Archive for the ‘Sightings of birds’ Category

« Older Entries

The beautiful Nelson Lakes / Golden Bay Districts

Monday, August 16th, 2010

The Nelson Lakes and Golden Bay district at the north of New Zealands South Island are a great holiday destination. We took a visit last week to explore new areas to take guided eco tours. Here are some of the images we captured on this trip and as you will see this was not an office job! Wonderful weather, inspring views and best of all very friendly people we met along the way.

Hope you enjoy our photo gallery, be sure to book in advance if you want to have a guided tour with Driftwood Ecotours.

Posted in Driftwoods travel blog, Nelson Tasman, Sightings of birds | No Comments »

Sharing my kayaking adventures.

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

I had the great pleasure of sharing the great yet simple experience of kayaking on the Opawa River and mouth of the Wairau River with a recent visitor to our country. Carlos Urrea from Colombia was visiting Marlborough on business and a friend referred him to our kayak tours. As you will see from the photos we had a great time and some brilliant up close birding that had our cameras snapping. (Click on the gallery photos above to get an enlarged photo).

There is very good birding on the river currently with plenty of royal spoonbills, banded dotterels, white faced herons, various tern species, black shags, pied shags, little pied and black shags, spotted shags and pied stilts. There have been great numbers of kingfishers up and down the river. The ‘good omen’ the Kotuku or white heron has been seen. Also we are pleased to report that the glossy ibis vagrant now has a mate and the pair can bee seen flying into our wetland at dusk.


Posted in Driftwood Kayaking Tours, Driftwood Lagoon Tours, Sightings of birds | No Comments »

Fernbirds at Will’s wetland

Saturday, February 6th, 2010
I am very pleased that we have heard and seen two fernbirds (Matata) close to our wetland this week.  Usually secretive, this pair are quite friendly. This morning one crawled around my foot. Their call is a distinctive and piercing u-tick. One of these photos are of a previous pair that disappeared after the river flooded.

Posted in Sightings of birds | No Comments »

Birds at Lake Grassmere, Marlborough, New Zealand

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

On a bleak spring evening we spotted these birds which we thought were Golden Plovers. However on closer inspection I’m not sure. Can you help us?

On another matter while in Husavik, Iceland we noticed alot of dead snipe on the ground around a wetland area. They appeared to be undamaged and with no obvious wounds. Do Snipe die of natural causes in this area or is it something else. Any ideas would be most interesting.

Will

Posted in Sightings of birds | No Comments »

Rare sighting of New Zealand Sea lion or Hooker’s Sea lion on Opawa river Marlborough.

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Colin Miskelly has identified these pictures as a New Zealand Sea lion which we early blogged as a New Zealand Fur seal. The New Zealand Sea lion is rarely seen in this area and we appreciate any comments on the blog to further our knowledge. The sub-adult (teenage) male NZ sea lion you have pictured in hookeri and new arrival is the most northern sightings of a NZ sea lion in 200 years!!!! That guy is about 3 – 5 yrs old and probably weighs over 100kg. the sub-adult (teenage) male NZ sea lion you have pictured in hookeri and new arrival is the most northern sightings of a NZ sea lion in 200 years!!!! Check out the NZ sea lion trust website http://www.sealiontrust.org.nz/index.htm it has some great info on NZSLs.

I would like to thank Dr.B.Louise Chilvers a marine mamal scientist with the Dept. of Conservation for this information.

Main difference between the NZ fur seal(PICTURED ABOVE) and sea lion is that the latter has a blunt snout, fur seal snout is pointed. S Lion males are dark brown, females are quite pale like your one. S lion also have no underfur, when fur seals have dense underfur.

Thanks to Phil Bradfield for this information.


Posted in Sightings of birds | No Comments »

« Older Entries