We spent the weekend in Akaroa, first celebrating Cynthia Roberts' birthday with a cruise on the harbour on the Canterbury Cat followed by lunch at French farm, and then a rainy day spent on Smith Street with ECan ecologist Phil Cochrane banding tui.
On the harbour, we made it all the way around to the otherworldly Scenery Nook, with its massive vertical dyke jutting out into the sea. The captain mentioned that a yellow-eyed penguin had been spotted here in a previous week but we didn't see it.
I've uploaded my species photos from the trip to NatureWatch NZ and will add all of my standard bird, butterfly, and plant counts once the iNaturalist trip functionality is finished.
Basket fungi by the driveway of 18 Smith Street.
Bracket fungi growing on an old rotting log by the driveway of 18 Smith Street.
Planted in a garden in Akaroa. I watched a redpoll spend a good ten minutes feeding on the immature seed heads on this plant.
A pied shag fishing near the Akaroa jetty.
Two red-billed gulls were watching.
On lookout from a street light at the base of the Akaroa jetty.
The unexpectedly lush and dense stand of nikau palms in Akaroa Harbour's Palm Gully.
Black-backed gulls were scattered about the edges of Akaroa harbour, solitary or in small groups.
One of a couple of gulls roosting with a large group of white fronted terns on a small islet off the coast of the Akaroa Heads.
About 100 white-faced terns roosting on a small islet off the coast of the Akaroa Heads.
One of just a few spotted shags on the rocks and cliffs around the eastern side of the Akaroa Heads.
We saw an adult and two babies resting on the rocks in Haylock Bay.
Black-backed gulls chasing a fishing boat past the entrance to Akaroa Heads.
A pied shag with a fur seal and a black-backed gull.
This is the best photo I got of the few cape pigeons we saw out past Akaroa heads.
A big black petrel drifting past Akaroa Heads.
Two of three kereru perched at the corner of Smith and Muter streets in Akaroa.
Comments
Jon! have you got a location for that dike for GeoWatch or ClimberWatch!?
Scenery Nook is at -43.89782 172.92238. It looks hard to get to from land (you can see more photos of the surrounding cliffs on my Flickr page around https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/9082493917/). Although a photo with climbers on it would be superb.
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