Marlborough Sounds sea sightings

The Marlborough Sounds is a hotspot for marine wildlife. During a trip out on the water a range of different mammal and bird species can be encountered. Here are some snaps of some of the typical sightings to expect:

Hector's dolphin

Australasian gannets

King shags

Pied shags nesting

Spotted shag

Caspian tern

Blumine Island wildlife

Each predator-free island in the Sounds is different and hosts an assemblage of different species. Blumine Island is one of my favourites, especially to see tomtits which are not seen on the nearby Motuara Island. Blumine is also one of the few places where you can encounter very rare orange-fronted parakeets.

Views from Blumine Island

New Zealand woodpigeon/kereru

Tomtit

Saddleback

Nature's artwork

Sunset in the Sounds

Another day in paradise, watching the sun set in the Marlborough Sounds.

Bathing birds

The bird bath on Motuara Island is a great place to sit and wait for birds to arrive to take a dip throughout the day. Several different rare and endangered species of New Zealand birds can be seen here. 

Yellow-crowned parakeet

South Island robin

Weka

Motuara Island

Motuara island is a magical little place in the Queen Charlotte Sound, right at the edge of the Cook Strait. The lookout at the top provides spectacular views of the over the Sounds, and often all the way to the North Island. It's also a life raft for a variety of endangered birds (and other New Zealand wildlife) that have been released onto the island to save them from extinction.

Yellow-crowned parakeet

South Island robin

Saddleback - almost like a ghost in the forest

Grey warbler

New Zealand wood pigeon/kereru

New Zealand fur seal

Silvereye

Juvenile bellbird

Views out the the outer Queen Charlotte Sound

Bottlenose dolphins in New Zealand

There are only a few populations and sub-populations of bottlenose dolphins around New Zealand's coastlines. A small population of maybe as few as 200 dolphins sometimes visits the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island. They are usually a delight to watch, as they are known for their impressive acrobatic displays. They can quite easily leap more than their body length vertically out of the water!

Hector's dolphins in the Sounds

Hector's dolphins are small dolphins that are only found in coastal waters around New Zealand. I've been lucky to see these rare and endangered dolphins in a few places, but none as good as in the Queen Charlotte Sound. In other parts of New Zealand I've experienced these dolphins to be quite shy and elusive, but in the Queen Charlotte Sound there is a small population of Hector's dolphins that are curious and even playful and times. One individual that stands out is a very curious female who seems to to enjoy the odd scratch against stationary boats. We called this curious dolphin Georgina.

A curious dolphin called Georgina