Birds of New Zealand by Tica and Ian

Weka, Golden Bay, South Island, NZ (Photo by Ian)

Here is a list of the birds we saw or heard in New Zealand. The original spreadsheet also includes the scientific names as well as whether the birds are endemic, native or introduced.

There was not enough room to include these items however. -- Tica and Ian

Common Name	Notes
Australasian Gannett	yellow head and black at the tip of wings, big breeding colony at Muriwai Bay, we went but they had already flown north toward better weather, saw one in Abel Tasman National Park (South Island) and Otamure Beach on the North Island
Australasian Harrier	very common, often seen dining on road kill on the side of the road or surveying fields near the road
Australian Magpie	many spotted in fields on the side of the road
Australian Pied Cormorant	not very common
Bellbird	call similar to a Tui but without the grunts and clicks
Black billed gull	very common
Black Fronted Tern	rare
Black-backed Gull	very common
Blackbird	New Zealand's most common bird
Brown Kiwi	New Zealand's national bird, looks as though it has as a very long bill, but it has the shortest in the world because scientists measure from a bird's beach from the nostrils; kiwi nostrils are located at the end of the beak so they can rifle through leaves for grubs and things
California Quail	seen at many different camps on the North Island
Caspian Tern	less common
Chaffinch	very common
Dunnock (Hedge Sparrow)	very common
Eastern Rosella	seen on the North Island in Shakespear Regional Park and in the central North Island, usually seen in pairs
European Goldfinch	The most colorful bird in New Zealand; frequently seen in flocks
Fantail	flits around like a butterfly; very friendl;. sometimes lands on people
Fernbird	seen on Tiritiri Mitangi island
Greenfinch	we only saw three
Grey Teal	endangered, looks like a female mallard
Grey Warbler
House Sparrow	very common in cities and campgrounds
Kea	cheeky mountain parrot
Kingfisher	mostly on the side of the road near bodies of water and at the beach, don't make noise as much as kingfishers at home
Kokako	very rare only seen on the North Island
Little Blue Penguin	world's smallest penguin
Little Pied Shag	aka cormorant, very common
Morepork	owl species that is often heard but seldom seen
Myna	only seen on the North Island as they find the South Island to be too cold
New Zealand Dotterel	uncommon shore bird, we saw some at Matapuri Bay, North Island
New Zealand Falcon	uncommon
New Zealand Pigeon	wood pigeon, much bigger than city pigeons, lives in forests, fast whirring wing beats like a city pigeon
New Zealand Pipit	we only saw one
New Zealand Robin	very small and black with long legs
Paradise Shellduck	very common, most often seen in pairs, female has white head while drake has black head
Pied Stilt	very common
Pukeko	common in fields along the side of roads, especially damp ones, talk with their tails
Red Billed gull	very common
Red crowned parakeet	extinct on the main islands of New Zealand, found in bird sanctuaries like Tiritiri Matangi
Rifleman	Seen at Arthur's Pass National Park
Ringed-Necked Pheasant	rather commonly seen in fields
Rock Pigeon (City Pigeon)	found mostly in citys
Rook	only found on the North Island and only in places on the South Island, look a lot like a crow only bigger
Royal Albatross	very large with impressive wingspan, seen on the tip of the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin and at Nugget Point on the east coast, South Island
Saddleback	rare
Silvereye	very common
Skylark	very common
Song Thrush	seen at almost all camps on the North Island
Southern Crested Grebe	Very rare, only 45 left in the world, seen in just outside of Arthur's Pass NP, South Island
Spur-Winged Plover	seen most often on the side of the road, feeding in fields
Starling	second most common bird in New Zealand (behind the blackbird)
Stitchbird	rare
Tomtit	sometimes mistaken for a stichbird
Tui	song includes grunts and clicks and high piched peeps
Variable Oystercatcher	very common
Weka	Odd looking bird, sort of like a cross between a kiwi and a duck, seen around campgrounds on the South Island
Welcome Swallow	Flies very fast to catch sand flies
White Head	not common
White-faced Heron	common around bodies of water
White-Fronted Tern	less common
Yellow-Eyed Penguin	One world's rarest penguin
Yellowhammer	in mountains

Birds of New Zealand - Pix and Flix

(We are having trouble figuring out how to format the bird list. In the meantime, we thought you'd enjoy some pictures and a short movie showing some of the NZ birds we saw. Enjoy and stay tuned....)

Here are some more pictures and sounds of the bush (forest) and beach in New Zealand....

Bell Bird and Stitch Bird Chorus, Tiritiri Matangi Island, NZ

Bell Bird (photo by Ian) and Stitch Bird (photo by Ben), honey-eaters which tend to hang out together in the bush.

The Tahake, once thought to be extinct. Only 230 remain on earth, 10 of which are found on Tiritiri Matangi, a pest-free island near Auckland. (Photo by Ian)

The cheeky kea, an alpine parrot known for its intelligence (like a seven year old child) and its penchant for raiding camping supplies and eating windshield wipers. (Photo by Ian, Arthur's Pass NP, South Island, NZ)

The Bird List Project -- by Tica and Ian

Collared Lories, Fiji

I got into birding and animal watching on this trip. I did not expect it but my sister Tica helped me to become a birder. Everywhere we went this year, be it Fiji, Tasmania, Singapore or New Zealand, we have seen amazing birds, like penguins, fantails, kookaburras, and others. I did not think I would ever see such things in my lifetime. If you look hard enough, you can find unique and very ornate species anywhere you go, like the Superb Fairy Wren of Tasmania or the Collared Lory of Fiji.

The blogposts that follow are ones that Tica and I worked on together and will detail birds that we saw on our trip by destination. We did not see many birds in Thailand and Singapore so that post will be much shorter than, say, the New Zealand post. Together, these posts will make a great start for our life lists. Tica and I look forward to adding to it when we get home to the States. -- Ian

Yellow Eyed Penguins, South Island (photo by Ian)

Note: All of the birds on the bird lists were seen or heard in the wild with the exception of the Brown Kiwi, which we saw at Willowbank Nature Preserve in Christchurch and the Auckland Zoo. Here are some birds that we saw in The Auckland Zoo and the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore. Here are a few birds that we saw in captivity:

Australian Crested Pigeon

Australian King Parrot

Bald Eagle

Birds of Paradise (various species)

Black Cockatoo

Blue Duck

Doves (various species)

Emu

Flamingo

Golden Eagle

Guinea fowl (various species)

Hornbills (various species)

Kaka

Lovebirds (various species)

Ostrich

Rainbow Lorikeets

Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo

Toucan (various species)

Vultures

Zebra Finch

My Views on Homeschool by Ian

Homeschool in a Global Classroom: PE & Science, Gulf of Thailand

My mom asked if I would write down my thoughts about this year’s education scheme. I found homeschool to be good in ways and bad in others, but it opened up the window of going into other parts of the world.

Our life was very dissimilar in all the different places we visited this year, but from September until now, homeschool was always a regular part of our week. When we were in Fiji, we were in one place for a long time so we had a much more regular school schedule. We spent a good part of each weekday studying. In Tasmania, we drove around a lot and explored. We barely did any school aside from exploring the countryside and visiting Port Arthur museum. In Bangkok, we sort of got back to a regular school routine, but we had the Hresko-Hurd Family to visit with and many temples to see. We worked from early in the morning until mid-day so we could go out and do things. In New Zealand, our focus has been to finish up school and the trip on a good note. We have done quite a bit of traveling by campervan but managed to do some school while learning a lot about the geography, history and government of New Zealand.

Campervan Math, Matauri Bay, New Zealand

The bad things about home school were that we only had our family. Some people might think that it would be a breeze to have their family with them 24\7 but it is not. We had our moments but over all it has been okay. Another thing is that you have less school time at homeschool but some of it is not fun. For instance, our math program this year was very boring, and the writing was boring, but we survived. The third thing that I did not like was that when I was doing writing with my mom was that we always got the bad room that did not have a table and only a bed or two when Tica and Dad got the nice room with the table. The final bad thing was that in Tasmania and New Zealand, we were moving around the whole or most of the time. It was hard to move everyday and do school so we kind of got out of the habit sometimes.

Glaciology Studies in Mt. Cook NP, New Zealand

One of the good things about homeschool was being able to snorkel every day for four months and see sharks and rays and all sorts of marine critters. I learned how to Scuba dive in Thailand, and I swam and went birding. I saw more birds than I ever imagined. We got to meet new people, make new friends and learn about different countries and cultures. Another thing was that we had a lot more flexibility to do things when and how we wanted to. Being able to go at our own pace was great. At home, we always have a schedule and only so much time to do what we want, but on the trip we haven’t had those regular activities or so many hours in school, leaving more time in the day to explore. I will miss that.

This might be my last blog post so thank you for reading the blog and giving your support this is what I thought of home school. If I had the chance to do it again, I would because I learned a lot of things in a very short period of time. When I home though, I want to go back to regular school on Bainbridge Island. I miss my friends and am tired of just having my sister for a classmate.

Biography of Abel Janzoon Tasman by Ian

Abel Tasman and Family by Jacob Cuyp (c. 1637)

Explorers are an amazing lot. They go to unknown lands unknown waters and hit uncharted reefs. They leave families and friends, sometimes never seeing them again. The amazing thing about Abel Tasman is that he sailed 13,000 km through the treacherous South Seas in search of a fabled continent. He had two ships to guide and one hundred and ten men on them. He was the first European to find two major new landmasses and two new archipelagoes in the South Pacific. He returned safely to civilization having lost only four men. And yet, his employer considered Abel Tasman’s journey a failure.

Abel Janzoon Tasman was born in 1603 in Lyutegast, Netherlands "in humble circumstances." Not much else is known about his early life in Holland, but in 1633, Tasman joined an expedition to India as a common sailor. He apparently was good at his new job because a short eight years later, Tasman was placed in charge of an expedition to northern Japan to explore trade routes.

Tasman’s major exploration was in 1642, when at the age of 39, he lead the ships Zeehaen and Heemskerck and a crew of 110 men on an ambitious journey into the Southern Ocean. Tasman set off from the port of Batavia (present day Jarkarta) with specific instructions from his employer, the Dutch East India Company. The expedition was to sail south and search for the fabled Great South Land, a continent that Europeans thought existed but that no European had yet found. Tasman was to map any new lands he found and, if possible, claim them for the Dutch. He was also to gather any information for the company to use to establish new trade routes in the region.

It is important to remember that ships of that era could only sail with the wind at their backs. As a result, Tasman’s expedition first sailed to Mauritius to take advantage of the winds that would propel the Zeehaen and Heemskerck in the right direction. After resupplying the ships with provisions for a year, the team headed south as instructed toward 52 degrees latitude, again to catch favorable winds. The expedition was then to head east in search of the new continent.

The going was tough, and Tasman and his crew had to change course, steering the ships northward so as to get away from the cold and terrible storms that lashed the ships all day and all night. This put them on course to hit a new major landmass, which Tasman claimed for Holland and named Van Diemen’s Landt after the governor of the Dutch East India Company. This land is now known as Tasmania.

The Tasman Sea near Haast, NZ (photo by Ben)

When “Land Ho!” was called again, Tasman thought he had discovered the Great South Land. He called it Staaten Landt. Actually, he had “discovered” present day New Zealand. The expedition tried to make landfall a number of times so that they could claim the land for the Dutch. Challenging seas and a violent skirmish with the native Maoris at what is now Golden Bay blocked them from doing so however.

Unable to land or resupply, Tasman and his crew left New Zealand with only a few maps and drawings of the new land. They did not even manage to discover that New Zealand was made up of two major landmasses, the North Island and the South Island.

The expedition had better luck in Tonga, where they were able to get water and fruit and had much better relations with the natives. They continued north and found Fiji. Dangerous reefs and stormy conditions made it impossible to land though, so the expedition continued on back towards Batavia.

Map of Abel Tasman's Journey 1642-43 - Source: Internet

After 10 months, the ships returned to Batavia with almost all their men, lots of new information and having discovered 4 new pieces of unknown land. Even so, the Dutch East India Company called Abel Tasman’s voyage of discovery a failure. In his instructions, he was supposed to circle around any piece of land they found. He did not do this. He also did not find any new trading routes, the company said, even though he did trade with the Tongans. Finally, the company had instructed wanted Tasman to seek a new sailing route between New Holland (Australia) and Papua New Guinea. Tasman chose instead to sail a known route home.

Despite his employer's grumblings, Tasman led other voyages of discovery a few years later, one to map the northern coast of New Holland and another to the Philippines, an island chain that the Dutch were trying to take away from the Spanish. Tasman got into trouble for mistreating one of his sailors on the Philippines trip and was disciplined. He was later reinstated and eventually retired to his estate in Batavia. He managed his various businesses until his death in 1659 at the age of 56.

Abel Tasman Glacier, New Zealand (Photo by Ian)

Perhaps the Dutch East India Company was wrong about Tasman? After all, he and his crew accomplished an amazing voyage under harsh conditions with primitive equipment. He discovered four new pieces of land and recorded information that many future explorers, including Captain James Cook, used during on their own explorations. Because of these discoveries, Abel Tasman has lots of things named after him in this part of the world, like Tasmania, the Tasman Sea and Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand. Maybe it is the Dutch East India Company that is at fault for misjudging their loyal captain's accomplishments? What do you think?