28 Nov – 02 Dec 2024
THE PETREL STATION 5 DAY TRIP REPORT
We recently completed 5 outstanding days in row of back-to-back seabird tours out to The Petrel Station (offshore from Tutukaka, Northland, New Zealand). It was a fantastic 5 days on the ocean with a great variety of stunning seabird species recorded, and an awesome bunch of people from all around the world joining us onboard to experience the spectacle.
The numbers of birds around on each day was mind-blowing with the feeding workups each day nearing 100,000 seabirds – they really are a spectacle to witness! During the 5 days we recorded 31 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching over 508,000 stunning seabirds in total! See below for the full list of seabirds recorded on the tour.
Along with the seabirds we also encountered lots of other marine life with the highlight being Manta Ray, Long-finned Pilot Whale and Yellow-fin Tuna leaping 2m out of the water.
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 … and the best way to experience these stunning seabirds is out on the ocean, in their world 🙂
Here’s the full results from the 2 days:
Seabirds seen:
1 x Salvin's Albatross
10 x White-capped Albatross
2 x South Polar Skua
2 x Arctic Skua
1 x Northern Giant Petrel
195,000 x Fairy Prion
586 x Cook's Petrel
20 x Pycroft's Petrel
16 x Black-winged Petrel
15 x Mottled Petrel
10 x Grey-faced Petrel
53 x Black Petrel
225,000 x Buller's Shearwater
24,500 x Fluttering Shearwater
1 x Hutton's Shearwater
136 x Little Shearwater
62 x Flesh-footed Shearwater
29 x Sooty Shearwater
40 x Short-tailed Shearwater
148 x White-faced Storm Petrel
30 x New Zealand Storm Petrel
2 x Wilson's Storm Petrel
650 x Common Diving Petrel
20 x Little Blue Penguin
18 x Grey Ternlet
10,000 x Australasian Gannet
4,650 x Red-billed Gull
10 x Black-backed Gull
361 x Pied Shag
3 x Little Black Shag
1 x Little Pied Shag
Other marine life seen:
2 x Manta Ray
3 x Large Yellow-fin Tuna (one leaping 2m high!)
5 x Long-finned Pilot Whale
25 x Bottlenose Dolphin
30 x Common Dolphin
1 x Hammerhead Shark
2 x Mako Shark
1 x Bronze-whaler Shark
1 x Sunfish
3 x Flying Fish
Huge schools of Trevally fish