10 Dec 2022
THE PETREL STATION TOUR REPORT
What a way to finish 2022, with a bunch of super scarce vagrant seabirds turning up!! We had another outstanding day out at The Petrel Station on our latest pelagic seabird tour out of Tutukaka (in northern New Zealand). Conditions on the day were overcast, with steady 10 knot winds throughout the day, and a 2m swell.
The highlights of the tour were:
A Gould's Petrel
A White-naped Petrel
A Chatham Albatross
A South Polar Skua
A Long-tailed Skua
The Grey Noddy (Ternlets) are back for summer.
The Gould's Petrel is a new seabird species for The Petrel Station tours, and we've now recorded 48 different tube-nose seabird species, and 65 seabird species in total!
During the tour we saw 28 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching over 32,000 stunning seabirds in total! The full seabird species list is below.
If you’re interested in coming out to The Petrel Station then check out the upcoming seabird tour dates and get in touch – it’s always a great day out.
Here’s the full tour results from the day:
Seabirds seen:
1 x Northern Royal Albatross
1 x Wandering Albatross (Exulans)
2 x NZ Wandering Albatross (Gibson's)
1 x Chatham Mollymawk
2 x Buller's Mollymawk
10,000 x Fairy Prion
1 x Grey-faced Petrel
1 x White-necked Petrel
120 x Cook's Petrel
1 x Gould's Petrel
2 x Pycroft's Petrel
40 x Black Petrel
120 x Flesh-footed Shearwater
20,000 x Buller's Shearwater
300 x Fluttering Shearwater
6 x Little Shearwater
5 x Sooty Shearwater
7 x Short-tailed Shearwater
20 x White-faced Storm-Petrel
3 x New Zealand Storm-Petrel
80 x Common Diving-Petrel
1 x South Polar Skua
1 x Long-tailed Skua
1,200 x Australasian Gannet
20 x Grey Noddy (Ternlet)
900 x Red-billed Gull
4 x Black Backed Gull
42 x Pied Shag
Other marine life included:
Pod of Common Dolphins
Whale (unknown sp)