We do more chumming for a better look at the birds.
Buller's?
Salvin's and Buller's.
Royal taking off.
Royal in flight.
Salvin's and Buller's again because I like the shot.
From Robert, a borrowed phrase - 'An albatross scrum'. I like that analogy.
White capped Mollymawk.
Cape petrel.
Southern Royal. ('Southern' just so you think I know what I am talking about, it is either a Northern or a Southern . . . ) I love watching them take off. It takes a while to get airborne. They need wind to assist them. Here there is plenty.
Then it was out in the boats for the last time for a zodiac to Big and Little Mangere Islands.
We are looking along the shores of Big Mangere Island for parakeets, sea lions and the rare and very difficult to see Black Robin.
A parakeet.
There is an excited voice over the guides' intercom - Black Robin sighting! Niall tells where you can tell his voice because of his Irish accent. Alex is our zodiac driver, I have never seen him drive so fast. We are off and we all hold on. We arrive quickly, and look for ages in the area where the Black Robin was sighted (left of the rock with white on it, just before the bush line, and about 3 metres up from the sea.)
Here it is closer up. The Black Robin came down from the clearing and to the rock for 40 seconds and then back up into the clearing. There were no photos . . .
We have all zodiac's looking, for a long time, but there is no second sighting - just the one zodiac saw it.
The Black Robin story is legendary because the species has recovered from being on the cusp of extinction in the 1970's. Eggs would be laid but fledglings wouldn’t survive. Their numbers reduced to 12, then down to 5 in 1972. There were just two females left - Old Blue (named because of the blue ring they put on her), and one other who then died, so there was just her. Old Blue lived until 13 and laid so many eggs and saved the species.
DOC's ability to solve problems assisted hugely in this process too. They got tomtits to rear the Black Robin eggs (after trying first with grey warblers which was not successful). It was a miraculous recovery, and using another species to rear the young became a precedent and model for other nearly extinct species. You can read more about it here if you want to:
https://www.endangeredspecies.org.nz/store/doc/Black%20robin%20Endangered%20species%20factsheet.pdf
This is Old Blue, from the Chathams museum.
We zodiac'ed to Little Mangere Island. This is where they found the last five Black Robin. You can see that predators had not got there.
This is it in the background from a picture on the boat later.
They did clear Mangere Island for farming. The Black Robins survived and then it was replanted it again. This is the top of the island, which we can't see. (The internet is great for these things.)
Castle Rock beyond.
Interesting geology.
That night at the reading of the bird list, Niall says, "I can't really concentrate on the beginning birds on the list. I just want to get on to the Black Robin!" We get to the Black Robin and he tells us how fixated he was on seeing one. He tells us what happened on their boat, and stays on the bird for longer than every other and just keeps saying I want to stay here. He is very funny and I did not video it, sorry! It has been ten years since someone on the expedition sighted a Black Robin. It is big news.
I did get a video of Niall in his goodbyes to us all the next day. He started with the Black Robin! He had subbed in on the trip at the last minute for another guide who had fallen sick (with malaria on another birding trip). Niall was quite moved when he gave this talk - he will never forget this trip for sure.
There were celebrations.
I am happy for them and wish I had been in their boat!
Our second to last dinner together. We've had a lot of great conversations in this room.
