Day 22: Boat Tour of Abel Tasman National Park
Sunday 2 February 2014
70 °F
Hello blog readers,
You will see in today's post that I saw a lot of wonderful birds. Over the next two weeks, I will be seeing many more birds than I have been seeing so far with changes in location and elevation, so please tell all of your friends who may be interested to check out my blog. Thanks! Some of the birds I am expecting to see over the next few weeks include parakeets, albatross, and rare penguins. It will surely be amazing!
Today our family took a boat tour of the waters on the eastern side of Abel Tasman National Park, but before that, I managed to sneak in some birding. I headed to the mudflats and saw species such as GREY TEAL, PURPLE SWAMPHEN, PIED STILT, GREENFINCH, TUI, NEW ZEALAND BELLBIRD, and much more. Here are some photos:
PURPLE SWAMPHEN and GREY TEAL
PIED STILT
One Tree Rock. New Zealanders definitely come up with the most inventive names.
Then, we drove to the boat launch, boarded our vessel, and had a lovely tour of Abel Tasman National Park from the water. I saw many pelagic species including GREY PETREL, BULLER'S SHEARWATER, WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL, LITTLE BLUE PENGUIN, and AUSTRALASIAN GANNET, as well as some not-so-pelagic species, also. Here are some photos from the first leg of the journey:
Little Blue Penguin
Southern Fur Seal
Variable Oystercatcher (black subspecies)
Split Rock (again, such an inventive name!)
Our second leg of the journey was a pleasant two-hour hike starting at a beautiful beach, through the jungle, and ending at another beautiful beach. Here are two nice photos from the hike:
Some gigantic ferns along the way:
My mom snapped a photo from me in front of a gorgeous lookout:
Then, for the third and final leg of our tour, the boat picked us up at the beach after the hike. I saw three species of shag from the boat: BLACK, PIED, and SPOTTED SHAGS. Here is a photo of a SPOTTED SHAG:
Bird-of-the-day to my life bird Grey Petrel. Tomorrow my family and I head to Hamner Springs, a beautiful village nestled in the northern high country of the Southern Alps, New Zealand's longest, highest, and snowiest mountain range. It will surely be a change in climate and avian life.
Good birding and stay tuned,
Henry
World Life List: 503 Species (1 new life bird today: Grey Petrel)
Posted by skwclar 22:37 Archived in New Zealand
