During the combination of storm and king tide on the 5th of January we lost approx. half the Black-billed gull chicks and all of the White-fronted tern chicks and nests. Unfortunately the adult Terns have still not returned to the shellbank. But January was also a busy month for the bird watchers and their extra eyes, and those of the 2018 Field Course participants, on the birds meant that there were many sightings of vagrants this month including a Grey Plover, a Black-tailed Godwit, an Eastern Curlew and a Little Whimbrel.
Best birdwatching is two hours either
side of high tide.
Migrants and Vagrants
7100 Bar-tailed Godwit
1870 Red Knot
129 Pacific Golden Plover
14 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
13 Ruddy Turnstone
2 Red-necked Stint
1 Black-tailed Godwit
1 Curlew Sandpiper
1 Eastern Curlew
1 Grey Plover
1 Little Whimbrel
Arctic Skua
NZ Species
2000 South Island Pied Oystercatcher
1740 Wrybill
650 White Fronted Terns
590 Black-billed Gulls + chicks
30 Banded Dotterel
4 Royal Spoonbill
3 Gannet
1 Glossy Ibis
Banded Rail + 5 chicks
Caspian Tern
Hybrid Black Stilt
New Zealand Dotterel
Pied Stilts
Spur-winged Plover
Variable Oystercatcher
2 Cook’s Petrel
1 Fairy Prion
More about bird sightings.