I spent last Sunday on the water off Kaikoura. It was a fishing trip with some old friends (the Serious Fishing Club) and some new ones.

Even though the fishing was not great, we all came home with some nice fish and a crayfish or two.  My neighbours were delighted to receive some blue cod fillets, always best eaten fresh.

As usual, the bird life was just great. At least a couple of different varieties of albatross, giant petrels, shearwaters, plus lots of gulls.  Here are some examples:

The gull gives a sense of scale

a Flesh-footed shearwater

Salvin's Albatross

The fish is about 20 cm + long!

Photographing them under these circumstances is tough!  I was using a big telephoto which has a very narrow depth of focus.  So on the pitching boat I had to track the birds well enough for the autofocus sensors to latch onto them.  It was hard enough to keep the birds in the frame, let alone get them in focus. Thank heavens for digital photography!  When I got home, I think I deleted 70% or so of the images and ended up posting about 10% or so.

You can find them here (along with pictures of my fishing mates) in low resolution, or the best in higher resolution in my birdlife galleries.