Island nights
I've spent a week under the stars, camping in a pōhutukawa clearing on a seabird island. Wind was constant, an endless river through the canopy. Hushing leaves and groaning trunk-creaks…
Little shearwaters
Last week I started work on another part of my PhD project - monitoring the breeding success of little shearwaters. These wee birds are very cryptic. Unlike fluttering shearwaters, we…
Geckos in the ceiling
This week I’m back in the field again - looking for little shearwaters! One of the highlights of working on the islands (apart from all the birds!) is the amazing…
Plastic Ocean
The dangers of plastics in our ecosystem is an issue that is becoming more mainstream knowledge. We've begun to realise that nothing that we throw 'away' truly vanishes - it…
Dawn around the Pinnacles
The 5am start is a struggle, in the chill starry blackness before dawn. We traipse down an empty road in the dark to hop aboard the comforting familiarity of Trevor's…
January fieldwork
After seven days in the subantarctic, I'm back on the Poor Knights islands. It's Northland warm, still and sunny, Shag bay turquoise and calm. The storms of December ripped through…
Light at night
I have a complicated relationship with the lighthouse on Burgess island. I love it for the predictable swing of the beams that slice out into the night, rays reaching out…
Beyond the camera – seabird sketches
I was an artist long before I was a photographer. I was also a birdwatcher long before I was a photographer, and it was only natural for the two to…
Black Noddy
In December 2018, there was a Black noddy kicking around the Hauraki Gulf. These birds are a subtropical/tropical species, and in Aotearoa the only place they breed is in the…
Escapism – to the Poor Knights
One of the reasons I love photography is that is provides me with clear windows into my memories - which get fuzzy over time and a little muddled. By having…
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…
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…
Rangitāhua – Kermadec islands Part I
The Kermadec adventure - seabirds, flying fish (and squid?!), and more!