My New Zealand 2001 Category Award Winners (Drumroll Please)
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CATEGORY
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BIRD
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COMMENT
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| Most Endangered Bird | Black Stilt | Only 24 in existence as of a couple of years ago. South Island, near Twizel. Captive breeding and release program under way. |
| Friendliest Bird (tie) | New Zealand Robin. Fantail. | Both birds hang around, knowing that our feet would stir up insects. Sharon can call in a Fantail at will. |
| Best Shorebird | Red-necked Stint | Huddled against the cold wind, in a deep footprint in the sand, at Foxton Beach, North Island. Beautiful color on neck. |
| Best Whistler | Blue Duck | The male whistles and the female answers in a lower tone. These birds are extremely hard to find. You have to know somebody. Tongariro National Park. North Island. |
| Biggest Surprise (tie) | Reef Heron. Cape Barren Geese. | Reef Heron flyover, on Stewart Island, just after we had mentioned it. Cape Barren Geese, investigating us on St. Anne's Lagoon by sailing out of nowhere, after I played my Minidisc recording of a Diving Petrel. |
| Best Day | 1 uncommon and 3 very, very tough birds | New Zealand Dabchick, Bittern (heard only), Marsh Crake and Spotless Crake. |
| Best Sound, Flying (tie) | New Zealand Pigeon. Tui. | New Zealand Pigeon (whooom, whooom, whooom), and Tui (has one missing feather, in its design, and its wings make a very distinct buzzy, whirring sound as it flies |
| Best Bird that Almost Died Out | Saddleback | Tiri Tiri Matangi. Non-existent now on either North or South Islands. |
| Most Rewarding Bird | Stewart Island Kiwi | Stewart Island, Ocean Beach, 45-minute boat ride in the dark, then 20-minute hike over and down a ridge, then about 90 minutes walking up and down the beach. This is what you come to New Zealand to see, if you are a birder. |
| Best Fantasy Bird | Penguins | Years ago, I thought these birds lived only where there was ice. Not so, we saw 16-inch Blue Penguins and 24-inch Yellow-eyed Penguins come ashore at Penguin Beach, Tairoa Head, Otago Peninsula, South Island, in the two hours before dark, with the Blues waiting till the last ten minutes before dark. |
| Best Bent-bill Bird | Wrybill | All bills of this shorebird are bent noticeably to the right -- every one. |
| Best Dive from 50 feet | Gannet | We saw one plunge straight down into Marlborough Sound, viewed from our ferry while crossing from the North Island to the South Island |
| Biggest Bird | Royal Albatross | Wingspan 3 meters -- that's 10 feet. Unbelievable. |
| Best Mimic | Tui | These birds can imitate almost any sound, it seemed. And the double cottonballs on the neck are spectacular. |
| Most Frantic Bird | Stitchbird | These birds, who exist on only four New Zealand Islands, respond to Sharon's call in a most agitated state, bouncing back and forth. The males are a beautiful black, yellow and white. |
| The "Finally" Bird | Black Fantail | The books say that Pied Fantails make up most of the population, but Black Fantails make up 20% or so. I would make it to be about 5% at most. Anyway, after Sharon had seen two or three, we both finally saw one on the South Island, at Knights Point, on the west coast. They are all black except for a tiny white "teardrop" behind each eye. |
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