out there, and it didn't take many trips to discover what a special and very diverse seabird area it is. Since then The Petrel Station's reputation has grown and is now regarded as New Zealand's top pelagic day tour experience, and one of the world's best full day seabird tours ... and we've now had visitors from over 30 countries come along to see why it's so unique. Every tour has been great, and we've recorded some exceptional seabirds along the way.

Here's a few impressive stats in that time:

69 seabird species recorded
52 tubenose (Procellariiformes) seabird species
2.5 million seabirds recorded so far
A staggering 200,000 seabirds recorded on a single tour!
Lots and lots of valuable at-sea seabird sightings data

With all the at-sea sea sightings data we've recorded to date from the tours were already starting to getting a much clearer idea of the yearly, and seasonal, patterns and occurrence of seabird species in northern NZ, and also gaining a better understanding of seabird movements as well.

Thanks a lot to everyone who has come out on The Petrel Station seabird tours over the years - it's always a pleasure having you onboard and getting to share this great seabird experience with so many enthusiast and friendly people from around the globe. And a special thanks as always goes to my good friend and exceptional seabird spotter Gary, our highly skilled skipper Luke, and of course my lovely wife Helga who puts up with my seabird madness and makes the delicious Ginger Crunch that everyone who comes out raves about :)