South Island Trip - Part 5 - Motuara Island

Aaaand we’re finally onto a new Island! As part of the day trip Hannah and I booked, we got taken by boat to Motuara Island - after being on Blumine Island for most of the day. I had been to Motuara Island before on a sunny day so knew the best spot to see birds is the natural bird bath. But of course on the day we went it was grey and cold and had been raining all day, so the allure of the bath just wasn’t there for the birds! We decided to hang around in the general area anyway because it seemed like a good spot to wait for the birds to come to us.

Pretty much instantly a Robin hopped over to check us out, and within the space of 10 or so metres we saw a huge array of birds, Saddlebacks, Tui, Bellbirds and we even got a glimpse of a Yellow-crowned Parakeets! Although we were only on the island for an hour it was a nice way to end the day and it was a relief to start drying out after being in the rain all day! Oh and a super duper bonus was that on the way to Moutara we were shown a little roost of King Shags! I fell in love with these birds after seeing them a few years ago and just absolutely love them, how stunning are their mesmerising blue eyes! They are endemic to the Marlborough Sounds and are quite mysterious and elusive birds, so they were a real treat to see. Oh we also saw some gannets on the way back to Picton, so in conclusion it was a very, very wet day, we survived it by laughing at some hilarious things that happened and saw some amazing and rare birds.