One of my goals with this second trip to the Subantarctics was to improve my archive of images of the endemic bird species. On the first trip I managed some lovely images of a male Auckland Island Teal, one of which is the featured image for the species on NZ Birds Online. I thought it unlikely that I would be able to improve on this so I was quite happy that the only co-operative individuals of this flightless species we found on this trip were female.

The first individual I found soon after landing was this slightly scruffy female foraging amongst the kelp on a rock platform. The light wasn’t very inspiring but I managed some record shots of feeding behaviour.

The second place where Auckland Island Teal are often encountered is at the appropriately named Teal Lake on the southern shore of Enderby Island. We encountered this early on our round island hike as we were moving in an anticlockwise direction and found the duty duck justifying the name. She was a little less scruffy and posed for some reasonable images. While not of the same quality as the male images I managed in 2016 these are a useful addition to my archive.

Photos with Nikon D850 and Nikkor 500mm f5.6PF lens