Carnley Harbour to Port Ross

tony
September 12, 2021
birds / New Zealand / Subantarctic

Photo of Cape Petrels (Daption capense australe) — Cape Petrels (*Daption capense australe*)

Leaving the shelter of Carnley Harbour we continued our passage north along the eastern side of Auckland Island heading for Port Ross and Enderby Island. We had hoped to explore Musgrave Inlet for Eastern Rockhopper penguins but conditions were just too rough with the south-easterlies ripping through.

Photo of Northern Giant Petrel and Cape Petrel — Northern Giant Petrel and Cape Petrel

The silver lining to this was that the wind was great for the the flying birds and we had countless opportunities and some of the best we had seen for Cape Petrels. They can be quite challenging as they are small, fast and change course rapidly.

Photo of a Cape Petrel — Cape Petrel (*Daption capense australe*)

Repeated flybys by a number of birds allowed me to expand my archive of Cape Petrel images significantly. There are 2 subspecies of Cape Petrel or Pintado Petrel with the New Zealand birds being the Snares Cape Petrel which is darker on the back and upper wing than the capense subspecies that we photographed on the Antarctic Peninsula and Drake Passage.

A cooperative Northern Giant Petrel joined in for some formation flying and shows the typical hunchback profile in flight.

Photo of a Northern Giant Petrel — Northern Giant Petrel (*Macronectes halli*)

While not quite as impressive as albatross they still are spectacular fliers using the lift among the wind and waves.

All in all it was a great opportunity to photograph the 2 size extremes of the fulmarine petrels. Cape and Snow Petrels being the smallest, Antarctic Fulmar being slightly larger and the Giant Petrels significantly larger.