NEW ZEALAND HIGHLIGHTS NOVEMBER 30–DECEMBER 18, 2019
Tui
LEADERS: MARK AYRE & DION HOBCROFT LIST COMPILED BY: DION HOBCROFT
VICTOR EMANUEL NATURE TOURS, INC. 2525 WALLINGWOOD DRIVE, SUITE 1003 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78746 WWW.VENTBIRD.COM NEW ZEALAND HIGHLIGHTS
NOVEMBER 30–DECEMBER 18, 2019
BY DION HOBCROFT
This day-time Morepork saved us some nocturnal excursions.
Few countries can out-compete New Zealand when it comes to the joy of touring—it was meant to be. Mark and I completed another fantastic tour in this friendly South Pacific nation that combines great food, great scenery, and great birds into a great package!
The weather factor in New Zealand strongly dictates the running of our daily program. The first few days set in the Auckland region had us scurrying about, changing the running order of the tour to avoid a severe gale forecast accurately for day two. So, with the tides looking good, we headed to the shell bank beaches of Miranda on our first day. It proved a master stroke, as we had a flock of the exquisite Wrybills, the unique small plover with the laterally twisted bill, preening
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 2 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 away just in front of one of the well-planned hides. There was also a bunch of new birds for all of our participants—New Zealand Grebe, Brown Teal, Paradise Shelduck, Black-billed Gull, South Island and Variable oystercatchers, New Zealand Dotterel, Royal Spoonbill, Swamp Harrier and more. We also had luck with several rarer East Asian migratory shorebirds including two Far Eastern Curlews, a Marsh Sandpiper in full breeding plumage, and a fine Broad-billed Sandpiper. We found these by scanning carefully through four thousand Bar-tailed Godwits and several hundred Red Knots.
A close-up of the blue button-like wattles, on the bizarre North Island Kokako.
Today we were supposed to be on a boat trip to the Hauraki Gulf, but the gale was due to come in, all ferries were canceled and, in fact, all flights further south were canceled. The morning remained quite fine, so we took advantage and headed out to Tawharanui peninsula. A Buff-banded Rail greeted us in the salt
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 3 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 marsh, yet even better was a pair of South Island Takahe with a chick we lucked onto crossing the edge of a glade. They dallied in the scope briefly before disappearing into dense flax. In a forested gully we enjoyed our first New Zealand Pigeons, North Island Robins, North Island Saddlebacks, Whiteheads, abundant Tui, and New Zealand Bellbirds while the gale began to make its presence felt. We drove to a small coastal estuary hoping for New Zealand Fairy Tern, but all we got was a free dermal abrasion from the whipping sand, so we soon fled the scene. Visibility diminished, horizontal rain appeared, and the van was buffeted, but within an hour it had passed over. We were well-positioned at Waipu and with ever brightening conditions made the breakthrough with a pair of Fairy Terns we scoped in a protected fenced off area. With only forty individuals surviving, few birds are as rare as this.
The fearsome looking Wetapunga is harmless, endangered, and one of the world’s heaviest insects.
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 4 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 Being close to the ferry pick up, we had a relaxing morning start before cruising over to Tiritiri Island. Our luck held; almost straight away we came across the North Island Kokako with a bill full of plant material to take to a well-hidden chick. Stitchbirds made lightning-fast visits to a feeder, challenging the photographers; we found a fantastic pair of Rifleman and our first Red-crowned Parakeets. We enjoyed more repeat performances of New Zealand forest birds that we had encountered earlier at Tawharanui. Spotless Crake was calling in two locations but remained well-hidden. A highlight was finding the giant Wetapunga, one of the world’s heaviest flightless insects, a giant cricket that weighs as much as a Song Thrush. Yet another highlight was finding a day-roosting Morepork, the compact chocolate-brown hawk-owl that is quite numerous in the forest yet often elusive. The kokako really performed for us with two further excellent encounters with this critically threatened and most enigmatic bird. Tiritiri had been kind to us.
Fairy Prions were common at sea in both the Hauraki Gulf and Cook Strait.
We had been lucky to reschedule our Hauraki Gulf pelagic, but it would have to be a half-day, as we would need to drive through to Rotorua, so we were a bit up
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 5 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 against it, as it is a key day to find several rare pelagic birds. Driving to the boat, we were lucky to find a Laughing Kookaburra, a rare introduced bird in New Zealand. Once into the key area off Little Barrier Island we commenced chumming, enjoying great views and numbers of White-faced Storm-Petrels bounding across the ocean surface like kangaroos; filter-feeding Fairy Prions; Buller’s, Flesh-footed, Fluttering, Sooty, and Short-tailed shearwaters; quail-like Common Diving-Petrels; and Cook’s Petrel (named after the nautical genius); yet there was no sign of some of the hoped for rarities. We changed chumming locations a few times and then, as if by magic, two Black Petrels appeared right in front of us, and they were hungry. Then up popped the enigmatic New Zealand Storm-Petrel for repeat viewing opportunities, just in the nick of time! Good looks at Little Penguin and two Pacific Reef-Herons made it a great abbreviated pelagic. The journey through to Rotorua went well, so we squeezed in a short visit to the lake, taking in our first New Zealand Scaup.
The torrent specialist Blue Duck showed well in the North Island.
Pureora Forest was our first key birding destination. A remote area of giant old growth totara, rimu, and white pine, it is a fabulous forest of towering trees, thick
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 6 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 moss, and fantastic fern diversity. Good birding too, and we soon had point-blank looks at curious Yellow-crowned Parakeets peering at us. It was a big stroke of luck to first have a pair of New Zealand Falcons cackling and flying above us, followed by Mark locating a fine perched Long-tailed Koel in the forest interior. Next we whistled up a pair of emerald-green Shining Bronze-Cuckoos. Driving though the back roads, we made it out onto Lake Taupo. Here, in a thick bed of raupo and coprosma, a pair of delightful Fernbirds perched up, giving their quaint “chick” calls and showing off their ragged tails. The torrent specialist Blue Ducks were in excellent form and breeding well. We had great experiences with two pairs, both with one to two ducklings. They are truly bizarre waterfowl. At Chateau Tongariro, with views of the great volcanic peaks and a fine dinner, the participants watched Mark and Dion battle it out for the Trans-Tasman trophy on the full-size snooker table. Dion managed to win this year making it two all. It is an evenly poised cliff-hanger for the 2020 play-off.
The amazing Tui with its fantastic song is a signature passerine through most of New Zealand.
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 7 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 The fog and clouds rolled in the next morning, making it a challenge to find a New Zealand Pipit. Finally the pipit gave itself up, and our first New Zealand Tomtit was well appreciated. One of the last surviving feral Rooks was a bonus near Ohakune. On the coast of Cook Strait at Manawatu River we spent a bit of time scanning the tidal flats and did quite well to locate a Little Egret in breeding plumage, two Pacific Golden-Plovers, and our first beautiful Double-banded Plovers. A final stop produced our faithful pair of Black-fronted Dotterels, and they could be scoped upon a suspected nest at Otaki through a mesh fence. That night we experienced incredible electric storms and flash flooding on the Kapiti Coast.
Flooding nearly cost us the Black Stilt, but luckily we found this individual near Twizel.
Somewhat miraculously they could take us over to Kapiti Island the following morning. It was an exercise in dodging torrential rain. Set up in the lodge, it just
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 8 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 tipped down with rain, building itself up into a mini-cyclone squall that was a spectacular tempest that looked like people were throwing buckets of water in all directions. The creek flooded, and Wekas and Kakas sought refuge in the building, as did all of us. Despite this deluge, we stayed really warm and dry, well-fed, and toasty. It was remarkable. Even more remarkable, it eased off at night so we could look for the hoped for Little Spotted Kiwi. They proved difficult in the evening session with just one sighting. Dion arranged a 3:00 am search, and the participants who came on this were well-rewarded with three great sightings of five birds—watching one eat an earthworm and another tapping its beak as it probed the soil in front of us. The views were very good.
White-winged Black Tern was added to our haul of rare visitors to New Zealand on this year’s tour. We also found Broad-billed Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Far Eastern Curlew, Hoary-headed Grebe, Little Egret and Sanderling.
The great weather returned and our return crossing went smoothly. We looked at Waikanae Estuary, finding a New Zealand Dotterel, a bird reclaiming its lost
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 9 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 historic range. The Te Papa Museum in Wellington was well-received by all, and in the midafternoon we were aboard the Interislander ferry crossing Cook Strait to the South Island. It was a calm crossing and unusual in that it took us past The Brothers. Our first Salvin’s and White-capped albatrosses made appearances, and we had distant views of a couple of key endemic cormorants that we hoped to improve upon the next day. There was breaking news of a volcanic eruption on White Island that had unfortunately caught several visiting tourists in a direct hit with disastrous consequences. We were well away from this drama, but messages soon came in from loved ones hoping we were all good, and we were.
We awoke to a glowing, windless summer’s day as we boated on the protected Marlborough Sounds out to Blumine Island. Dusky Dolphins cavorted about the vessel, even indulging in spectacular leaps and belly flops. The King and Spotted shags were very close. We watched Arctic Skuas hounding Fluttering Shearwaters and White-fronted Terns. Onshore on Blumine Island, it took a ridiculously short time to be enjoying views of the enigmatic Malherbe’s (or Orange-crowned) Parakeet. Historically this used to be quite a challenge, but currently the population is flourishing on this island. An added bonus was a tame South Island Saddleback, a species we are typically searching for towards the end of the tour, so it was good to have it under our belts. Returning to Picton, we motored south to Kaikoura making a few stops. A few more birds were added like Glossy Ibis (interestingly, we were the first to find a fledged chick of this species in 2015 and add it as a breeding bird to the New Zealand list), a female Cirl Bunting and, best of all, a trio of Hoary-headed Grebes—an adult in breeding plumage and two stripe-faced juveniles. These grebes were sharing the wetland with a pair of New Zealand Grebes—another case of native birds reclaiming their lost territory. Kaikoura sparkled in the summer conditions.
There was a bit of swell for our pelagic trip in a jet boat with Tracy at the wheel. This swell kept the birds airborne, and we soon had a good crowd of albatrosses feeding behind the boat. Giant Wandering, Southern, and Northern Royal albatrosses fed at arm’s length, voicing their displeasure at the vulturine Northern Giant-Petrels, with a lot of bill snapping going on and the occasional vicious mugging. Black and white checkered Cape Petrels, endangered endemic Westland
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 10 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 Petrels, and a single White-chinned Petrel joined the throng, as did several much closer Salvin’s and White-capped albatrosses for much improved views. Hutton’s Shearwater, another endemic breeding seabird, made multiple appearances. People on the tour rated the trip highly. After lunch we spent a bit of time relaxing, shopping, and/or catching up on domestic chores. We searched for a male Cirl Bunting unsuccessfully later in the day.
The diminutive Pipipi is a fast, active insectivore in the beech forests of the South Island.
South was our direction of travel the next morning. We punctuated the lengthy drive to Tekapo with stops at Cheviot for a fortuitous Cape Barren Goose and the Ashley River mouth where we located a Sanderling, a rare Arctic migrant in New Zealand. There had been extensive flooding in the far south of the South Island with multiple road closures, stranded tourists, washed away bridges, and businesses going underwater. On the drive, I found a Black Stilt on an irrigation holding pond, but it was between one-way road works traffic signal operations and a lot of operating big yellow machines, so we had little choice but to drive
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 11 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 past it. When we arrived at our usual Black Stilt area, it was completely submerged. There was not any stilt to be seen here, although a nearby paddock attracted beautiful Black-fronted Terns that hawked gracefully around us. I was regretting my decision. Snow-capped peaks and turquoise-blue glacial lakes made for epic scenery, but the stilt was paramount. We trawled every wetland we could scan, and towards the end of the day luckily found a first year Black Stilt on a small pond. It was tame and allowed a close approach. It was the only one we found. Phew!
Albatrosses are a feature of New Zealand, and it was great to see the scarce Buller’s Albatross on this tour.
Continuing south we made another lengthy drive to Te Anau. By this stage of the tour new birds are hard to come across, but there was a chance for Baillon’s Crake, so we gave that a go. As luck would have it, we found a well-hidden but vocal pair on a small pond. They called repeatedly but were not for showing themselves. After a bit of effort one bird crept to the edge of a break in the vegetation, posed well for twenty seconds, and then flew across the pond for all to see. This was lucky, as it is a difficult bird to encounter in New Zealand. We entertained ourselves counting Swamp Harriers, studying plants, and gazing at
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 12 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 the extraordinary mountain landscapes. Making good time, we relaxed in the afternoon in Te Anau to prepare for our key day in Fiordland.
Another New Zealand breeding endemic albatross is the Campbell Albatross.
Stunning beech forests, snow-capped peaks, and vast alpine valleys with fast- flowing glacial-blue rivers heralded our arrival into the superb Fiordland National Park. The forests held good pockets of bird activity with Kaka, Yellow-crowned Parakeet, Tomtit, South Island Robin, Rifleman, and Pipipi performing well. In the higher alpine zone we came across our first mischievous Keas. The danger of falling rocks has now closed off the site for the Rock Wren, and it is now unlikely that this bird will be encountered again by future groups traveling to New Zealand, which is unfortunate. Driving through the Homer Tunnel, the rain returned, and the waterfalls were pumping on the steep sides of the Milford Sound where we took in a boat trip.
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 13 New Zealand Highlights, 2019
This Southern Brown Kiwi literally came right across our feet at night on Stewart Island. With no flash photography, this was the best I could do with my mobile phone.
From Te Anau we ventured further south jagging a vagrant White-winged Black Tern in Waiau River and our first Foveaux Shag at Riverton. The rain was relentless until we crossed over to Stewart Island by ferry and the precipitation disappeared, as did the wind, as if by sheer goodwill. Our kiwi spotting trip was a go, and at 9:00 pm we embarked on our boat to take us across to Ocean Beach. On the way we made a stop at Bench Island and luckily found a single Yellow-eyed Penguin preening upon a beachside boulder. At dark we split into two groups and, after some concerted searching, found a total of three Southern Brown Kiwis. In one encounter a kiwi was even probing the ground in front of people’s feet—a magical moment. Tired but elated we made our way home.
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 14 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 Stewart Island continued to deliver the goods the following day. Ulva Island in windless sunny conditions was an absolute hive of activity with the key species, the Yellowhead, found foraging in all strata of the forest, often propping itself on its spine-tipped tail like a woodpecker as it probed under the bark. South Island Saddlebacks were in equally good form, and we sighted Weka, both species of parakeets, Kaka, Rifleman, Tomtit, South Island Robin, and Pipipi to mention some. After lunch we boarded the Aurora, skippered by Ian, and had a fantastic pelagic attracting a huge crowd of hungry albatrosses. Scanning turned up two Buller’s and a single Campbell Albatross that settled into the throng for great looks. White-chinned, Cape, and Cook’s petrels, Northern Giant-Petrel, great looks at Common Diving-Petrels, and a trio of hungry Brown Skuas rounded out the afternoon.
Going, going, gone—the Yellow-eyed Penguin is becoming extinct on the South Island.
Crossing back from Stewart Island to Bluff, again came the rain, and it remained positively marshy all the way to Dunedin. It looked like finishing on a damp note when again, at the key moment, it cleared up as we came to getting on our boat to cruise around the Taiaroa Head. We finished our New Zealand odyssey with great views of Otago Shag (including in the hand when the leaders rescued an
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 15 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 injured bird for the Department of Conservation), giant Northern and Southern Royal albatrosses, and a throng of graceful, aerial White-capped and Salvin’s albatrosses. It was time to take our leave, and we flew out the following morning following yet another feast of delicious local produce. The food had been a definite highlight.
Many thanks to Mark for his outstanding hard work and great driving and birding skills. And many thanks to the great group of participants for making it yet another successful trip through Ao Tearoa. See you all again!
The recently re-discovered New Zealand Storm-Petrel made a fortuitous late appearance on our Hauraki Gulf pelagic.
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 16 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 BIRDS
*denotes introduced species to New Zealand
Southern Brown Kiwi (Apteryx australis)
Little Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx owenii)
*Greylag Goose (Anser anser)
*Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
*Cape Barren Goose (Cereopsis novaehollandiae)
Black Swan (Cygnus atratus)
Paradise Shelduck (Tadorna variegata)
Blue Duck (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos)
Australasian Shoveler (Spatula rhynchotis)
*Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Pacific Black Duck (Anas superciliosa)
Gray Teal (Anas gibberifrons)
Brown Teal (Anas chlorotis)
New Zealand Scaup (Aythya novaeseelandiae)
*California Quail (Callipepla californica)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 17 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 *Brown Quail (Coturnix ypsilophora)
*Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianinus colchicus)
*Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
New Zealand Grebe (Poliocephalus rufopectus)
Hoary-headed Grebe (Poliocephalus poliocephalus)
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)
*Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)
*Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
*Barbary Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
New Zealand Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae)
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx lucidus)
Long-tailed Koel (Eudynamys taitensis)
Weka (Gallirallus australis)
Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis)
Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra)
South Island Takahe (Porphyrio mantelli)
Australasian Swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus)
Baillon’s Crake (Zapornia pusilla)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 18 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 Spotless Crake (Zapornia tabuensis) Heard only
Pied Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus)
Black Stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae)
South Island Oystercatcher (Haematopus finschii)
Variable Oystercatcher (Haematopus unicolor)
Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva)
Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles)
Red-breasted (New Zealand) Dotterel (Charadrius obscurus)
Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus)
Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops)
Wrybill (Anarhynchus frontalis)
Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis)
Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica)
Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
Red Knot (Calidris canutus)
Sanderling (Calidris alba)
Broad-billed Sandpiper (Limicola falcinellus)
Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 19 New Zealand Highlights, 2019
Brown Skua (Stercorarius antarcticus)
Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus)
Black-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus bulleri)
Red-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus)
Kelp Gull (Larus dominicanus)
Australian Fairy Tern (Sternula nereis)
Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia)
Black-fronted Tern (Chlidonias albostriatus)
White-winged Black Tern (Chlidonias leucoptera)
White-fronted Tern (Sterna striata)
Yellow-eyed Penguin (Megadyptes antipodes)
Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor)
Buller’s Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri)
White-capped (Shy) Albatross (Thalassarche cauta steadi)
Salvin’s Albatross (Thalassarche salvini)
Black-browed [Campbell] Albatross (Thalassarche [melanophris] impavida)
Northern Royal Albatross (Diomedea [epomophora] sanfordi)
Southern Royal Albatross (Diomedea [epomophora] epomophora)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 20 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 [New Zealand] Wandering Albatross (Diomedea [exulans] antipodensis)
White-faced Storm-Petrel (Pelagodroma marina)
New Zealand Storm-Petrel (Fregetta maorianus)
Northern Giant-Petrel (Macronectes halli)
Cape Petrel (Daption capense)
Cook’s Petrel (Pterodroma cookii)
Fairy Prion (Pachyptila turtur)
White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria aecquinoctialis)
Parkinson’s (Black) Petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni)
Westland Petrel (Procellaria westlandica)
Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes)
Buller’s Shearwater (Ardenna bulleri)
Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea)
Short-tailed Shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris)
Hutton’s Shearwater (Puffinus huttoni)
Fluttering Shearwater (Puffinus gavia)
Common Diving-Petrel (Pelecanoides urinatrix)
Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 21 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos)
Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
Spotted Shag (Phalacrocorax punctatus)
Little Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris)
Pied Cormorant (Phalacrocorax varius)
New Zealand King Shag (Phalacrocorax carunculatus)
Stewart Island [Foveaux] Shag (Phalacrocorax [chalconotus] stewarti)
Stewart Island [Otago] Shag (Phalacrocorax chalconotus)
White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae)
Pacific Reef-Heron (Egretta sacra)
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia)
Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans)
Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae)
*Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo gigas)
Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 22 New Zealand Highlights, 2019
New Zealand Falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae)
Kea (Nestor notabilis)
New Zealand Kaka (Nestor meridionalis)
Red-crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae)
Yellow-crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus auriceps)
Malherbe’s [Orange-crowned] Parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi)
*Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius)
Rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris)
Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae)
New Zealand Bellbird (Anthornis melanura)
Gray Gerygone (Gerygone igata)
Whitehead (Mohoua albicilla)
Yellowhead (Mohoua ochrocephala)
Pipipi (Brown Creeper) (Mohoua novaeseelandiae)
North Island Kokako (Calleas wilsonia)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 23 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 North Island Saddleback (Philesturnus rufusater)
South Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus)
Stitchbird (Notiomystis cincta)
*Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)
New Zealand Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa)
Tomtit (Petroica macrocephala)
North Island Robin (Petroica {australis} longipes)
South Island Robin (Petroica australis)
*Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis)
Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena)
Fernbird (Megalurus punctatus)
Silver-eye (Zosterops lateralis)
*Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 24 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 *Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)
*Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
*European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
*Dunnock (Prunella modularis)
Australasian Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae)
*Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)
*Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus)
*Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
*European Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)
*Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea)
*European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
*House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
MAMMALS
New Zealand Furseal (Arctocephalus forsteri)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 25 New Zealand Highlights, 2019
*Stoat (Mustela erminea)
*House Cat (Felis catus)
Hector’s Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori)
Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis)
Dusky Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obscurus)
*European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
*European Hare (Lepus europaeus)
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS
Common Gecko (Woodworthia maculata)
INTERESTING OTHERS
Giant Weta (Deinacrida heteracantha)
Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
Common Copper Butterfly (Lycaena salustis)
Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 26 New Zealand Highlights, 2019 Redcoat Damselfly (Xanthocnemis zelandica)
Large-bellied Seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis)
Victor Emanuel Nature Tours 27 New Zealand Highlights, 2019