Looking back on 2011

The year saw us birding the Arctic Migration in Estonia to the remote beaches of Stewart Island, my life list adding a Capercaillie and Kiwis. We explored the canals of Wales, Gaudi's architecture, the vastness of Australia and the beauty of New Zealand.

We followed rugby and reality shows.

It was a year of buying a flat, of renovating and of creating beautiful spaces.

Time spent with family and friends marked the year, whether in Barcelona, in Barrydale, in Cape Town, in Cowra, in Dullstroom, in Grahamstown, in Greytown, in Hilton, in Johannesburg, in Shelley Beach, in Wales, in Wellington, in Sydney, in Toti... in helicopters, jetboats, narrowboats and campervans.

Walking on a Beach

'My desire for knowledge is intermittent, but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant.' From "Walking" by Henry David Thoreau.

There is a deep pleasure in walking a beach. I have spent many hours on sandy beaches, with either white sand or black sand, on pebble beaches, on rocky beaches and none as beautiful as Sandfly Bay Beach on the Otago Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand.









The setting of Sandfly Bay is very dramatic and the beach is backed by vast sand dunes. Getting to the beach from the car park involved a round hike of about an hour, including a slide down a steep dune. Climbing back up against the sand was not easy either.

As we walked the beach I kept one eye on the huge sealions which colonize the far end of the beach. Yellow-eyed Penguins are seen coming back onto shore at dusk to their nets, and I was amazed to see one right in front of me at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

This was only one of many birding hightlights on the beaches of New Zealand. I particularly loved the small waders like the Banded and New Zealand Dotterels. This view of the Banded Dotterel is one of my favourite photos that Fred took during our stay....

Another wow was finding the iconic Wrybill with its bill that bends from left to right, after 2 failed attempts on the South Osland we found saw them from the Miranda Coast hide on the Firth of Thames. These birds were all a joy to find as were the shags, oystercatchers and many more as we tramped the beaches wrapped up against the cold.

The Kea, a unique Alpine Parrot.

It is the world's only true alpine parrot, the endemic Kea is confined to the alps and high country of the South Island, New Zealand. The olive-green feathers look sculpted and the brilliant orange under its wings is a marvel. The bird has a large narrow curved grey-brown upper beak which wrecks havoc with car rubbers and tyres.

I loved the raucous cries of "keeaa" as they came into interact with people in the parking lot or at the boat harbour as we were going out onto Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. They are so curious and the first Kea we saw was most taken by my Longchamp handbag.....

The kea is related to the forest kaka, another bird we had special interactions with on Stewart Island. They would come down onto the balcony of our accommodation at Pilgrims Cottage and demand to be fed....

The Morepork Christmas Ornament

The Morepork is New Zealand's only surviving native owl and was high on my wish list while birding in New Zealand this year.

And mostly because of a gift I was given by my friend Bev Edkins. She brought me a Christmas ornament of a stylised morepork after her visit to New Zealand. It is beautifully embroidered with huge beaded eyes and is hanging on the baobab Xmas tree in my hall right now.....

The Morepork is known for its haunting, melancholic call which sounds as if the owl is asking for more pork (I have attached a link to listen to the call www.owlcatraz.co.nz ). Each time I made enquiries of local birders I was told to hang around the street lights at dusk in the hope of seeing the owl hawking for insects.

That mostly did not suite me, too damn cold most of the time, and rather than lurking around street lamps we would be having a meal!

So when we arrived at Birders Rest in Kerikeri on the North Island to meet up with Carol and Detlef Davies, the first thing Detlef asked is if we had seen Morepork yet. He then took us into their garden under some huge trees and quietly called in a pair. The small brown owl, also called a Ruru, sat on its perch its large fierce eyes looked straight at us and every now and again it would swivel its head around 250 degrees.

I now understand why from ancient times till today the Maori have incorporated the Morepork's intense staring eyes into their carvings.

Kiwi Spotting in New Zealand

It was a toss up whether to book the Kiwi birding outings first or to secure tickets to the Rugby World Cup, either way these two polar opposites became the impetus to get to New Zealand.

There are five species of kiwi, all native to New Zealand and the association is so strong that the term Kiwi is used all over the world as the colloquial demonym for New Zealanders. They are quite shy, tend to be nocturnal in areas where there are humans, so I knew that I needed help seeing them in the wild.

The application for tickets to the South African games at the 2011 RWC was done, which also fixed the calendar for the holiday - September, October- spring in New Zealand, the weather proved to be as big a dimension of our 7 weeks in a campervan as did the rugby and the birding.

My research led me firstly to Phillip Smith of Bravo Adventure Cruises. Ocean Beach, a remote spot on Stewart Island's eastern part is the only place in New Zealand where people can walk one kilometre of sandy beach at night to watch kiwi feeding on sand-hoppers in the seaweed. (If it was good enough for David Attenborough and a BBC film crew it certainly good enough for me!) Phillip has been guiding visitors to this remote part of world for a few decades, looking out for the 3 breeding pairs of Stewart Island brown kiwi – the tokoeka – the largest of the New Zealand brown kiwi.

A few emails later I had accommodation secured at the delightful Pilgrim's Cottage overlooking Halfmoon Bay on Stewart Island, ferry crossings booked to and from Bluff on South Island, and our names on a list for the Kiwi spotting with Phillip. Being early October there were no guarantees about going out as it is very early in the season and Phillip needs a minimum number of people to run his evening trip, but I took the risk.

As the trip came together and we had tickets for our selected games, I then booked an evening with Carol Ann Davies of Birders Rest in Kerikeri, who takes birders out kiwi spotting in Bay of Islands in the Far North. Call it insurance, I could not leave New Zealand without a kiwi.

So often I love the planning even more that the experience, not this time though, both the RWC and kiwi's were a joy.

The night Fred and I join Phillip’s group, was a ‘three kiwi night’ – two on the beach and one in the bush.


The rush of pleasure when the first kiwi was seen in the ring of light from the torch still sits with me, its thick chicken-like legs a surprise, as was the intensity of the long bill poking into the sand, the male we saw even had his face right into the sand.
















The night walk with Carol on a farm on a remote headland in the Bay of Islands to see the North Island Brown Kiwi was no less thrilling, we were able to creep up to within a metre of the bird and take in its quiet presence after hearing its raucous calling earlier in the evening.







Kiwi big three-toed footprints on a remote beach Ulva Island, New Zealand...







.....and yes watching the South African rugby game live in Wellington was special too. I am a Kiwi convert in more ways than one.