In our third leg of the South Island trip, we went to the middle of the South Island, around Lake Wanaka and Mt Cook.
Lake Wanaka, a narrow but 45 km long lake, has a few water fowls, including some ducks and crested grebe. The crested grebe is a diving water bird, it breeds at southern lakes of the South Island. Its flat crest and constant diving made it intriguing and mythical. I also saw crested grebes in glacier lakes by Hooker Valley.
 |
| Crested Grebe |
In Hooker valley, I saw a family of paradise shelducks near the trail head of Hooker Valley track.
 |
| A pair of paradise shelduck @ Hooker Valley |
I heard yellowhammers and common chaffinches on the Hooker valley track almost all the time. Knowing that they like to perch on top of rocks, I aimed my camera at the top of rocks in the direction of their chirps and successfully spotted them multiple times, including a yellowhammer and a common chaffinch stood on top of the same rock, a few feet apart from each other.
 |
| A yellowhammer singing loudly on top of boulder |
 |
| a common chaffinch in the rain at Hooker Valley |
 |
| yellowhammer (left) and chaffinch making calls on the same boulder! |
New Zealand bell bird, a bird endemic to south island, was spotted foraging in flowering bushes near the Makarora river. It hided in the dense bushes, emerging from it to nibble at flowers, and then disappeared into the bush.
The New Zealand falcon is native to New Zealand, and is a relative small size falcon. We saw a falcon perched on top of the tallest rock at Castle Hill, we spotted them gliding in the sky while driving in the valleys. The best views we had of the the New Zealand falcon was at Clay's cliff, while a falcon was circling majestically in the pinnacles.
The two new birds, NZ bell birds and NZ falcons, in the valleys brought my sighting of new birds total to 20.
 |
| A New Zealand Falcon surveying its territory on the top of the tallest rock at Carstl Hill |
 |
| A New Zealand Falcon soaring at Clay's cliff |
No comments:
Post a Comment