Albatrosses galore!

After having our albatross tour cancelled in Feb, it took us a while to reschedule. Finally, in early April, we got ourselves together. So glad we did! It was well worth waiting for. A seabird paradise. Above - Buller's Albatross

An (enormous!) albatross chick, patiently waiting. 

And another one, getting fed! This is the father. Can tell by the bands researchers put on its legs, otherwise male and female are indistinguishable.

Observatory at the Royal Albatross Center, on the tip of the Otago Peninsula.  

Nesting colony of endangered cormorants - the Otago Shag.

 

Here another albatross species:

the white-capped albatross

Running on the water to take off!

 

2 meter wingspan!

New Zealand fur seas

 The maternity colony - the pup here nursing from its mom.

And this is a male, from the bachelor colony around the point.

Later we discovered this cool real time webcam - focused on a developing albatross chick on the pennisula (the very one we saw when we were visiting the observatory).

http://albatross.org.nz/live-royal-cam/

They have it projected on a huge column at the Dunedin Library, so cool!!