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The Manawatu estuary at Foxton beach is one of the best places in the lower North Island to see a variety of shore birds and waders. It's one of the places were our Arctic migrants can regularly be seen over summer including the bar tailed godwit, Pacific golden plover and lesser knots.The photos below are from a brief visit on my way down to Wellington at the end of March. All photos were taken with the new Nikor 500mm f5.6 PF lense fitted with a 1.4 teleconverter.A white fronted tern ( …

I often sit on the foreshore rocks along the New Plymouth coastal walkway to eat my lunch and watch the rock crabs fossicking for food at the waters edge.  They come out near low tide climbing over the rocks.  It amazes me how they cling on to the wet surface even when the waves crash over them.  They're very wary of any movement or shadows and scuttle for cover immediately.  I finally took my camera with me last week and took some photos of them. …

We've just has another super full moon when the moon makes its closest approach to earth getting within 360770km, approx 25km closer than its normal orbit.  I decided to head to Ngamutu beach and see if I could get some shots of the moon setting behind Paritutu before having to head to work.  The moon was just stunning hanging suspended in the dawn sky above Paritutu and then as I finsihed taking shots of the moon I turned around to see the sun rising through the trees. It reall …

One of the best places to see a variety of birds in New Plymouth is the Waiwhakaio river mouth.  As well as waders, shags and sea birds there is nearly always a good variety of small birds around in the tussock and scrub including silvereye, gold finch, green finch, dunnock, yellow hammer and skylarks.  On saturday morning I headed down there again get some more shots with my new nikor 500mm lense.One of my first shots of the morning, a black shag (kawau), lifting off from the water.A …

I've been wanting to do some night photos of the milky way curving over the mountain (Taranaki) for a long time now but the conditions haven't been right and there is only a few days a year when everything lines up right. Firstly the milky way has to be in the right aspect then it has to be close to a new moon and lastly you need a fine clear night. For the last couple of months the night conditions around the new moon just haven't been clear enough and the weather outlook heading into Taranaki …