Maureen Howard provides a beautiful report of the recent Atlasing weekend into Alexandra, Otago. Thanks to the team at Toi Toi Wines for providing funding for this trip. A huge thanks to Richard Schofield for organising the trip targeting an under-surveyed area of Otago.
The team of five gathered some fantastic records for the area, including valuable nocturnal effort.
Birding Group: Richard Schofield, Maree Johnstone, Mary Thompson, George Pickerell and Maureen Howard.
Most weekends I get out of the city with the help of my thumb to do some bird watching around Dunedin. This weekend’s Atlas Trip to Alexandra was a bit more adventurous than my usual, as I hitched westward on Saturday morning 13th April to join the Birding Group in Alexandra.
The journey there was a hitch-hikers dream – with all my waiting times less than 5 minutes. I arrived at the Alexandra Holiday Park in plenty of time to join Maree and Mary for the after lunch birding they’d planned. It’s always a treat to see the Autumn colours of the trees of Central Otago. In addition, none of our group of three had travelled on the Upper Manorburn Road that’s situated south east of Alexandra. As we ascended 700m above sea-level we were treated to a panoramic moonscape of rocks and bare hills. The merino sheep farmed here look athletic, their signature dirty fleece blending perfectly into the greys and tans of the landscape. Only their long white noses and nervous dispositions betrayed their presence on the land as they sprinted en mass across the path of our vehicle.
Many of the layered schist boulders we saw were balanced precariously on top of each other. They made excellent lookout perches for the occasional pīhoihoi/pipit, kāhu/Australasian harrier and a barrel chested tikaokao/California quail guarding over 22 birds who were foraging on the ground beneath.
A total of 25 pipits were seen on this Atlas Trip. I saw and heard enough individuals to significantly improve my ID skills from the much more common kairaka/skylarks. In this arid landscape of rock, dirt, tussock and thorny scrub – we also saw good numbers of hurukōwhai/yellowhammers, skylarks, lesser redpolls and kōurarini/goldfinch.
We hoped to get to the Upper Manorburn Dam and were about 4.5 kms from irrigation storage reservoir before we passed two fishermen in a 4WD who warned us that the road ahead was already getting slick with mud and our ‘wee thing’ (Maree’s car) would be almost certain to get stuck. We heeded their caution and gratefully accepted their gift of a glistening Rainbow Trout they’d caught.
We retraced our steps and then headed to the Lower Manorburn Dam. This lovely irrigation storage reservoir hosted a small population of six Australian coots and not much else. Despite our kotoreke/marsh crake playbacks, none were seen or heard. However, Mary spotted a kārearea/NZ Falcon preening in a tree across the reservoir (4 seen in total on this trip!).
With stomachs grumbling and darkness looming, we had the dilemma of whether to eat first at the local Mexican restaurant or to do our nocturnal bird counts first. The decision was made for us by busy staff who asked us to return later. The evening was calm, cool and a sliver of crescent moon made it perfect nocturnal birding weather for our 10 minute checklists that each included two playbacks for ruru nohinohi/little owl. Collectively on this Trip we heard 11 little owls, not a bad score from 10 checklists.
Next morning we spied an enormous group of 30 plus California quail foraging outside our cabin window. Apparently up to 90 birds have been seen at this holiday park at one time.
We split again into two groups. This time I joined Richard’s vehicle with the hope of reaching the Upper Manorburn Dam. The weather was much drier than the previous day and we got to 1.5kms from the reservoir before the track turned into a puddle with muddy margins. A resourceful cyclist, Richard pulled his bike out of the back of the car and pedalled off to circumnavigate the lake while I did a couple of walking traveling bird counts along the road to the reservoir enjoying the stillness and a magical close up of a pipit calling from a nearby post. Richard had his own welcome surprise amongst the birds he saw, finding a couple of pūteketeke/great crested grebe in the irrigation reservoir.
On our return we saw a flock of 25 tiu/house sparrows and pondered how they could survive here in this barren landscape. Lower down we saw a kōtare/sacred kingfisher on a wire, also unusual in these parts.
By 2pm I was back on the highway out of Alex to hitch back to Dunedin. I made the error of letting a well-meaning woman deposit me at Rae’s Junction. The speedy blind corner was clearly impossible to hitch onward from so I hitched back to Ettrick to a better spot. With a further detour to a kind couple’s holiday house in Roxburgh to join them while they packed their belongings, it took me seven hours to reach Dunedin. Hitching is always unexpected and usually interesting – and contrary to popular opinion it only confirms my faith in humanity. Still, I was relieved to make it home – happily to a hot meal and cosy fire.
For me, this trip had all the ingredients of a perfect Atlas weekend– new eBird Year Birds (little owl and NZ pipit), improving my birding skills, adventure, dramatic new landscapes and camaraderie with my birding friends. I didn’t get to see every species I’d hoped too (think wild turkey). However I’ll leave that for another day. Anticipation is an essential part of the joy of birding.
BIRD STATS:
41 species seen/heard across 79 checklists, totalling approximately 3500 birds.
ATLAS SQUARES:
“We visited 15 squares intotal, 6 of which had no previous Autumn visits, while a further five had only sparse coverage. In addition, nocturnal visits were made to 7 squares, with little owl recorded in 6 of them.” Richard.
AREAS VISITED:
Moa Creek, Manorburn dams (Upper and Lower), Galloway, Bendigo Goldfields, Omakau.
For more details, please go to the Trip Report
Thanks to Richard for organising this trip and many thanks to Toi Toi Wines for covering our accommodation and transport costs.
