Day 1 (Part II): Abel Tasman National Park

While Dad and Mom were going through registration and Sarah slept in the car, I tried to photograph two Silvereyes in a bush near the car. Didn’t work. Don, the incredibly nice man who runs the lodge, gave me a brochure of the Okarito “White Heron” tours. We put our stuff down in our little half-cabin and I went out the back sliding door to bird. Behind our little cabin was a little stream, which I jumped to get to a small path next to a fence; on the other side of the fence was a wet field, full of Purple Swamphens. In amongst the swamphens was a pair of Paradise Shelducks and a single Canada Goose. As I headed back over the creek, a Fantail flew in front of me and fanned its tail in an attempt to scare me off.

After lunch, we took a water taxi up to Anchorage Bay inside Abel Tasman National Park. The driver’s name was Mike, and, upon learning I was interested in birds, he told me there were some places he could take us (since there were only my family and he on the boat) to get good looks at birds. This boat ride resulted in great looks at hundreds of Spotted Shags; a dozen or so Pied Shags, including some nesting ones up in the trees; a Little Black Shag amongst several New Zealand Fur Seals on a small island; and three Little Penguins in the wake of the boat. We then disembarked at Anchorage beach and began our trek back to Marahau through the rainforests.
Spotted Shags

A few minutes into the hike, I pished a Bellbird into view, the only new trip bird for the entire hike out of the park. The hike itself, however, made up for the lack of new birds. The four of us spent four hours hiking through some of the most impressive forest terrain I have ever been in. The trek wound through two different sets of foliage. One set, on the land sticking away from the rivers, was fairly sparse with stunted, skinny trees and more coniferous growth. As soon as we moved in towards one of the small creeks, the undergrowth thickened and much large trees appeared, changing from arid, dry areas to lush regions of dense rainforest. The most impressive plants of the walk were the huge Fern Trees. These trees have long, straight trunks, and at the top grows a circle of enormous ferns.
Fern Tree

The bird life of the hike turned out to be a lot less interesting than the plant life, though I did get several good looks at Bellbirds, and their ringing calls followed us the entire way back to Marahau. The only other birds were a few flocks of Silvereyes and a couple of Variable Oystercatchers and a Kelp Gull or two down on the beaches the trail overlooked. So, with the sun setting and the clouds clearing a little, I was not hoping for any new birds as we left the National Park. Leaving Abel Tasman, however, requires one to walk a fairly long boardwalk across a tidal marsh.

As we walked across the boardwalk, Dad, Mom, and I all spotted a fat rail-like creature running for the reeds. The one good look I got of it convinced me that it was a Banded Rail. As we continued along the boardwalk, a Sacred Kingfisher sped by in front of us, only to land on the rail another six meters or so down the boardwalk. Since Sarah had blisters on her heels by this point, we were moving on past the kingfisher when I saw two ducks in the river to the left. Bringing my binoculars up revealed them to be a pair of Gray Ducks getting a meal in the fading light.

With the light essentially gone, we returned to Marahau Lodge and our nice warm room. The day had been amazing bird-wise, with thirty-six species for the day, twenty-four of which were life birds.