Auckland Island Survey Blog

This post will be updated during the Auckland Island Survey which takes place between Friday 6^th November and Monday 7^th December 2009. For more details click here

Weather report
Click on the map to see where the team are

Thursday 03 December

09:30 The Tiama has arrived safely in Invercargill.  The crew are apparently very chirpy – probably finding it strange to be back on land! No Icebergs were seen along the way – more updates later when we get the full story off them.

Some interesting Stats from the trip from Jo:

Of the 22 days we were at the islands -

• 1 day 20kts and under
• 7 days with 30kts and under
• other 14 days 30kts +
• 10 days experienced gusts of 50kts or more.
• 2 days with 70kts…….

No worries mate!!

Wednesday 02 December

8am radio schedule: all ok, on way back. Winds SE 15 knots, predicted falling to 10 knots later

Email written yesterday, received this morning:

Hi, A final update before we depart for Bluff later this morning!

We’ve finished as much as we can do, the grand finale being a shoreline count in North Harbour this morning with over 70 birds being counted! That was only part of the harbour because we couldn’t see the whole lot, and is more birds than we’ve counted in all the other sites put together.

Now we have a weather window which should get us to Bluff without too much drama, apart from there perhaps being too little wind to sail all the way! Quite a contrast to what we’ve been experiencing for most of the trip. It’s difficult to guess at this stage, but roughly our ETA in Bluff is sometime on Thursday morning. That might change depending on the conditions we run into along the way. Maybe we’ll talk on Thursday or Friday.

Cheers

Tuesday 01 December

8am radio schedule: all ok

Monday 30 November

8am radio schedule: all good; working in North Harbour

Email written Friday, received this morning:

Hi, time for a quick reply while the others check out Rose Island – there’s hardly room for 3 teams & Jo H & I were up at 5am for the beach count, so we get to sit this one out & finish our breakfast.

We’re almost on the the mop up phase in Port Ross and have some harbours west of here to get to if the weather lets us. In general it has been a very windy trip, we had 70kt gusts while at anchor yesterday morning, with Tiama swinging wildly reaching speeds of 4kts while still tethered to the bottom! We have had 2 nice days, and have come to regard anything less than 20kts as a gentle breeze. In case you hadn’t figured it out, 1 knot is almost 2kmph in land lubber speak.

So far we’re all a little surprised at how many penguins we’ve been finding. A very rough (by no means final count ‘cos i might have stuffed up some data entry) count is over 100 landings on the main island and another 97 on the offshore islands. If each landing represents only one pair, then we have 100 pairs minimum on the main island. Of course some landings are used by more  than one pair, and we know that we have missed some landings. This is because we haven’t been able to access some parts of the coast which are potentially accessible to penguins, and also because sometimes the sign is so subtle it is easily missed – especially when there is a lot of sealion / pig activity which obscures penguin sign. Our morning counts have identified landings that we’ve missed when ground searching so we know we are missing some.

We have some additional work to try and get done before we leave – collecting some rockhopper penguin feathers, if we can find any rockhopers! They are likely to be in exposed places so we are hoping for a break in the weather. Henk’s description of 5-6m swells rolling in to the bay where they are wasn’t very encouraging.

By the end of the weekend we’ll be looking for a window of weather to get us safely back to Bluff and will have to take what we get, so might be a bit earlier than planned, but we’ll keep you posted.

Cheers

Friday 27 November

8am radio schedule: all good; working in Port Ross and outlying islands.

Thursday 26 November

8am radio schedule: all good; at  *^#?* Harbour (couldn’t hear the actual name), blowing quite strong from the SW, so working in Port Ross as weather allows.

Wednesday 25 November

8am radio schedule: all ok. Moving up coast to Port Ross tonight.

Email received early this morning:

Since the last email things have moved on a bit; on Saturday we did a little bit of work still in Carnley Harbour but the wind was again very strong and made using the inflatable dinghy too risky on the exposed sections of coast. Even crossing the harbour to get to the point where Jo & I needed to be dropped off to get to the albatross area was too rough – 60knot gusts and steep seas forcing us to turn around, sending the coffee pot flying off the stove. We found a relatively sheltered place to spend the rest of the day, caught up on data entry, sleep, books and knitting, and waited for the wind to ease. It did in the evening and Jo & I were dropped ashore after dinner.

Monday & Tuesday we spent in the Gibson’s albatross study area, banding this season’s cohort of chicks while the others continued surveying in Carnley and visited the white capped mollymawks at South West Cape.

We were back on board Tiama on Tuesday evening and bid farewell to Carnley.

The wind was again fairly strong and we were shot out of the eastern entrance like a cork out of a bottle of bubbles, with the wind and a big following sea directly behind us. At times we were doing almost double Tiama’s usual cruising speed. We spent that night back in Waterfall Inlet and completed another beach count yesterday morning. This time we saw a juvenile entering the water and swimming around in the bay with three adults – a “whole squadron of penguins” to quote Steve.

As soon as the count was completed we headed north to Kekeno Bay, with Henk yelling “Shore Party” as soon as the anchor was in the water. Callum & Sandy found a good stretch of coast south of Kekeno Bay and had to order a takeaway lunch, which was duly delivered by being thrown from the inflatable and skillfully caught by Callum balancing on kelp covered rocks. Warm fritata and bikkies were enjoyed before continuing. Other teams surveyed north of Kekeno Bay and Ewing Island, which is pig and cat free and has loads of penguins.

Several nests were found, some with chicks which Leith estimated were within a week old. Leith also made Henks day by finding & retrieving a large soft buoy which will make a good fender. The buoy joined us at the dinner table last night, making a nice soft bouncy seat just the right height, and special bottles of wine were opened in Leith’s honour.

Next we’re moving in to Port Ross to survey the northern part of the island.

Cheers

Tiama team

Tuesday 24 November

8am radio schedule: all ok. At Haskell Bay and were at Kekeno Point last night

Sunday 22 November

Email written Friday night:
Before I start with the warm fuzzy stuff………we haven’t forgotten you, and we’ll send emails when we can, but please remember that the email system here is like a dial up and only goes when Henk does a send / receive, which he does every 1-2 days. We will try to get a message written every 2-3 days so please just bear with us.

Anyway, on the the stuff you are really wanting to read.

We had a fantastic day yesterday, probably the best we’ve had so far. There was only about 15 knots (about 25km/hour)of wind, a light air for down here, it didn’t rain significantly and was warm enough to shed the PVC outer layer for a couple of hours. Walking along the coast without being totally swaddled in PVC rain coat & leggings was sheer bliss! We took advantage of the good day and surveyed almost the entire north coast of Adams Island – some 11 or 12 miles. We didn’t finish until 8pm which made it a long day for those who started with a beach count at 5.30am. However it was all worthwhile as we marked over 80 yep landing sites which is more than we’ve found on the main island so far. We also recorded the first juvenile yep so far, spotted by Steve the First Mate on Tiama. The difference between Adams Island, which is “pristine” and has no pigs, feral cats or mice, and the main island was astonishing. We saw our first Auckland Island teal – more than 60 birds sighted, Auckland Island falcon, megaherbs growing in the bush and behind beaches (instead of only on the cliffs which are inaccessible to pigs), and swarms of bellbirds. Callum form Taranaki commented that he has never seen so many bellbirds in one place before. The forest is also riddled with the burrows of other seabirds like prions, titi and white chinned petrel, which is great to see but does make it a bit more difficult to identify yep tracks and other sign like faeces. There have been times when we haven’t been able to identify our required two yep signs, i.e. faeces and worn tracks, foot prints etc because of the disturbance by other birds and we are fairly sure we’ve missed marking some yep landing sites because of this, which makes our totals a minimum. Needless to say, last night everyone was buzzing about what they’d seen during the day.

Today was almost as good – weather & sea conditions permitted an excursion around the south coast of Adams Island to Bollons Bay and Fly Harbour, both rarely visited. We recorded yep in both, some grumpy sealions in Bollons Bay, and a group of 10 Auckland Island teal. We think we now realise why Fly Harbour got its name – sandflies! Millions of them and they are HUGE. Apart from the sandflies it was a very pretty place; a narrow steep sided harbour with cascading waterfalls at the head, a pair of falcon, some teal and the always present sealions.

Over the next few days Jo & I will try to get into the albatross study area on Adams Island to help out that project by banding this season’s cohort of chicks while the others complete the survey of the coastline in Carnley Harbour, so it might be a bit longer between emails.

Cherio,
the Tiama team.

Friday 20 November

8am radio schedule: all ok – no news [and they must've got busy yesterday, 'cos no email arrived - maybe they are out iceberg spotting! In today's Otago Daily Times they say that icebergs were seen by Australian scientists off the coast of Macquarie Island, and all indications show they may follow the same path towards New Zealand as those in 2006. Polar tourist ship Spirit of Enderby also spotted four icebergs 10 miles off the eastern entrance to Carnley Harbour, in the Auckland Islands yesterday.]

Thursday 19 November

8am radio schedule: all ok – another email coming …………….[they can't have much to do today!]

Wednesday 18 November

8am radio schedule: all ok – email sent with more information…………….[keep watching..........not received yet!]

Email received 1pm:

Hi again, Thanks for the news from up north. Here’s more of an update on what we’ve been up to for the last few days……

As it turned out we only spent one day hiding from the weather in Hanfield Inlet, and moved out the following day before some serious cabin fever took hold. Everyone including the anchor was up by 0700 on Sunday morning and we continued our search down the coast. We found several yep landing sites in Deep Inlet, Worth Inlet proved to be worthless from our point of view, & McLennan Inlet was very scenic and spectacular with an almost sheer headbasin & cascading waterfalls but no suitable coastline for yep or people landing apart from a few meters right at the head. We finished the day in Waterfall Inlet, where we found several landing sites and had a look at an historic hut which is a remnant of the wartime coast watching days. Leith refined his sealion response skills and became Leith the Lion Tamer – apparently just as amusing as the Road Runner response!

The following day saw us moving down towards Carnley Harbour with the weather still cold and squally. We literally  had 4 seasons every hour – brilliant sunshine followed shortly afterwards by heavy showers of hail and thick snow flurries. Kate got quite excited as it was the thickest falling snow she had ever been in. (Kate also says “Hi Mum”). Carnley is enormous and we think we could be here for almost a week as there is a lot of coastline to walk. A lot of it is unproductive in terms of penguins, but we always manage to find something else interesting – elephant & leopard seals, historic finger posts and signs of past habitation, and unfortunately plenty of plastic rubbish washed up onshore. Most of it seems to be drink bottles, but we’ve also found some blue & white balloons & ribbon – ever wondered where that stuff ends up whenever there is a civic celebration? Now we know.

Ten days into our trip and the quality of the food has not diminished – we even had Tiama blueberry ice-cream slushies for desert, thanks to the hail that had stacked up on deck! Fortunately now we are all able to enjoy it.

OK, that’s it for the next couple of days……. Tiama team

Tuesday 17 November

8am radio schedule: all ok – now working their way along coastline in Carnley Harbour

Monday 16 November – sea lion interactions!

8am radio schedule: no msgs to pass on, but all ok

Email received today:

Hello again, here’s another update, Saturday 14th:

We had a really good day yesterday, covered a lot of ground but didn’t see any yep apart from some in the water. We’re working systematically down through the harbours & inlets on the east coast and have just a few more to go before we get to Carnley Harbour. We have the impression that yep sites are sparser this far down the coast than they were closer to the northern end of the island, and our initial run of finding landing sites and nests has slowed. It is great exploring the coast, inlets & small harbours – even when there are no yeps there is always something else interesting. We’re recording anything of interest, including bird species lists for each inlet visited, the presence of introduced weeds, tagged sealions, historical sites, rockhopper penguin and Auckland Island shag colonies. There are plenty of sealions around, following us in the boat or lurking onshore. When looking for yep sign and trying to boulder hop safely it’s easy to forget to watch out for “hairy rocks” until you almost step on them. The unofficial award for the best response to sealions (i.e. the most entertaining response from one’s colleagues view point) so far goes to Leith for his “Road Runner” response. He can explain later.

Does Leith need some Sealion training lessons from John??

Weather at the moment is “quite drafty” as Henk put it on the sched this morning. The following is an excerpt from a fax sent yesterday by forecaster Andy Fraser, obviously a man with a wry sense of humour:

“Weather summary:

Sat         Heavy afternoon rain likely, gales developing

Sunday      Squally showers of rain, risk of hail. Gales

Monday      Cold showery SW winds, hail and sleet showers, snow on hills

Tuesday     Showers becoming less frequent.

Forecast for Saturday 14th: NW 20kts before dawn, rising to 35-40kts during the day. The ’sheltered’ east coast of the island is likely to experience squally periods of wind at times with bursts 40-45kts G70kts. Winds may to swing directly westerly for a time in the afternoon then back WNW at night. Seas becoming rough by evening with heavy swells in open waters.”

With this in mind we found a cosy anchorage in the North Arm of Hanfield Inlet last night and are resigned to the fact that it’s likely that we’ll be spending both tonight & tomorrow night here as well. While we haven’t noticed any wind gusts over 70knots so far, we have had one of 65kts – and that is in our nice anchorage! A good chance to catch up on data entry & notes, finish that book and begin the 2009 Auckland Island Monopoly Championship.

Bye for now, Tiama team.

Friday 13 November

8am radio schedule: no contact today

[Don't worry.........this is quite normal when weather conditions are not good - check it out on the link above! We expect to have a great catchup and maybe another email after the weekend]

Thursday 12 November – what are they doing?

8am radio schedule: all ok, poor reception today. Our message that “we would like more information” was passed on,  however due to poor reception, this was not possible! Maybe tomorrow……….

12:30pm: just received an email written yesterday:

Ok, so we arrived on Monday evening after a longer than usual trip down, about 50 hours with a strong head wind most of the way. Needless to say we were in various states of health, but we all survived. The first evening anchored in Haskell Bay saw us scoffing down an excellent meal prepared by 1st mate Steve, including a delicious strawberry topped baked cheesescake. Not to be outdone Henk, owner and skipper of Tiama (www.tiama.com) produced banana pancakes & fresh coffee for breakfast next morning. But enough about food.

The first morning Kate & I were up at 5.30am for a morning beach count of the head of Haskell Bay, carried out from the after deck of Tiama. What seemed like an arduous task, squinting into about 30 knots of wind and driving rain while trying to keep binoculars dry, soon turned to excitement when we were thoroughly checked out by two southern right whales (click on thumbnails to view). Probably a mother & calf, they stayed close to Tiama for a couple of hours, even bumping our dinghies at times. And we did see two yellow-eyed penguins.

So far we have surveyed Haskell Bay and Chambres Inlet, and have been surprised at the number of penguins we’ve found. We were expecting to find either none or just a few, but there have been several in each place. We’ve also found 4 nests which have all been very close to the foreshore edge so we see them as we are walking past. It is interesting to note that where pigs have difficulty accessing the beach, like at the base of very steep cliffs, is also where we are finding penguins. Areas which look perfect for penguins with nice easy access are bare and pig sign is everywhere. We can’t help wondering if the nests we’re finding will survive to hatching or fledging.

Weather has been typically sub-antarctic, frequent showers and a bit windy. Gusts of 50-55 knots today made landings interesting, and I was the only one to finish the day with dry feet…..but it’s only day two……

More in a day or two

Sandy

Wednesday 11 November – we have arrived

8am radio schedule: all ok, arrived Aucklands, good reception

Tuesday 10 November – are you there yet!

8am radio schedule: all ok, good reception

(no mention that they had arrived, so assume they are not there yet)

Monday 9 November – all aboard

The team about to depart from Bluff on Saturday:

Left to right: Jo Hiscock (DOC Southern Islands, team leader) Sandy King (YEPT Project Officer Southern Islands), LeithThomson (YEPT Ranger), Kate Beer (University of Otago, Wildlife Diploma student), Jo Ledington (Ranger, DOC Kakapo Team), Henk Haazen (skipper and owner of Tiama), Steve (crew member) and Callum Lilley (Marine Ranger, DOC Taranaki).

Saturday 7 November – End of the wait

All ready to go – we will have our final quarantine check then depart from Bluff at about 4pm. It is going to be a rough trip but apparently the wind is going to drop as we travel south.

(We probably wont get any further updates for 48 hours…………..but keep watching for further news)

Friday 6 November – “…a light gale in the nose…”

9am: The light gale turned out to be slightly worse than thought so the departure date has been delayed until tomorrow.

8am: The boat leaves today at about 11am – in the words of the skipper it will be a “safe but uncomfortable voyage with a light gale on the nose…….. ” (sounds like one of those understatements often made by skippers!). Sandy & Leith may need some sea-sickness pills!!

Thursday 5 November – Its a bit windy down ‘ere

Today’s update from Leith:

Arrived safely in Invercargill after a windy and bumpy bus ride (I suppose that is nothing to what it will be like soon). I have met all the team now, and we are all doing a variety of jobs today. I have also seen the yacht……….nice looking…… and we are going to be very cosy and intimate after a month on board!

My job today is to help load the fuel onto the Tiama with Jo L, while Callum is doing his boat drills and the others are doing other tasks.

The wind conditions for departure tomorrow are looking a bit strong, so we may well be delayed for 24 hours – hopefully we will know later today or be told at the formal DOC de-brief session this afternoon.

Wednesday 4 November – Getting ready to go

Leith has left Dunedin for Invercargill by bus. His gear will be checked as part of the rigorous quarantine inspection requirements – so he better not have stowed any pets in it! In the meantime Sandy will fly into Invercargill from Codfish Island where she has been for the last week resurveying the yellow-eyed penguin population. The next 24 hours will be frantic for her as she cleans and sorts gear ready for departure from Bluff on Friday 6^th November.

Tuesday 3 November – Before setting sail

Both Sandy & Leith are really excited to be travelling to this remote area, although Sandy is expecting sea-sickness during the two days travel on the yacht Tiama (and that is just to get there), and Leith wants to know how friendly the sea lions may or may not be!

Related posts:

• Auckland Islands Survey
• Codfish Island Survey 2009
• Codfish Island Survey
• Stewart Island – P1 nest search results