Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island Having given my friends boat a run the other day, I had a fit of conscienceand thought I had better do the same for ours. Winter time doesn’t see much in the way of guided walks for me, so the boat doesnt get much running. And if you have ever had […]
Author: Peter Tait
Peter Tait is a professional nature guide based at Stewart Island, New Zealand, and he works primarily on Ulva Island Open Sanctuary. Peter has been resident on the Island for over 40 years and was one time Forest Ranger in Charge of Stewart Island. Fishing followed forestry and was in turn followed by Talisker, a 17m charter yacht. He is qualified Skipper Deep Sea Fishing Vessel. In addition to guiding Peter and his wife Iris are hosts at Sails Ashore Lodge.
An Afternoon at Sea
Sea Birds We have had several days of easterly weather, starting with SE gales and rain, easing to fresh easterly and fine sunny days. Easterly gales and rain is seriously unpleasant here, as we are quite exposed to that quarter. However today dawned fine and calm, although there was still a moderate swell coming into […]
Hookers Sealion, Whakahao. Phocarctos hookeri
Hookers Sealion Southern New Zealand is home to the worlds most endangered sealion. Most live at two locations on the Auckland Islands, 200 miles south of Stewart Island. But there is a small but significant population including breeding females on the Otago coast from Dunedin south to the Catlins coast. And at Port Pegasus on […]
Black Backed Gull, Karoro, Larus dominicanus
Black Backed Gull. Apart from heavy forest I doubt there are many places in New Zealand without a Black Backed Gull somewhere nearby. I grew up on a sheep farm, and without doubt these adaptable gulls were our biggest single pest. Preying on any cast sheep and on just born lambs. In both cases targeting […]
Yellow Breasted Tit, Piropiro. Petroica macrocephala
Yellow Breasted Tit Yesterday I was over at Mill Creek and came across a male Yellow Breasted Tit. These are our second smallest bird, after the Rifleman. We see them throughout our forest, but most often on the forest edges and on Ulva Island particularly working along the sandy beach edge. They are insect feeders, […]
Parakeet, Kakariki, sp Cyanoramphus
Parakeets Red Crowned, Cyanoramphus novaezelandai Yellow Crowned, Cyanoramphus auriceps Audio Clip is a group of parakeet “socialisingAudio Clip is a group of parakeet “socialising” We have two species of parakeet on Stewart Island. Red Crowned and the slightly smaller Yellow Crowned. And in fact neither Iris nor I can ever remember seeing Yellow Crowned anywhere […]
Aurora Australis
Aurora The Southern Lights Yesterday morning I noticed a news report of a significant solar flare event which was expected to give us a good Aurora display. Well last night was completely clouded in, but tonight Iris & I went up onto Observation Rock and the above photo is a composite of 10 frames. Exposure […]
Wood Pigeon, Kukupa (Kereru), Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae
Kukupa/Kereru [flowplayer src=’https://focusingonwildlife.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/pigeon-lead-in.mp4′ width=640 height=480 splashend=show splash=’https://focusingonwildlife.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/penny56-30.jpg’ autoplay=false] Wood Pigeon “coo”. Normally each call would be maybe 10 seconds apart. I have compressed for convenience. I hear this only occasionally, and generally late summer / autumn. R09_0002 Southern Maori referred to our native pigeon as Kukupa, although the more common “Kereru” of Northern Maori is […]