New Zealand February - June 2015, Hawdon Valley

Famous for being one of the last three valleys that is still inhabited by the rarest of all New Zealand's bush birds, the Orange-fronted Parakeet (or Malherbe's Parakeet), Hawdon Valley has been at the very top of my to-do list. The Valley is located within the stunning Arthur's Pass National Park, which hosts several other rare species apart from the Orange-fronted Parakeet. Perhaps the second best bird of the park is the rarely seen Great Spotted Kiwi. Ironically this is the biggest and least observed kiwi! Furthermore, Yellowhead is being released here and is apparently doing well. The national park is easily reached from Christchurch by car (2.5 hours), bus (2.5 hours) or train (2.5 hours) or from Greymouth by car (1.5 hours), bus (1.5-2 hours) or train (2 hours). However getting to Hawdon Valley by public transport might prove to be a bit more tricky as the trains and buses only stop in Arthur's Pass village, which is a 15 minute drive North from Hawdon Valley. Perhaps hitchhiking to the turn to Hawdon Valley from the main road is the best option...

Hawdon Valley is not the easiest place to go birdwatching. The site is reasonably remote and any good birding most likely requires camping, long hikes and river crossings. This makes birding Hawdon Valley highly weather dependent, as rivers here can easily flood and thus might cut off your way out, so make sure to check the metservice website or the Arthur's Pass website before you head out there. Even better would be stopping at the DOC (Departement of Conservation) office in Arthur's Pass village before you go to Hawdon Valley to check the weather there. Also there you can let people know that you are hiking up the valley. Furthermore some rangers are reasonably knowledgeable about the local avifauna, so you might get some tips for your searches! 

We considered two strategies for finding the Orange-fronted Parakeets in Hawdon Valley. The first being hiking up the nine km to the new Hawdon Hut at the Northern end of the valley (see map at the bottom of this blogpost) and staying there for one or two nights and doing our searches at this remote side of valley. The second was staying at the Hawdon Shelter at the Southern end of the valley (see map at the bottom of this blogpost)and hiking into the valley each day. After we heard that some heavy showers were expected, we opted for the second strategy, as we did not fancy staying at Hawdon Hutt for several days due to rising river levels. Hawdon Shelter is easily accessed by a gravel road from the main road. Camping here is free and the site has a public toilet. Hawdon Hut is supposed to be a really nice hut and the price for staying here is 15 NZD. 

We arrived in the evening at Hawdon Shelter after we had visited the Arthur's Pass DOC office. We put up our tent and made a small stroll along the trap lines. There are no real tracks in the valley, but DOC has put up a vast trapping grid throughout the valley and the paths along the traps are the easiest way of getting around in the valley. Most are signposted with differently colored triangles. During our first walk around we already saw several Rifleman, South Island Robins, New Zealand Fantails and Grey Warblers (Gerygones). We also heard two Kea flying over. As night fell our expectations rose, as Great Spotted Kiwis can be heard from the Hawdon Shelter. No kiwi was heard on that night, but many Moreporks sang their hearts out and one preformed beautifully for us. This night was especially interesting as a complete lunar eclipse could be seen on that night in New Zealand and the dark skies of Hawdon Valley proved perfect for soaking in this spectacle!

Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae)

A full lunar eclipse or "blood moon"

The next morning we hiked into the valley (red line on the map at the bottom of this blog post). We followed the braided riverbed for about an hour until we saw a big grey cliff on the Eastern side of valley. Here we turned to the West and entered the Beech forest on the Western side of the river. -Many trip reports refer to the right (East) or left (West) side of the river or to the "true" right (West) or "true" left (East) side, which is very confusing in my opinion, therefore I will keep using the East vs. West in this report, so please use the included map for orientation.- Even while walking the open space of the braided river bed we saw some good birds like a young New Zealand Falcon that attempted to catch a Dunnock (introduced) several times, A single Kaka flying over, Several Kea flying over, 

Juvenile New Zealand Falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae)

Once we were inside the forest on the Western side of the river we started looking tags while following a trap line to the North. The Orange-fronted Parakeet team keeps track of the movement of the Parakeets in this valley and they place tags (mostly pink colored) were birds have been seen. We found some tags leading further into the forest so we followed them and played tape regularly. At a certain point a Cyanoramphus parakeet flew in. Our hearts jumped, but alas, it was "just" a Yellow-crowned Parakeet. This is another difficulty of finding Orange-fronted Parakeets: Yellow-crowned Parakeets are also attracted to tape. Furthermore, the extreme similarity of the two species means that very good views are necessary to be certain of the ID of the bird. On the other hand, we noticed that this was the only parakeet that actually showed interest in tape, but perhaps this is different in the actual breeding season. 

Yellow-crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus auriceps)

Therefore we changed our strategy again. We had heard that Orange-fronted Parakeets tag along in Pipipi (Brown Creeper) flocks during the off-season. So we searched the beech forests for mixed species flocks and Pipipi. We found several flocks containing Pipipi, Rifleman, New Zealand Fantail, South Island Robin and Tomtit and indeed, soon we observed two Cyanoramphus parakeets in a flock! However both turned out to be Yellow-crowned Parakeets... This sighting gave hope that our strategy was the right one nonetheless. We kept to the Western side of the valley and eventually we found several old nests, including one from the 2014-2015 season. Unfortunately our searches remained fruitless, so we crossed the river and started to search the Eastern side.

Pipipi or Brown Creeper (Mohoua novaeseelandia)

South Island Robin (Petroica (australis) australis)

We found the Hawdon Biodiversity Hut, which is located half-way in the valley and is probably used as a base by the Orange-fronted Parakeet team in the breeding season, East of the river. Around the hut we found some tags with recent dates on them, but again our searches were unsuccessful. We tried to find a trap line on the Eastern side, but we only found a very old and overgrown one, making our searches on the Eastern side a bit more difficult. Consequently we only heard a Cyanoramphus parakeet call, but saw none on this side. As we searching was easier on the Western side, we crossed back to that side and searched the the South-western part of the valley, but again, without result, although a very pure looking Grey (Pacific Black) Duck on a small river was noteworthy.

Back at the shelter I wanted to rest my exhausted feet, when a parakeet fell out of the sheer air! I guess it flew down from the mountain close by. It made a couple of rounds above the camp ground and landed in a tree above our tent! What a gift from the Gods! Unfortunately I could not find it in the tree, even though it kept calling. A few extremely stressful minutes passed and stress levels rose even further when someone started chopping wood close by... In the end the parakeet flew out of sight and I was left behind with a mediocre sound recording and no views that would have been useful for identifying the parakeet... What a cruel joke.

-Back home I made the effort to study both Orange-fronted and Yellow-crowned Parakeet calls, as some trip reports and books mention that the species can be identified on call. I found that the sub-units of Yellow-crowned Parakeets are shaped like an asymmetrical inverted "V" with a much shorter second leg. The sub-units of Orange-fronted Parakeets on the other hand are shaped like a symmetrical inverted "U". My recording shows inverted "U" shaped sub-units, suggesting the bird to have been an Orange-fronted Parakeet. This identification was later backed by Brent Stephenson and Paul Scofield. Although this is not a very satisfying way of identifying this species, it is a record nonetheless...-

As it turned dark we waited for calling kiwis and around 20:00 we got lucky and we heard a single Great Spotted Kiwi call series. We headed into the forest, using the diagonal trap line from Hawdon Shelter, towards the call and stopped in the forest to listen for the heavy Kiwi feet moving through the forest. After two minutes we heard the typical sneezing and turned around and there it was! What luck! A female Great Spotted Kiwi just stood there less then 10 meters from us! We enjoyed the sight of it and took some pictures, but we left it alone reasonably quickly as we noticed that it had frozen, probably by our white flashlights. I guess the red light used at all kiwi tours really makes a difference.

Female Great Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx haasti)

The next day we tried again (blue on map), but this time we started inside the forest immediately, staying on the Eastern side, working our way towards a the site where Rob Hutchinson had found an Orange-fronted Parakeet in late 2014. We continued to search for mixed species flocks as well, but we still had no luck, so we crossed the river again. On the Western side we found a big flock, containing a Cyanoramphus parakeet, but again it was a Yellow-crowned Parakeet. We continued to search for a couple of hours on the Eastern side, but eventually we returned to the shelter.

Even though that we had not been successful in getting the views we had hoped for, I would like to point out that late (austral) summer strikes me as a good time to look for these rare parakeets. The river levels were really low and we barely got wet feet as we could cross almost always by skipping from stone to stone. Apparently this is quite different in spring as rivers are very difficult or impossible to cross. This makes late summer definitely a better time to search. On the other hand the parakeets definitely were not responsive... When we headed back to the DOC office in Arthur's Pass village to report our Great Spotted Kiwi sighting, a knowledgeable ranger told us that a good spot to search for both Orange-fronted Parakeet and Yellowhead, is beyond the  DOC Biodiversity Hut on the Eastern side of the valley...

Topographic map of Hawdon Valley.

Red: day one, Blue: day two

OFP: Orange-fronted Parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi)

YCP: Yellow-crowned Parakeet (Cyanorampus auriceps)

P spec: Parakeet spec (Cyanorampus spec)

GSP: Great Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx haasti)

YH: Yellowhead (Mohoua ochrocephala)

RH: Rob Hutchinson

DOC: Departement of Conservatio

I can highly recommend birding Hawdon Valley. It filled with pristine forest, the scenery is spectacular (as almost everywhere on the South Island), DOC is doing a lot of pest control and this is reflected in the number of bird and bird species encountered, it holds a number of highly desirable species and the remoteness and wildness only adds to the whole experience. Or at least in my opinion. Furthermore, I would like to thank Rob Hutchinson, Tom Goossens, David Boyle and Alan Lewis for their tips and advice on finding Orange-fronted Parakeets.