Daytime kiwi. I spent a few weeks way down south on Rakiura two years ago hoping to bump into tokoeka during the day – Ulva island is famous for it, and the dunelands of Mason Bay. Winter wasn’t the best choice of season – days are short enough as it is, but it was all I had. I was out all day, every day. And into the night – when I did spot plenty of kiwi, but none obliged for the images I was planning.

I never saw a kiwi during the day, and I came away from those weeks with no decent kiwi photos. It was one of the main reasons for the trip, while I was compiling photographs for The Brilliance of Birds. That’s what happens when you try to plan bird photography! For me, spontaneity is best.

Fast forward to this year, January, working on the New Zealand Storm petrel project on Hauturu, and doing seabird light attraction experiments at night. I had daytimes to wander around in, and within the first few hours of being on the island, ran into this beautiful bird. Out during the day, in high summer.

The ground is dry. We’ve had drought conditions in the north for over a month now, and this encounter wasn’t long into the dry spell. When the ground is dry and hard, kiwi find it difficult to probe into the earth to catch their subterranean prey. When foraging conditions are bad like this, they need to spend more time at it to get enough to eat. Which means – daytime kiwi. It’s a special experience to see these nocturnal birds out and about during the day, but it’s indicative of a problem. There have been lots of excited sightings of kiwi during the day recently, but we’re only seeing them because they’re having a hard time foraging.

I wanted to capture that in this photo – the heat, the dryness. I’ve been spending a lot of time outside in the field, and I feel baked myself. The sun can be oppressive, especially when there is nowhere to hide. Fresh water is precious when we do work on islands with no permanent water sources. We’re so lucky here to usually have such an abundance of it, and it’s times like these that makes me appreciate just how lucky we are.

Here’s to rain, and more of it.