Exploring the Bird Sanctuary of Ulva Island

The Ulva Island Ferry

We hop onto the small blue boat and meet our skipper, Peter, who gives us a quick safety briefing for the 5-minutes journey over to Ulva Island. Despite being three times we can catch the ferry back to Stewart Island, we need to take the 12pm ferry so we have enough time to catch the ferry back to the South Island.

The boat reaches Post Office Bay, the only bay on Ulva Island with a jetty on it. Ahead, we can see a small white sand beach lined with rock and dense native forest.

“The best way to see the most wildlife on Ulva Island is to walk slow. You are the birds’ food source. They will come to you,” Peter advises us as we walk onto Post Office Bay. With that in mind, and the fact that we don’t have a full day to spend here, we decide to take a “45-minute” loop walk i.e. a walk that we’ll stretch out for 2h30mins.

A Stewart Island robin welcoming

After a quick check of our backpacks to make sure no pests leaped in along our travels, we head into the bush… Only, literally at the entrance of the forest, a Stewart Island robin chirps at us from a track-side branch then hops down at our feet, looking for any insects that we might have disturbed with our feet. The little black and white robin with long legs is just too cute to not take photos! This is when it is confirmed that our “45-minute” walk is going to take SO MUCH longer.

Weka chick encounter #1

Birds on all levels!

We take on Peter’s words of advice, walking slowly, looking around us at all times. The thing with New Zealand birds is that they live in all levels of the forest! Of course, there are the flightless birds like the famous kiwi found on the forest floor, while other birds flit around at a mid-level like the yellowhead (or clumsily like the wood pigeon) just above our heads. Then high up in the canopy we can hear the calls of the kaka parrot and the warbles of the tui!

Speaking of calls, the bird song on Ulva Island is absolutely incredible! There is such a variety in sounds from low clicks from the flightless weka to the melodies of the bellbird. Before human migration to New Zealand, most of the country would have sounded like this. Ulva Island is like stepping back in time.

The weka chick!

It’s at our feet where we have our next bird encounter. Is it a kiwi bird?! No! It’s the Stewart Island weka, another brown flightless bird but with a short (but tough) beak. Two of them forage for insects at opposite sides of the track, throwing moss and twigs in all directions! Some of those twigs are hitting another bird, it’s a weka chick! Ah, cuteness overload! The fluffy weka chick is trying to avoid all the moss being thrown at it by its mother. Every now and then, its father (we assume) is running across the track with a bug in its mouth to feed the chick. How precious! What’s more, this is not our only weka chick encounter today – we see two more snuggling together later.

Following footprints on Sydney Cove

Of course, cooing over the chick takes us enough time. Eventually, we pull ourselves away and head to Sydney Cove. Wow, this place is stunning! The long stretching white sand beach is home to a pair of oystercatchers, black birds with long orange beaks. They much prefer to be left alone though, so we walk slowly along the sand only seemingly disturbed mostly by birds, as you can see a long line of footprints, and the odd human.

Another sign of humans living it up here on Sydney Cove is a tree swing, where you can find the introduced French Robin – the biggest pest of them all!