grahame's Identifications

A last minute opportunity to do the "albatross encounter" trip at Kaikoura resulted in a great range of species for a winter trip. It was a rough day so we had to stay within the shelter of the peninsula but nevertheless a good range of pelagic species came to the boat.
These included: 4 northern royal albatross, and six southern. Unfortunately I lack the skills/knowledge to different between the two for this observation.

A flock of gull-bird tern in adult breeding plumage circled me for several minutes calling loudly during a visit to Kaituna Lagoon end of Lake Ellesmere. Associating strongly with caspian tern and black-billed gulls. Interestingly their calling and circling behaviour was a virtual mimic of the caspian terns which had a breeding colony with young chicks present nearby to protect, something the gull-bills would not have had.

Examples of the defensive/distraction display of this dotterel which was how I first found her after nearly blundering onto her nest. I grabbed a few quick shots of the display then backed off to allow her to return to her eggs.