Saturday 5 March 2011

Mega Three Kings pelagic!

Well we are back on dry land and struggling to come to terms with what was the best yet Three Kings pelagic. We were out on the water early on 2 March and got back in this afternoon. Star of the trip is what we believe to be the first record of COLLARED PETREL for New Zealand (an intermediate morph bird). Photographed well with photos to follow. Also epic birds and firsts for these pelagics was WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER (seen three out of four days), TAHITI PETREL (one seen twice distantly, possibly the same bird, also photographed), and a SOOTY TERN (also photographed). We also had at least a couple of GOULD'S PETRELS (inc a bird photographed today with a thin collar), 60+ white-naped petrels, 13 white terns, 22 long-tailed skua, 4 NZ stormies (on the first day whilst steaming out from Houhora), countless black-winged petrels, and about 9 Kermadec petrels. Seven Pterodroma species and all up about 90 individual reportable rarities! Full report to follow...

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