Day 309: November 5th- Marlborough Sound

A crisp cool clear day

       It’s a great day to be out on the water today as the winds out of the cool south have continued to blow the foul weather out of the area and have brought a crisp clear day to the southern island.   We’ll begin the day with a cruise out of Havelock onto the Pelorus Sound to see an active mussel farm and enjoy the gorgeous scenery along the way.

       On our way out to the farming waters, we passed a number of shore birds working the shallows of the sound.  Several new birds including several new shags were found and properly identifying them proved to be a chore.  Nonetheless, we are pretty sure that we have it correct now and came up with the following species.

       The Pied shag was one of the easier birds to identify with its bright yellow lores being distinctive.  The bird also tends to be a loner which this bird was.   These birds are generally found along the coasts of the North Island, but they do occasionally venture to the Marlborough sounds of the South Island.

       Similar in appearance but lacking the yellow markings of the face, the Little shag has a shorter bill.  Although preferring fresh water, they do show up in shallow marine environs.

     We also had Spotted shags which were too distant to record decent images.  Likewise, other waders were found far out and could be identified with the bins but were hard to capture with the camera.  Still, we did manage to get a good enough shot of the Variable oystercatcher as it took off from the shoreline and flew out towards the boat.  The Variable version of the bird is much less common than the South Island Pied form but was identidied by its total black plumage.

       We finally arrived at the mussel beds and learned how these pristine waters are so conducive to the growing of this tasty shellfish.  The green mussels grown here are shipped after being processed to North America, Europe,  and Australia as well as being a main staple in local restaurants. 

        On the return trip under  sunny skies, we spotted several more additions to the New Zealand list.  Among these was the very common White-faced heron.  This bird is the most common of all herons in New Zealand.  It seems that as common as they are, they are slqays just out of cameral range.  This one was at least close enough to give us an image suitable for identification purposes and we’ll take what we get.

       Tomorrow, it’s off to the Southern Alps and the Fiordlands National Park.  Can’t wait for the stunning topography and associated wildlife.  The area generally gets over 200 days of rain each year, so let’s all pray for good weather to visit this most spectacular place.