Akaroa Harbour

Akaroa Harbour from the Hilltop

Spent the day on a boat on Akaroa Harbour, looking at the flora and fauna. Here’s my list for the day: giant northern petrel, Hector’s dolphin, fur seal, pied shag, spotted shag, black oystercatcher, white-fronted tern, white-flippered penguin, wed-billed gull, black-backed gull. The spotted shags roosting on the rocks were the highlight — they were in their nuptial plumage, which is really quite beautiful.

Fish and Chips for lunch. Yum.

Spotted Shags Roosting
Red-Billed Gull
Fish and Chips

3 Comments »

  1. Comment by Brigit — August 30, 2006 @ 1:34 pm

    Does “nuptial plumage” mean they were wearing their wedding dresses?

  2. Comment by Ali — August 30, 2006 @ 4:28 pm

    “Nuptial plumage” means they had their breeding feathers on. Tufts on their heads and bright turquoise patches of skin around their eyes.

  3. Comment by sacha — September 2, 2006 @ 9:46 pm

    I am just looking at the fish and chips. Have not had them yet!

Leave a comment

Comments are spam filtered. Your e-mail address will not be displayed. Some HTML tags are allowed.

(required)

(required, but not displayed)