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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    2 November I thought it was time for me to finally get round to seeing a Fiordland crested penguin. I was supposed to be heading down to Milford Sound a few weeks ago on a tourism famil (everything for free!!) but the Milford Road was blocked by a massive avalanche and so I postponed my...
  2. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    16-19 September On the 16th we set off for Tiritiri Matangi island out in the Gulf. The island was formerly entirely pasture for cows, apart for a few scattered trees and thickets. In the 1970s a move was made to revegetate the island in native bush and reintroduce native birds, and now it is...
  3. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    15 September The next morning was the obligatory (for a birder) trip to the sewage ponds. The Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant is a renowned site for waders, in particular wrybills during the winter, and that was a bird Andy was really keen to see for the first time. Wrybills are a little...
  4. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    14 September With one successful day done (pelicans and cattle egrets) the next morning we headed with Kerry to the Wenderholm Regional Park just north of Auckland. This was the spot for New Zealand dotterels (one of the endemics I hadn’t seen yet) as well as a good place for banded rails...
  5. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    13 September yesterday was spent on a whale-watch boat where no whales or dolphins were sighted, and the only birds seen were sped past so quickly that I couldn't legitimately say what sort of petrels they might be without a bit of guessing. But today I was off to see pelicans! At the start of...
  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    11 September no birds for the year list for August, but today I flew into Auckland for a ten-day visit. I'm not going to be able to get overseas this year, so Auckland is it. Not much was happening today, but I saw spotted doves and common mynahs at Butterfly Creek by the airport. Spotted dove...
  7. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    25 July a couple of weeks ago a bittern was sighted at Bexley Wetland in Christchurch, followed by two, followed by three, and then a systematic search of the area by the local birdy authorities (it's not a very large area) found six or seven individuals. This was quite unprecedented for the...
  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    12 June one of my regular visits to the tiny Hokitika sewage ponds on the off-chance of a rare vagrant mistaking them for somewhere more interesting, I found my first pipit of the year. 75) NZ pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae
  9. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    15-16 May I headed up to Arthur's Pass in search of one of my nemesis birds, blue duck. They are much rarer in the South Island than the North so I have never managed to see one, until now.... The first day I walked from the Village up the Bridal Veil track to the top of the pass (getting...
  10. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    9 May a lurk around the beach beside town (Hokitika that is) provided a couple of Arctic skuas (or the same one twice) and a scattering of black-fronted terns amongst the more regular white-fronted terns. 71) Arctic skua Stercorarius parasiticus 72) Black-fronted tern Chlidonias albostriatus
  11. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    17-18 April I took a week over in Christchurch to see a friend, and to try and see a white-eyed duck which had fortuitously turned up at the Kaiapoi Lakes just outside town. I've seen loads of those in Australia but never in NZ because they are only rare vagrants here so it was worth a search...
  12. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    20 March I figured it was about time I went out and tried to find some more birds, so the target was my constant nemesis bird, the great spotted kiwi. I took the bus north up to Punakaiki and walked 8km to the top of Bullock Creek Road to camp in the bush up there. The plan had been to be up...
  13. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    14 February a four day weekend for me, so I caught a bus up to Picton at the top of the South Island to take one of the boat trips that go out after king shags, an endemic NZ species that is found only in the Marlborough Sounds. On the way from Christchurch to Picton, I managed to spot a pair...
  14. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    7 January on my new bike I headed off for the day to Lake Mahinapua, ten kilometres south of Hokitika. First stop was the Mahinapua Walkway which is two hours each way. Some common bush birds were seen -- tomtit, weka, NZ pigeon, etc -- but the only one new for the year was the ordinary old...
  15. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    2 January I haven't had any time for birding but today I saw a weka. I also bought a bike so at least now I can get further afield and try to find some birds! 55) Weka Gallirallus australis
  16. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    19 January not much happening lately on the birding front here in Hokitika, but today I walked across the bridge to the outlet of the Mahinapua Creek, reputedly a good spot for bitterns and fernbirds, neither of which I found. I did however see two great white egrets (called white herons in NZ)...
  17. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    8 January I got a new job over in Hokitika on the West Coast of NZ. The bus there from Christchurch stopped for quarter of an hour at Arthur's Pass Village in the mountains, and hence I got to add kea to my list: 51) Kea Nestor notabilis
  18. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    5 January a quick walk round Styx Mill to pick up the rest of the common waterfowl: 45) Canada goose Branta canadensis 46) Australasian coot Fulica atra 47) New Zealand scaup Aythya novaeseelandiae 48) New Zealand shoveller Anas rhynchotis 49) Grey teal Anas gracilis 50) Sacred kingfisher...
  19. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    3 January This morning we first drove to Aramoana, in New Zealand best known for a shooting rampage many years back, but it also has salt marshes and a long breakwater called the Mole. The tide was no good for finding Pacific golden plovers at the marshes (only distant banded dotterels and...
  20. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    2 January Day two of the trip began at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens (with, again, not a particularly early start. Its not easy travelling with a non-birder in the party, especially when that non-birder is the one in control of the transport!). My friend wanted to find eastern rosellas but we...
  21. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias' 2012 year list of birds and mammals

    Another new year in good old shaky Christchurch. The chap at who's house I am living is just getting into birding and so for the first three days of 2012 we headed down to Dunedin. The day started slowly, because said chap's girlfriend doesn't care for early rising. Few birds of note (well, no...
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