Thursday
21 December. We arrived at Bluff overnight, saw 4 Fouveaux
Shags in the harbour and disembarked soon after breakfast. I’d enjoyed the
cruise much more than I was expecting, thanks in great part to Nick, the 3
Pauls and the excellent Heritage guides - Matt, Dan and Jonathan in particular.
We were bussed to Invercargil airport where after a lengthy wait boarded our
flight to Auckland. There Nick and I said goodbye to Paul who was returning
home for Christmas. We were visiting my sister Ruth and my daughter Nessa was
transiting through Auckland on her way from UK to Wellington. By amazing
coincidence, as we entered the domestic terminal I saw her waiting to board the
plane we’d arrived on from Invercargil and we had a quick chat. We let Ruth
know we’d arrived and she soon appeared in the drop-off area outside the
terminal. She drove us to Titirangi where she left us with the car for Nick to
drive to Tuwharanui, a protected peninsular an hour of so north of Auckland.
She’d booked an Airbnb for us, as close to the reserve as possible. We quickly settled in
and then headed to Tawharanui an hour before dusk. An automatic gate opened for us to
drive into the reserve, we parked near the beach and followed a dirt track into
the forest to the start of the Ecology Trail. On the way we saw 3 Brown Teal,
3 New Zealand Pigeons, 100+ Pukakos, New Zealand Dotterel,
4 Kakas, 3 Tui, New Zealand Fantail and North Island
Robin. At about 21:10, having been quietly walking up the Ecology Trail for
10-15 minutes we heard some rustling and snorting in the vegetation a little
way below us. We froze, maybe 5m apart, as it came closer and much to our
delight a North Island Brown Kiwi appeared on
the path between us. It stopped for a while, seemingly unconcerned by our red
torches, before slowly walking up the hill. Superb. We walked the Ecology Trail
twice over the next three hours hoping for more views of it or another but the
closest we came was me seeing one’s back disappearing behind a bush before
vanishing further up the hillside. Disappointing although we did see a fairly
vocal Ruru (Morepork).
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| unloading the Heritage Adventurer |
Friday 22
December. We checked out of our Airbnb and returned to
Tawharanui where we birded from 08:00-13:00 before returning to Titirangi and
Ruth’s. At Tawharanui I saw 2 Paradise Shelduck, 4 Brown Teal, 6 New
Zealand Pigeons, 30 Pukakos, 10 Variable Oystercatchers, Pied
Stilt, 10 Masked Lapwings, 5 New Zealand Dotterel, 40 Red-billed
Gulls, 2 Caspian and 8 White-fronted Terns, 2 Sacred
Kingfishers, 20 Tui, 3 Grey Gerygones, 2 Australian
Magpies, 10 New Zealand Fantails, 3 North Island Robins, 10 Welcome
Swallows, Silvereye and a few introduced European
passerines. On the drive back to Auckland we saw 4 California
Quail and 2 Swamp Harriers and another Tui in Ruth’s
Titirangi garden.
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| New Zealand Pigeon at Tawharanui |
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| North Island Robin at Tawharanui |
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| Whitehead at Tawharanui |
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| Tui at Tawharanui |
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| Tawharanui |
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| White-fronted Terns at Tawharanui |
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| Variable Oystercatcher at Tawharanui |
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| Red-billed Gull at Tawharanui |
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| Brown Teal at Tawharanui |
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| New Zealand Plovers at Tawharanui |
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| EDB |
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| looking much brighter here so perhaps EDB is the male |
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| and EDA |
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| Masked Plover at Tawharanui |
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| Caspian Terns on the lagoon at Tawharanui |
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| Australian Gannet over the lagoon |
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| California Quail by the road north of Auckland |
Saturday
23 December. Ruth had booked herself, daughter Izzy, Nick and me
onto Tiri Tiri Matangi for a night. We were going from Gulf Harbour, further
out but leaving a car wasn’t an issue. She’d also brought food and sleeping
bags. The ferry crossing was uneventful and we soon landed. Nick and I had
visited in 1996 and it was nice to be back, although my recollections of the
island were rather hazy. We left our bags in the bunkhouse birded for most of
the day wandering the trails fairly aimlessly. This we repeated at night
looking for Little Spotted Kiwi as none of the resident volunteers were able to
suggest where best to look. They could be anywhere seemed the standard
response. On Tiri I saw 2 Brown Teal, a juvenile Brown Quail, 4 New
Zealand Pigeons, 10 Pukako, 3 South Island Takahe (a pair
with a fully grown juvenile), 4 Variable Oystercatchers, 3 Red-billed
Gulls, a moribund Little Penguin, 7 Pied Cormorants, White-faced
Heron, Swamp Harrier, Ruru in daylight, Eastern Rosella
(not all introductions were European), 6 Red-crowned Parakeets, 30 Tui,
10 New Zealand Bellbirds, Grey Gerygone, 2 North Island
Kokakos, 14 North Island Saddlebacks, 4 male Stitchbirds, 30 Whiteheads,
Australian Magpie, 10 North Island Robins, Skylark, 5 Welcome
Swallows, 3 Common Mynas, Song Thrush and 10 Blackbirds.
We heard a distant Lesser Spotted Kiwi but it stopped calling before we
could pin down its location.
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| Saddleback on Tiri Tiri Matangi |
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| Ruru on Tiri |
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| Tui on Tiri |
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| New Zealand Pigeon on Tiri |
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| Pukako on Tiri |
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| Takahe family on Tiri, I'm no longer in any doubt that birds evolved from dinosaurs |
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| moribund Little Blue Penguin on the beach Tiri |
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| Tiri boardwalk |
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| Kokako on Tiri, released here since our previous visit and seemingly thriving |
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| Tuatara, nice but not what we were hoping to see rustling leaf litter after dark |
Sunday
24 December. The day started as the last one finished,
wandering around all night looking unsuccessfully for Little Spotted Kiwi
although again we briefly heard one in the distance. Nick had more sense than
me and gave up at 04:00. I dozed a bit when it was light and continued
wandering around until it was time to catch the boat back. Ruth and Izzy
disembarked at Gulf Harbour while Nick and I continued across the Hauraki Gulf
to Auckland Marina, Ruth and Izzy driving around to meet us there. Titi Tiri
Matangi produced much the same as the previous day, several attempts to find
Uniform Crake again proving unsuccessful. Tiri Tiri Matangi is a brilliant place and
under normal circumstances we would have really enjoyed our visit but on this
occasion we were desperately disappointed. In 1996 we had spent two nights on
Tiri. There were just eleven kiwis on the island then. We heard a kiwi quite
close during our first evening but it slipped away unseen while continual rain
washed out our second evening. This time we only had one night, Ruth had tried
to book two but the bunkhouse was full of volunteers and we’d been lucky to get
in at all. Even so the kiwi population had risen to over 70 and we both had thermals
and red torches but despite this we still failed. On Tiri I saw 4 Brown Teal, 5 Brown
Quail, 2 New Zealand Pigeons, 6 Pukako, 3 South Island
Takahe (the pair with a fully grown juvenile), 2 Variable Oystercatchers,
10 Red-billed and 2 Kelp Gulls, 6 Pied Cormorants, 2 adult
and a juvenile Ruru, 3 Eastern Rosellas, 5 Red-crowned
Parakeets, Rifleman, 20 Tui, 12 New Zealand Bellbirds,
3 Grey Gerygone, North Island Kokako, 15 North Island
Saddlebacks, 7 male and a female Stitchbird, 25 Whiteheads, 2
Australian Magpie, 2 New Zealand Fantails, 10 North Island
Robins, Skylark, 10 Welcome Swallows, 4 Common Mynas, 8
Blackbirds and 4 House Sparrows. The crossing back to Auckland
Marina was excellent with 10 White-fronted Terns, 30 Cook’s and 3
Black Petrels, 4 Buller’s and 150 Fluttering
Shearwaters and 3 Australian Gannets. It didn't quite make up for the disappointment of not seeing kiwi on Tiri but at least we left on a bit of a high. Back in Titirangi Ruth’s family came round for an excellent Christmas eve meal.
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| Red-crowned Parakeet on Tiri |
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| New Zealand Pigeon on Tiri |
