17 Jul 2023

THE PETREL STATION TOUR REPORT

Had a great day out on the latest pelagic seabird tour to The Petrel Station, offshore from Tutukaka (in Northland, New Zealand). Conditions the day were fine, with strong 20+ knot SW winds, and a 1-1.5m swell.

The highlights of the tour were:

• 1 x Brown Skua

• Our first winter sighting of a Pycroft's Petrel

• Some large Fairy Prion feeding workups around the islands

We also had a potential Kerguelan / Dark Morph Soft-plumaged Petrel but only very briefly seen and we didn't quite get onto it enough to confirm ID (and no-one managed a photo) ... so it goes into the ones that got away bin

During the tour we saw 17 different seabird species, and enjoyed watching nearly 5,500 stunning seabirds in total! See the full tour list 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.

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Grey-faced Petrel

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Brown Skua

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Cook's Petrel

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Australasian Gannet

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White-capped Mollymawk (Albatross)

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Fairy Prion feeding work-up

Here’s the full tour results from the day:

Seabirds seen:

• 9 x White-capped Albatross

• 4,000+ x Fairy Prion

• 5 x Cook's Petrel

• 1 x Pycroft's Petrel

• 50 x Grey-faced Petrel

• 25 x Fluttering Shearwater

• 10 x Little Shearwater

• 2 x New Zealand Storm Petrel

• 1 x White-faced Storm Petrel

• 700 x Common Diving Petrel

• 1 x Brown Skua

• 350 x Australasian Gannet

• 1 x Caspian Tern

• 265 x Red-billed Gull

• 6 x Black-backed Gull

• 32 x Pied Shag

• 1 x Little Black Shag

Other marine life included:

• 12 x NZ Fur Seals

• 1 x Mako Shark