It is 14th April & I am feeling a little sluggish! The
previous evening turned into a bit of a session & that combined with large
seas meant a rather fitful night’s sleep.
Tahiti Petrel
Brown Booby
Greater Frigatebird
Up on deck sea-birding revealed 20+ Tahiti Petrels & several Brown
Boobies. A Greater Frigatebird was also noted.
Greater Frigatebird
After lunch is got pretty slow,
we slowly headed out into deeper water & left many birds behind. A couple more Brown Boobies were seen, along with a Black-winged Petrel & a lone Greater Frigatebird. And that was about it!
The hard core!
Kermedec Petrel
The 15th was not much better. The weather was choppy &
made viewing quite difficult, but there wasn’t a lot to see, at first! 5 Tahiti Petrels & a Kermedec Petrel kept us on our toes and
very early on we were still in range for Gould’s Petrels, but these soon dried
up. A Collared Petrel shot by, but I failed to get a photo.
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were
still around as well as 3 Short-tailed Shearwaters.
Wilson's Storm Petrel
Polynesian Storm Petrel
One of the most wanted seabirds of the trip.
But it was the Storm
Petrels we were interested in & after 3 Wilson’s we finally saw Polynesian Storm Petrel! Wow, what a
bird! By the end of the day we had seen four individuals, but all were
difficult to view. Delighted to capture one on the camera!
White-tailed Tropicbird
Immature Red-footed Booby
3 White-tailed Tropicbirds were seen as were at least 10 Red-footed Boobies & two proper Masked Boobies (not the Tasman’s seen
earlier in the trip).
That was about it! A few Sooty Terns
all at great distance & four Brown Noodies were seen, but it was a long
afternoon look out over the ocean!
David & Arthur - enjoying the morning.
Morning of the 16th was lovely. The sea had
calmed down in the night & it was a beautiful morning, but once again
almost bird less! A very distant Band-rumped type Storm Petrel was seen. There
are no populations of this species for thousands of miles! But later in the
morning we saw a Wilson’s Storm Petrel flying with a slightly larger bird &
it could be a new species for science! This individual was slightly larger than
Wilson’s with longer wings & a lighter diagonal bar on the upper surface of
the wing.
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Boobies kept us
entertained as they caught flying fish from almost under the bow of the ship!
White-tailed Tropicbird
White-tailed Tropicbirds were
also seen, but little else of interest.
We anchored off Rennell Island & watched a magnificent sunset.
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