This week we are celebrating a little Hauraki Gulf magic. I must confess that Auckland is not one of my favourite places but it is situated in a magnificent location that can be appreciated with a little effort. Situated on an isthmus between the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Auckland is close to an absolute paradise of seabird habitat. Few people appreciate the diversity of seabird life within reach of the largest city in the South Pacific. Sadly many of the amazing birds that live here are never seen by the majority of humans as they live at sea returning to land, often only at night for a brief period, to breed in burrows. This makes it hard for many to appreciate the true impact we have on habitat, directly through pollution (of the sea and atmosphere) and fishing, and indirectly by the introduction of pest species against which these birds had no need to evolve defences. 

Fortunately work is being done to assess and monitor populations and the web of influences on them. One of the groups doing this is the Northern New Zealand Seabird Trust. Edin has been doing some work with them and those that follow her blog will have seen some of her amazing photos from the Hauraki Gulf. She had invited me to come with on a trip but co-ordinating it with my work seemed impossible as trips were at short notice depending on weather and I am booked up weeks ahead with work. A mid-week text about a weekend boat trip followed by an island session as her field assistant had my plans adjusted at short notice and a late night drive to Auckland had me ready for a 06h00 start.

We headed north after meeting  Abby McBride, a Fulbright National Geographic Fellow, currently illustrating NZ seabirds. Within an hour including a brief coffee stop we arrived at Omaha to meet Chris Gaskin and James Ross. I had been looking forward to catching up again with Richie Robinson but he had to cancel at the last-minute. The estuary was stunning and calm and we were soon loaded aboard and heading out into the Hauraki Gulf aiming for an area north of Hauturu/Little Barrier Island. The aim was to do bird counts, plankton sampling and try and locate some workups of feeding fish and birds and deploy a multiple camera rig into them to record the activity and identify the species involved.

Personally I wanted to see and hopefully photograph a New Zealand Storm Petrel. Edin covered the amazing story of these birds in her post and they have been on my wish since their rediscovery. Conditions were initially quite rough but shortly after reaching our first target of an undersea pinnacle we saw our first New Zealand Storm Petrel which was soon joined by another and at one stage we had 5 around the boat. The cloud cover gave ideal flat light to manage the high contrast of black and white birds but the rough conditions made it very hard to track the small birds against the waves. On the plus side it made editing very easy afterwards as there were lots of blurry images to bin without a second look.  Despite that I managed a couple of images that pleased me including one showing filoplumes on the head of one of the birds.

It was a day of a number of firsts for me with Fluttering Shearwater, Bullers Shearwater, Fairy Prion, White-faced Storm Petrel and Cook’s Petrel all photographed for the first time. White-capped Albatross, Southern Giant Petrel and Flesh-footed Shearwater were also photographed but not for the first time. I am still working through my images but have some I am happy with including a number to add to my long-term Birds on White project.

Returning to the city after a weekend of nearby wildness, the contrast with the thronging traffic and adverts encouraging consumerism and entertainment was shocking. At times we seem so absorbed by the technology in our hands that we risk stepping off the pavement into the traffic. If we took the time to stop and really look around us to see the marvels that there are we would have no need for man-made entertainment.

For more information on this special location see this publication, Seabirds of the Hauraki Gulf,  coauthored by Chris Gaskin

Photos with Nikon D500 and Nikon 300mm f4PF lens apart for Omaha Estuary and Edin photo with the amazing little Olympus TG5 waterproof compact.