61. White-capped Albatross – 641
62. Salvin’s Albatross – 642
The day started a little late, so we got to the Royal Albatross Center, where we had the 1:00 tour booked, at around 9:30 in the morning. There, I had the aforementioned talk with Leon and a talk with a woman at the reception desk about where to see Stewart Island Shags. She told me that the tour we were going to be on would allow us to look down into the colony, which was good news. We headed down to nearby Pilot Beach for a quick look around, and, as we reached it, I saw a huge albatross disappear around behind the head. But since I saw it for only a second and saw no distinguishing features, I still did not count it, even though I’m sure it was a Northern Royal Albatross. I knew I would get more later in the day.
We then drove back from Taiaroa Head to the parking lot for the Victory Beach/Pyramids hike. This hike took us to The Pyramids, a sacred Maori place that gave a wonderful view of the surrounding area. We the hiked back through sheep fields to the car and drove back up to the Royal Albatross Center.
Pulling into the center, I looked up to see a huge Northern Royal Albatross fly right in front of the car. Even before the tour, I had already seen two more of these majestic giants glide by. While Sarah and I were killing time before the tour by walking around outside the center, a single pied phase Stewart Island Shag flew by with its distinctive white wing patches flashing. Our tour had fifteen people on it, and we spent the entire time in a blind overlooking three large Northern Royal Albatross chicks, though no adult materialized, and the Stewart Island Shag colony, where there were many individuals of both the pied and bronze phase.
Northern Royal Albatross chick
With more time to kill before our 3:45 Penguins Place tour, we took a quick drive down to another beach which could only be accessed by walking through a farmer’s field. Down on this beach there were two Common Chaffinches and a single European Goldfinch. Pressed for time, we drove back up to Penguin Place for our tour. On this tour, we took a five minute bus ride from the center over to the beach where the rarest penguins come up to land. There are four thousand birds remaining, and only nine hundred breed on the New Zealand mainland. Of these nine hundred, seventy individuals use this single beach on the Otago Peninsula. Our tour guide just happened to be Glenn, the same guy that Rob, first mate on our Mitre Peak boat, told me to say hello to.
We saw one Yellow-eyed Penguin, Pete, from the track above the beach. He was lying on his belly in the grass, though we later saw him standing. From another point on the trak, we saw one waddle out of the water about halfway down the beach, and then another came ashore directly below us. The entire tour moved into a blind, where, before long, the same penguin moved into view heading up the hill. Those of us with a good zoom on our cameras moved up above the blind to get good shots of the bird tramping up the hill. After he or she had passed right in front of the blind and disappeared into the brush, we moved on. There were several Little Penguin nest boxes, many of which were occupied. We got another look at Pete from above and then passed another individual, our fourth, on the way to the next blind. From here, we got views of Pete standing up and preening himself, and then the tour ended and we had to take the bus back.
Yellow-eyed Penguin
Pete
Little Penguin pair in nest box
The four of us, along with a few other people from the Penguin Place tour, drove over to Pilot Beach in hopes of seeing some of the Little Penguins of Taiaroa head coming ashore. They never appeared, so we drove back to The Homestead and had dinner. Tomorrow, we leave for Mount Cook.
63. Northern Royal Albatross – 643
64. Stewart Island Shag – 644
65. Yellow-eyed Penguin – 645
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