We left the house just after 7 am - a lovely sunny clear day it was calm early on although the wind picked up later - but not to the strength of yesterday. We stopped off at the village shop - he was just opening up - to buy supplies for tonight's meal and a few snacks. We then made our way to Golden Bay wharf, parking by the police station and walking down the hill, where our bird watching trip to Ulva island would be leaving from. At 8am Furhana arrived with the other guests - a family of 5 from the US and a couple from Canberra, the final two from Canada arrived like us walking.
We then loaded up and left for the predator free Ulva island - a ten minute boat trip - passing a large Silverseas cruise ship that had just arrived - it was therefore imperative we got going before the island became full of cruise ship guests - fortunately we succeeded and only became aware of others as we wended our way back for lunch.
We passed odd rat traps strategically placed on our route as occasionally a rat swims across from Stewart island!
Furhana was very good and together we got to see all the birds on Ulva island - from the tiniest rifleman and grey warbler, to the rarest the saddleback and yellowhead, to the commonest the Stewart island robin and the kaka, the forest parrot.....and all the others in between - an owl (morepork) being mobbed by small birds, the yellow and red crowned parakeets, tom tit (today's photo), tui, the very large and beautifully coloured pigeon, the bell bird, the fantail, the brown creeper, the Stewart island shag ( it had a white front) , spotted shag, (black) variable oyster catcher, a red billed gull, and young, the molly mork - a small albatross. The only thing we didn't see, although we heard it was the Weka. Many of the birds were nesting and feeding either fledglings or young in the nest. As they were busy they didn't stay long enough for good photographs - they were flitting in all directions! The vegetation was also unique - lots of ferns due to the climate, some amazing trees that take 500 years to reach maturity and some lovely orchids. I got a nice picture of a lady's slipper.
After lunch we took an unused rougher track into the island - no tourists but more overgrown - I slipped on a damp patch - saved my finger and the camera but now have a stiff left shoulder!!
On the way back we spotted a couple of little blue penguins, the smallest penguins, swimming in the water......and diving as soon as you pointed to them.
Back in Oban we went and bought a couple of coffees before rejoining Furhana , Phil, our trip leader and Nichole another guest, who is coming on the overnight kiwi journey tomorrow, for the briefing.
Finally back in the cottage we sorted our gear for tomorrow having rented bigger rucksacks and a sleeping bag each, had supper and crashed out - today was quite tiring - I always ache after a day at the slow bird watchers pace - 24 kms at 3mph is fine but dorderling and standing brings in other muscles and which are unused to standing still!! Kakas returned to our balcony to eat a few peanuts and look hopeful for more ( the peanuts are supplied by the property owner and our in the cupboard only to be put out when the Kaka arrive otherwise you feed the rats! ) later we had a little chaffinch visit - no doubt hoovering up any crumbs.