birding never sleeps: Birding Down Under part 3: Enderby (08 December 2023)

Friday, 8 December 2023

Birding Down Under part 3: Enderby (08 December 2023)

Friday 08 December. We continued heading south through the night, were up seawatching soon after dawn and anchored off the Auckland Islands at 07:00. An early breakfast soon followed, in preparation for our first landing on a Subantarctic Island. Along with 60 or more others we'd chosen to opt for the all day walk around Enderby (one of the smaller Auckland Islands) and so would be amongst the first to be landed there. We felt the circular walk offered us the best chance of seeing Subantarctic Snipe and a good selection of other species. It was to be a wet landing, as all landings during the cruise would be. This involved the front of the Zodiac being run up onto the beach and one shuffling to the front and alighting into shallow water. We had been issued with muck boots to keep our feet dry and needed them when transferring into and out of Zodiacs from the ship too. Sensibly lifejackets where compulsory in Zodiacs although I'd struggled to put mine on over binoculars the previous day. With the Muck Rooms where boots and lifejackets were stored was on Deck 3 near our cabin it seemed sensible to grab ours and change into them in our cabin. I took my binoculars off to make it easier to put on the lifejacket but when we landed on Enderby I realised I'd not put them back on. Bins and spare safe in our cabin - how stupid. Hopefully the birds would be confiding and I'd be able to see them through my camera lens. Fortunately this worked well in the open habitat with most birds although when seeing something I kept reaching for binoculars which weren't there. The circular walk was longer than expected, not helped by being quite rough in places, but it was definitely the best choice and we saw pretty much everything we'd hoped for. Highlights were my first Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses which were absolutely superb, brilliant views of a Subantarctic Snipe with another seen in flight, ridiculous views of a pair of Double-banded Plovers (an endemic race), the endemic Auckland Teal, displaying Southern Royal Albatrosses and, I guess, Auckland Shags. Once back on board we continued seawatching as we headed south seeing more Light-mantled Sooties and my first White-headed Petrels which I really took to. I was not so keen on Soft-plumaged Petrels, missing several despite skipping dinner, but tomorrow should offer more chances as we'd be at sea all day.

During the day I saw 5 Auckland Teal, 8 Double-banded Plovers, 2 Subantarctic Snipe, 10 Red-billed and 10,Kelp Gulls, 25 Brown Skuas, 15 Yellow-eyed Penguins, 30 Black-bellied Storm Petrels, 25 Southern Royal, 11 Light-mantled Sooty and 15 Shy Albatrosses, 40 Northern Giant and 55 Cape Petrels, 200+ Prions including Antarctic, Fairy and 2 Fulmar, 12 White-headed and 20 White-chinned Petrels, 5 Sooty Shearwaters, 2 Cormorants, 50 Auckland Shags, New Zealand Falcon, 6 Red-crowned Parakeets, 2 Tuis, 2 New Zealand Bellbirds, 12 Tomtits (Auckland Island race), 30 New Zealand Pipits and 2 Lesser Redpolls.