Korimako song
When korimako - bellbirds - are young, they learn to sing. They mimic the birds around then, stringing together strange combinations of burbling calls and whistles, disjointed melodies, until they…
Dry
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,…
Shooting stormies
I realised that the title could be a little misleading, or at least interpreted in different ways. I meant it in the sense that the white-faced storm petrels were like…
A day in the life of a seabird biologist
Being a seabird biologist, my life is quite varied. Sometimes I'm in the field, working with the birds I'm studying, and other times I'm behind a desk or a lab…
The rarest bird
I spent some time recently with Aotearoa New Zealand's rarest bird. Not the kākāpō. Not one of our kiwi species. Not the kakī. tara-iti, the New Zealand Fairy tern, is…
Chathams
I've visited the Chatham islands three times in the past four years. The best was a month spent at Taiko camp, lending a hand feeding 100 tītī (sooty shearwater) chicks…
2019- Advanced petrelology (not to be confused with petrology)
Re-vise Re-wind
A look back at the past eight (eight?!) years.
Tāwharanui – diurnal version
I spend a lot of my time at Tāwharanui at night. Or if it's during the day, I'm working around the seabird colonies checking trail cameras and nest boxes. But…
The Overwhelm
This photo encapsulates how I've been feeling recently. A tiny bird in a big ocean, thrashed by storms and constant swells. Waves could break over me at any minute, soaking…
From the Archives: Subantarctic New Zealand
Every now and then I get the urge to delve back into my photo archives. It's a rewarding exercise because it does a few things: I appreciate my past wins…
The green wool jumper
Every time I pull on my green wool jumper, I’m reminded of the farm. Maybe it’s the smell of it, a kind of warm dustiness that even repeated washes and…
Snooze
I wish I could nap like a bird, head tucked back and cozy between wing feathers. tākapu - Australasian gannets are probably my most-photographed bird, but every trip to Muriwai…
Snapshots from the field
The field season is in full swing, keeping me almost too busy to think, let alone take photographs! Here's a few snapshots from the past months, from visits to the…
A third bird
PhD's evolve a lot from their initial concept. I'm not even all the way through my first year and my project has grown and adjusted a huge amount. This is…