The Roaring Forties

It was not until three weeks ago (right before my English HSC exam) that I received an email notifying me that I had won an Enderby Trust Scholarship, allowing keen young people like me to travel to the Southern Ocean with Heritage Expeditions, courtesy of Rodney Russ. After cancelling all my schoolies plans with friends in the warmer climes of Queensland, I was soon prepared to head off on an expedition to one of the most remote places on Earth. It was to be an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

Day 1: 15th November
Technically day 2, but the ship left this afternoon. Many Little Penguins, Mottled Petrels, Diving Petrels (probably of 3 species once the taxonomy gets fixed), Cook's Petrels, Southern Royal Albatross, etc.

Day 2: 16th November
Although we almost missed getting to zodiac around the Snares, we were lucky enough to be able to get going after a tense wait (and terrible views of SCP porpoising), and cruised bumpily through the passage to the "sheltered" eastern side were the birds were. Eventually got to Hoho Bay and maneuverered right up to some Snares-crested Penguins, and I spotted the group a Snares Fernbird hopping around on a nearby rock (very different behaviour and plumage to the mainland species/subspecies!). Eventually got some good views of two Snares "Black" Tomtit on a rock, although my photos (as with the other species too), were very poor due to the difficulty of photographing from a zodiac!

"Snares" Fernbird

Snares Penguins

"Snares" Tomtit

The rest of the day was spent steaming towards the Auckland Islands, through the birdiest ocean any of us had ever seen! Any random scan would give a 6+ species count and a 100+ bird count, with hundreds of birds arcing above the horizon for as far as the binocular aided eye could see. Dani and Rob helped me get my eye in for prions and albatross, and by the end of the day I was confidently IDing Antarctic, Broad-billed, Fairy-type Prions, Salvin's, White-capped and Royal-type Albatross. Much of the day was spent photographing prions to work out how to ID Fulmar, our conclusion being that we would tick this species when we see them breeding at Bounty! Species for the day also included 100+ Black-bellied Storm Petrels and Northern Giant Petrels, 4 Grey-backed Storm Petrels, Campbell Albies, thousands of australe Cape Petrel, Mottled Petrel, Sooty Shears, Brown Skuas and Diving Petrels. Despite Rob's best efforts to mostly skip lunch and dinner, no Southern Fulmar.

Day 3: 17th November

After a good night’s sleep in the sheltered waters of Enderby Island, we arose at 6 and undertook all the formalities before finally disembarking at 9:15. "Don't run if the sea lions charge you, they'll only mouth you" were Rodney's words of advice, and no sooner had I stepped off the zodiac (stepping into a wave and rendering my gumboots useless...) when a big male NZSL charged at me, and as I held my ground, stopped and stared at me huffing. As the group assembled boat by boat, a number of Auckland Tomtits were observed, and a very obliging NZFalcon in a tree behind the DOC research huts. 

New Zealand Falcon

New Zealand Sea Lion

Brown Skua

As a group we headed across the island, ticking off the endemic Double-banded Plover and Pipit races as we went, with a few distant Southern Royal Alby nests and a Yellow-eyed Penguin lying in a burrow right next to the path, posing for 50 photographs as the progression walked past single file. 

Double-banded Plover race exilis

Yellow-eyed Penguin

On reaching the far side, Rodney coordinated a snipe hunt, and a line of 50 people walked through the megaherbs and (surprisingly) every single person was able to see a snipe. After retreating when it was realised the first bird seen was being trailed by chicks, we found some more easily - unlike normal snipes, AIS are reluctant to fly, and instead wait until you are two metres away before running, and often freezing allowing great photos with persistence. I found my own birds on the way to the Light-mantled Sooty Alby nests and had fantastic views.

 Auckland Subantarctic Snipes

After enjoying the majestic LMS flying around in pairs and on nests, everybody split up to explore the island. Rob, Dani and I walked east, and soon found some Red-capped Parakeets, with subsequent birds causing much debate, as all appeared to be hybrids (having partially yellow crowns). With persistence, I finally had views of enough birds with mostly red crowns to be satisfied with ticking them off (which involved detailed observations and photos of at least 25 birds throughout the day).

A dodgy Auckland Red-crowned Parakeet

Lunch near the reef was interrupted by me getting my leg encased in the mouth of a NZSL (thank god he didn't bite down!), and some fantastic views of a pair of Auckland Island Flightless Teal (with the female attempting to hide in a small cave under some rocks, unusual behaviour for most duck species!). 

Auckland Pipit

We decided to head back into the grass tussocks to find some more snipe, and found a bird graveyard, presumably from skuas according to Adam, with numerous White-headed Petrel bodies (saw at least 20 dead, stripped carcasses of WHP before I saw a live on the next day!). Pressing on, all was going dandy until I stepped through some tussocks and literally kicked a sea lion, which I can assure you was followed by much surprise from both parties, a yell (or maybe scream), and a very close escape from the angry 300kg mammal.

Angry Sea Lion

We found a pair of Auckland Island Flightless Teal roosting in a stream, and eventually reached East Bay, where  the highlights mounted up quickly.

1: Bellbirds and Parakeets by the dozen

2: Saw a YEPenguin walking towards us, lay down, and it walked straight towards me. At the last minute it decided to divert around, but it got very close indeed!

3: AIFT feeding in some seaweed, then decided to walk up the hill, passing within a metre of me sitting on a rock

4: Finally finding an accessible Auckland Island Shag colony (flushing a snipe and seeing it fly, stepping into moss which was actually foot deep mud and falling over ungracefully while stalking the shags almost as good as the colourful shags themselves)

5: Locating a snipe in a small strip of tussock and whilst pushing it towards Rob, having it refuse to go forward and it sitting right next to my foot for a number of seconds - camera couldn't focus at such a minimal distance!

6: Taking a photo of Rob telling off a sea lion and catching the moment when it had a go at him http://i.imgur.com/KrEL1bL.gif

Continued around the island with many more birds observed in the first few hundred metres, but then the avifauna numbers dropped off as we entered an area of Terrible Tussocks which was a hard 2km slog. Went back to the ship 2 hours early for a lovely shower, and was finally able to start writing this trip log starting from Day 1. Very little (ie: no) free time to do much except birding and the (other) necessities of life. Now I think it's time for a good long sleep (by long I mean I have to wake up at 6, so I'll get a good 7 hours if I sleep now!)

"Auckland" Tomtit

Fat and Fluffy Northern Giant Petrel

Day 4: 18th November

Got woken up by Rob knocking on the door and subsequently getting me an alive White-headed Petrel. After breakfast we landed on Auckland Island to look for Yellow-crowned Parakeet... Suffice to say, although the majority of birders who were looking saw them, some of us did not. Very slow birding when you're bashing through dense mossy forest for a bird which is refusing to call, and only getting Silvereyes and Bellbirds for 3.5 hours as your time slowly runs out! First dip of the trip for me, however there is so much more to look forward to! We'll see how I feel later today after another full 8 hours of seabirding...

 Light-mantled Sooty Albatross