http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds 테스트 버전 0.2 (2004-04-26) ko http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=18
By Nick Allen
Jan. 2019

For a track that traverses a wide range in altitude most bush bird species that can be encountered along the Milford Track largely stay surprisingly constant. The Rifleman is New Zealand’s smallest bird, only 7-9 cm from beak tip to tail tip. It’s high-pitched calls are often inaudible to older people and it flits among lower vegetation or climbs up and along moss-covered tree branches in search of insects and spiders. Kaka are also found throughout the length of the track and are large bush parrots with a variety of grating and liquid calls. Tomtits are small robins that often perch half way up tree trunks waiting for an insect to move. The black and white males are very striking. Bellbirds and Tui are both nectar feeders with pleasant songs. The Bellbird has bell-like and fluty notes in its song, the Tui is more of an improvisor and can’t resist adding clicks and wheezes to its repertoire. Blue Ducks, a blue-grey duck with a leathery beak appendage, found mostly on swift-flowing rivers is found on the Clinton River, Roaring Burn and Arthur River. There is apparently a reasonable population due to long-term trapping of their main predator the stoat, but they are difficult to see as they mostly feed at the ends of the day and good views of the rivers are few and far between. The Weka is a streaky, brown flightless rail that looks like a kiwi, but without the long beak. It is an opportunistic thief and it is a good idea not to leave food or anything shiny around as they will be carried off into the densest part of the bush in seconds. Spacing calls ‘weka, weka, weka…’ are uttered, especially around dusk so the birds know where their neighbours are. The calls are the opposite way round to the otherwise similar male kiwi calls.

The forest on the east side of the pass is dryer and has a lesser diversity of plants compared to the west. This lack of diversity has probably made life more difficult for rats and other predators as Robins and Yellow-crowned Parakeets are found up the Clinton Valley in fair numbers, but not in the western valleys. The Robin is grey and white, though has a similar stance and mannerisms to the European Robin with its red breast that is seen on Christmas cards. It has a beautiful loud song that sometimes lasts for 30 minutes non-stop in late winter and spring. The parakeet is bright green, shining in the sun, though difficult to see among the leaves in the forest canopy, its favourite part of the forest.

Where the forest starts to thin to more alpine species, and in the alpine areas of scrub, grass and rock Kea are often seen playing in the turbulent air currents around cliffs, their red underwings contrasting with the bottle green of the rest of their plumage. The only hut we saw them at was Mintaro, where someone unfortunately left a white sock out on the veranda and the mischievous bird thought it was in heaven. Other birds only encountered in the alpine zone were the Pipit, a brown bird with a long constantly-wagged tail, and Rock Wren, a close cousin of the Rifleman with a similarly high-pitched call of three notes that lives in the alpine plant gardens and jumbles of rock.

At night kiwi were heard calling at both Clinton and Mintaro Huts. These were the Southern Brown Kiwi. The male has a shrill call, the female a gravelly rasping call. Long-tailed Cuckoos also called as they flew around at night in search of mates. They have a strange screaming ‘wheeesht’ call that is not at all what you would expect from a bird. In the daytime they search out the nest of Brown Creepers. In this area they would also have searched out Yellowheads, but they became locally extinct many years ago. Long-tailed Cuckoos are migratory, arriving in the South Island in early November and departing in February. Their range when not in New Zealand is on islands in the tropical Pacific from Palau in Micronesia to Henderson Island in the Pitcairn archipelago.

The main place waterbirds were seen was on Lake Ada, a few kilometres from the end of the track at Milford Sound. Here there were Black Swans, Mallard hybrids, New Zealand Scaup (a blackish diving duck) and one Brown Teal. Brown Teal were introduced to this area from the North Island maybe 10 years ago in an attempt to reintroduce the species to the South Island. The species had died out a few years before in the South Island, and its last refuge was Fiordland. Brown teals are a small chocolate brown duck, the females entirely so, the male sporting a greenish head. The rarest species of duck in mainland New Zealand they mostly feed at night and like dense marshland or forest cover in the daytime in which to hide. The one bird I saw was resting on a bank of the lake, which is a habit they exhibit in the North Island.

ILOVENZ Travel]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 08 Feb 2019 18:49:03 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=17 - 크라이스트처치 내 지정 서점에서만 구입가능합니다.

뉴질랜드 여행의 모든것 http://www.ilovenztravel.co.nz]]> ILOVENZ Wed, 28 Nov 2012 05:37:23 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=16 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:20:17 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=15 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:15:43 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=14 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:11:18 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=13 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:05:54 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=12 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:02:04 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=11 Ice patterns on Lake Emma View from the bach, Lake Clearwater and snow-capped mountains View from the hut across Lake Emma The Arrowsmith Range across Lake Heron Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:56:09 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=10 Dongmak Beach with Bunori Dondae in the background The part of the mountain stream where I saw the Brown Dipper in Seoraksan NP Young Brown Dipper A Daurian Redstart on the bench at the playground of Kumho Seorak Resort Our friend Susanna kindly drove us out to Kangwha-Do, where at Dongmak Beach and Bunori Dondae there is a good area for watching birds of the mudflats. Unfortunately the tide was well out so there were few birds, but we did see 2 Black-faced Spoonbills (jeoeosae), 1-2 Swinhoe's Egrets (norangburibaengno) and about 6 Far-eastern Curlews (allak-kkorimadoyo). The amazingly beautiful Black-capped Kingfisher (cheonghobansae), which I saw there 3 years ago, didn't show itself this time unfortunately. I had some time to go birdwatching at Seoraksan National Park, mostly up the Rocking Rock Track. Here the highlights were a young Brown Dipper (mulggamagwi), which I managed to digibin (photo through binoculars with digital camera), and a few Grey Wagtails (noranghalmisae) on the mountain stream and a rather elusive Asian Brown Flycatcher (soesolttaksae) in the forest, which eventually gave good views. Seoraksan was beautiful anyway. Near and at the Kumho Seorak Resort, where we stayed there were also plenty of birds, with Daurian Redstart (ttaksae) and Black-naped Oriole (kkoekkori) in the garden/adjacent woodland, Hoopoe (hututi) in the farmland, and Oriental Great Reed Warbler (gaegaebi) and Japanese Wagtail (geomeundeunghalmisae) on the river/streams. Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:52:43 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=9 'Jinty' 41708 and 'Black Five' 45110 inside Barrow Hill roundhouse A general view of Barrow Hill roundhouse A narrowboat on the Chesterfield Canal. This one gives historical trips. Bluebank Lock on the Chesterfield Canal. Note the difference in water levels. Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:45:52 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=8 The Burbage Brook tumbling through the ancient oaks of Padley Gorge Bluebells, like those found at Bluebank, were in full bloom The Mute Swan nest near the Chesterfield Canal The Chesterfield Canal and Bluebank Wood (to the right) Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:41:58 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=7 Old barn near where I used to live Ancient woodland Linacre Valley. The white flowers are Ramsons (wild garlic) One of the Linacre Reservoirs The farmland near my home hadn't changed much, except my old patch where I learnt many of my birding skills, an area of rough farmland that had reverted to scrub, had had most of the scrub ripped out and so was relatively birdless. No doubt the landowner/farmer had a bit of cash, so now it's good-for-almost-nothing rough pasture again. A Buzzard (malttongari) flew over - these were unbelievably rare 13 years ago, but have moved into the area since. The Linacre Reservoirs near Chesterfield used to supply that town with its drinking water, but now are only for recreation, with walks in the ancient woodlands and plantations round them. It's hard to believe that 300 years ago there was an industry of mining the woods here for iron ore, but the woods are pock-marked with 'bell pits'. Birds here included a Mandarin Duck (wonang) - a recent introduction to the UK, Great Spotted Woodpecker (osaekttaktaguri), Nuthatch (donggobi) and Treecreeper (namubalbari). A nest of Grey Heron (waegari) was right above a path, and one Great Crested Grebe (ppulonbyeong-ari) was present Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 12:24:27 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=6 Looking up the Hawdon Valley towards the Main Divide of the Southern Alps. The area we visited is roughly central in the photo on the forested flats left of the river Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:55:44 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=5 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:40:53 +0900 http://ilovenztravel.co.nz/bbs/board.php?bo_table=nzbirds&wr_id=4 Nick Allen ]]> ILOVENZ Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:39:52 +0900