Page 28 - Dainfern Precinct Living 6 2021

LIFESTYLE
enjoyed my second lifer of the day,
a small party of Pipipis (Brown
Creepers). It was here that we were
joined as planned by Des and Kirsty
who had departed from South Africa
a few days after us. The four of us
checked into the spotlessly clean
Lorneville Holiday Park after a very
cold but enjoyable day.
We travelled on in rainy and freezing
wind conditions the next day to
the coastal town of Bluff where we
parked our camper van and boarded
the ferry for the crossing of the
Foveaux Channel between South
and Stewart Islands. The temperature nights in Oban.
was below 10°C, apparently not
unusual during November in these
latitudes.
The foul weather, however,
Weka (AR)
Brown Kiwi (post card)
Golden Bay (RS)
prevented any meaningful pelagic At 8.30 that evening we embarked
birding. The drenched glass windows from the Oban harbour on a quest
on the speeding ferry made it almost to find the unique, very rare and
impossible to identify most of the sea certainly bizarre icon, the Stewart
birds, a challenging exercise at the Island Brown Kiwi, a member of
best of times, although we did spot the bird family recognised as the
Sooty Shearwater, White-capped (Shy) National Bird of NZ. Classified as
Albatross and Common Diving Petrels. endangered, very shy, seldom seen
and nocturnal, this bird is like no
Bruce, our pre-arranged guide, was other and accordingly is near the
waiting for us at the ferry wharf in top of the list of 100 Birds to See
Halfmoon Bay for our transfer to before You Die, a book written by
our two-roomed Thorfinn cottage D Chandler and D Couzens. No other
which had breathtaking views bird is quite as odd, in fact in many
overlooking the bay. This was our respects unbirdlike. It is flightless,
accommodation for the next three has rudimentary wings covered in
hair-like plumage and no tail. At night
it creeps along the forest floor making
An afternoon walk along the Fuchsia sniffing and snuffling sounds. Clearly,
and Raroa tracks produced two new its world is more olfactory and tactile
parrots for us, the large Kaka and a than visual. It lives in self-excavated
Red-fronted (crowned) Parakeet, as burrows up to 1.5m long and usually
well as the Tui and NZ Pigeon, all lays two enormous eggs, each equal
common endemics found only in NZ. to one-fifth of its bodyweight. Its long,
slightly decurved bill is used to probe
The next day, weather-wise the soil for worms, snails, centipedes
wonderful, was spent on the island of and other invertebrates. It is very
Ulva in the Paterson Inlet which we unusual in that its nostrils are located
accessed by water-taxi. The birding at the tip of the bill rather than at
was outstanding, producing in rapid its base, thereby enabling the bird
succession a welcoming Weka (type to smell for its food. Having laid its
Rail) on a deserted beach, followed eggs, the female then puts her feet
by a South Island Robin, an adult up, relying on the male to incubate
South Island Saddleback together them. Their offspring take three
with its rather different offspring months or more to hatch. Shortly
(Jackbird) and finally a Yellow-fronted after this momentous occasion, the
(crowned) Parakeet. The highlight of well-developed chicks move out of
the day thus far, however, was the their burrow and are able to fend for
chance discovery of a small family of themselves almost immediately.
the very rare Yellowhead, a species
that had continually eluded us. Our 45-minute sea-taxi journey
across the Paterson Inlet to the
The lush vegetation of Ulva was Glory Cove peninsula was achieved
fantastic, providing a thought- without incident by 16 of us under the
provoking example of what Stewart supervision of the highly-experienced
Island, indeed what the NZ mainland Kiwi guide, Phillip. His completion of
must have been like prior to 1 400 similar trips, of which a mere
colonisation by the Europeans. 26 were unsuccessful (in locating
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