Ulva Island is a predator free island sanctuary accessible by water taxi from Stewart Island.
Gloomy start to the day with a bit of drizzle but the water taxi over to Ulva island gave us our only Yellow Eyed Penguin of the trip!
There are estimated to be only c5000 of these endemic penguins which occur just in the South East corner of New Zealand.
Shortly afterward a Shy Albatross came in close to check us out in the forlorn hope were were a passing fishing vessel….
Our visit started off well with an endemic Weka waiting to greet us on the beach!
Once on the island, there are a couple of well marked trails taking you to various areas of interest. The behaviour of the birds was quite amazing will all species encountered being very confiding – so much so, even without a teleconverter, the 400mm was far too much lens to get decent shots! Not a problem normally encountered and an amazing experience.
