huge feeding workups

Tutukaka, New Zealand

The sight, the sound and the smell of thousands of seabirds in a feeding workup is an incredible birding experience and a real highlight of the spring and summer seabird tours out to The Petrel Station.

In spring and early summer, the main target prey for several seabird species is the krill and zooplankton that come into the area, and Fairy Prion and Buller’s Shearwater will gather in the thousands, in incredibly densely-packed feeding workups, to feast on these tiny crustaceans.

In the past we’ve encountered workups of 100,000+ seabirds, which is an absolutely amazing sight to witness up close. Often in the mix you'll also get Fluttering Shearwater, Red-billed Gulls and Gannets, and in smaller numbers Flesh-footed & Sooty Shearwater, and the occasional Albatross bombing through it all. In amongst all this will usually be a massive school of Trevally pushing the krill and zooplankton along.

It really is a mind-blowing birding spectacle to witness.

In summer as the krill and zooplankton thin out, the target prey shifts to baitfish workups where the bigger fish, marlin, dolphins and whales will be forcing the baitfish into dense balls that everything is feeding on, including the seabirds. In this type of workup, seabirds are generally more spread out compared to the spring workups, and are often taking scraps left over from the messy fish eaters.

When the seabirds aren’t busy in feeding workups they'll often settle on the ocean in huge rafts that can cover large areas.

The Poor Knights Islands that we go past is the only place in the world that Buller’s Shearwater breed, and it’s also the only major North Island breeding site for Fairy Prions which is why see both of these seabird species in such vast numbers.