At sea
The coast of New Zealand is incredibly rich with seabirds. Gulls and terns are ever present, penguins are common in places, and cormorants are incredibly diverse. These, however, are dwarfed in abundance by the true seabirds; the albatrosses, shearwaters, and petrels. From the tiny Common Diving-Petrel, basically the size of a football with wings, up to the biggest of all, the Wandering Albatross at around 11 feet in wingspan, New Zealand has an incredible diversity and amount of tubenoses. Throughout this journey, anytime we looked outside the ship while underway, some sort of seabird was around. Today was no exception. As we left Wellington harbor at sunrise till we approached Hawke’s Bay at sunset, seabirds were our constant companions.
Throughout the day, the make-up of seabirds changed as well. The islands in Cook Strait are home to some breeding species, and at first light Sooty Shearwaters were abundant. We also enjoyed some birds more common farther south, such as Hutton’s Shearwaters, Northern Giant-Petrels, and a few White-capped Albatross. As we continued north, the avifauna changed, altering to birds breeding farther ahead. Buller’s Shearwaters became abundant; at times flocks of hundreds were resting on the water. Almost the entire world’s population of Buller’s Shearwater breeds just north of Auckland, so we will see plenty more of these beautiful seabirds.
Our first Australasian Gannets were also observed. Tiny rocket ships, the gannets would hover high above the water and then tuck their wings and plunge deep into the water. They became more and more abundant as the day progressed, as we neared the major colony at Cape Kidnappers that we will visit tomorrow.
Sure, we also had some visits by dolphins. As well, numerous presentations and delicious meals helped to fill our day, but the continuing story of seabirds here in New Zealand was the main part of the day.
