After last week’s introduction to the Snares and it’s dramatic geology, this week’s post focusses more on the Snares wildlife. My excitement at visiting the Snares, and the New Zealand Subantarctic islands in general, was the opportunity to see the unique endemic wildlife. Penguins and Albatross are among my favourite birds so the chance to see the Snares Penguin and the concentration of breeding Buller’s Albatross  were what I was most looking forward to. I was not disappointed. Rafts of penguins met us as we headed toward the shore where we could see more  struggling up through the Bull Kelp from the sea to crowd onto the rock platforms. Photo opportunities abounded and it was a challenge to isolate an interesting composition or action amongst the crowds while shooting from a moving platform. Flotillas of Cape Petrels were feeding on the surface and all the while the sky was crowded with flying petrels and Albatross providing innumerable subjects.

We cruised north along the eastern side of North-East Island encountering New Zealand Fur Seals and New Zealand Sea Lions in addition to the birds. Looking up at the cliffs we could see Buller’s Albatross on their nests and were continually passed by Cape Petrels flying low over the water to the next feeding area.

Nearing the northern end of the island we arrived at the Penguin slide which is a large expanse of rock polished clean by thousands of penguin feet and claws clambering up the steep slope to reach the cover of the forest. Even the Bull Kelps cannot maintain it’s hold in the face of the onslaught and there is a gap of about 10 metres where the penguins have easy ingress/egress without struggling through the fronds. We spent some time enjoying the antics, with the penguins seeming to discuss the merits of when to enter the water with some hesitation before a group all dives in together to achieve some security in numbers against the risk of passing sharks.

All photos with Nikon D810 and Nikon AFS 80-400VR which is a perfect combination for this type of work from a Zodiac, being relatively light, fast and sharp with a good zoom range. I also carried a FujiX100s which was used for some wider landscape shots.

Nest week we head for Enderby Island in the Auckland Island group.