Farewell Spit Eco Tours Blog

A first for Elaine occurred today when a Far eastern Curlew flew around her tour bus. These birds come here from the arctic circle to feed during our Summer. they are about the same size as a White faced heron light brown with a downward curved bill.

Variable Oystercatchers are at it again, two pairs were seen mating on the beach yesterday. There are about 25 pairs of these birds on the ocean beach of the Spit. Each pair has a territory of a kilometre or so and chicks usually hatch early in December. Tim also spotted snow on the top of Mt. Taranaki 200km away (no skiers though).

Lately there are lots of Caspian Terns on the beach in breeding plumage signalling that they are ready to get it together down on the end of the Spit. Their colony is close to that of the Gannets approx. two km. beyond the lighthouse.

 Tims tour watched as male Gannets collect kelp and seaweed for nest building. They gather it up from the beach and fly to the colony on the end of the Spit, sometimes only to have a neighbouring Gannet, usually female, steal it from under them. These birds could be starting to nest a bit later than the others or maybe repairing storm damage to existing nests.

Today a Southern Right whale was seen near Pohara and later on two more near Tukurua. We wonder,as one of these was larger than the other, are they the same ones that were here last year cruising the bay. Unfortunately the weather was too rough and windy for the D.o.C to launch their boat to take identification photos.

28th of September is the date we expect to see some of the waders that have returned here from their breeding grounds in the arctic circle.

Well we didn’t see any Godwits on the 28th of Sept. this year but we did see some Turnstones about halfway along the ocean beach whilst we were returning from an afternoon visit to the Gannet Colony at the end of the spit.

The Godwits showed up for the first time in the fiest week of October. Small flocks spread along the beach looking skinny and worn out.

On Saturday 20th October, the annual fireworks display happens in the Collingwood haven. The action starts at 3.00pm with a car cutting display by the collingwood Volunteer fire brigade.

The squid whisperer strikes again!

Kersten Franke discovered his second giant squid on the ocean beach approx 6 km from the base of the Spit. He was driving an early morning tour and spotted it just after sunrise.

These ten legged monsters arrive on the beach every four or five years. This one was not quite as large as the last one which was even more rare because it had hooks on its tentacles not suckers.

The Department of Conservation collect them, freeze them and send them off to a scientist to study in Auckland.

This photo of a deceased giant sqid was taken in July. The squid was washed up 6 kilometres along the Ocean Beach.

This is only the 5th time in the past 20 years that such an occurance has happened. View TV 3 News story here and listen to RadioLIVES’s Marcus Lush interview

Welcome to the ongoing saga of life on the beach.

Things we see or find and sometimes wish we hadn’t.

Farewell Spit is a long crooked finger of sand poking out into the Tasman Sea from the Top of New Zealand’s South island. It is 35 km. long and the tour buses travel its length to the lighthouse at the tip. Because of the curve and the continual current running along the spit all sorts of treasure is deposited there to surprise visitors.