Tauhou in the roses
I've been enjoying watching the garden birds outside my 'home-office' (my bedroom). House sparrows are the most common visitors, closely followed by these tauhou - silvereyes - tempted by the…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
weweia
New Zealand dabchicks aren't often easy birds to see. These secretive little freshwater birds frequent reedy lakes and aren't too fond of people. Growing up around the Rotorua lakes I…
Meeting new birds
To sum up this whole blog pot: "I'm not a birder, but..." (I probably am a birder).
Flesh-footed shearwaters
Although my research is focused on Grey-faced petrels, I've got to know the other seabird inhabitants of the Hauraki Gulf quite well this year. These sleek birds - Flesh-footed shearwaters…
The Miracle Bird
On the 20th of September I had one of those moments. One of those moments of pure joy and excitement at seeing a new species of bird for the first…
Levitating fantails
The last three weeks weeks have been hectic and I've only just realised that I hadn't written a blog for today. So here's two photos I took this morning! Fantails…
Mōhua
I think every conference I attend from now on will be a bit of a let-down compared to the BirdsNZ conference this year. After a weekend of great talks, we…
Recently: Gannets and Staying Creative
How many ways can you photograph the same subject? I've been out to Muriwai so many times over the past few months, and while it's always different, the main subjects…
Albatross and their Islands
It started with this photo: On New Year's day 2016, leaving Campbell Island, I made this image of a Campbell albatross with cloud-wreathed Campbell Island in the background. It ended…