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It's my favourite time of year again when the cherries are in flower and we have flocks of tui coming into the garden.  This morning we had over 20 tui in the cherry trees having a great old time feeding on the nectar, singing and chasing each other around the garden. There was also a small flock of silvereye in one of the trees. The silvereye are always a bit weary since the tui will regulalary chase them away. They disapear in to the thick growth of some nearby camelias then sneak ba …

We were in Wellington last weekend and despite the bad weather I took the opportunity to go for a walk in Zealandia. THe morning started overcast with a forecast for rain but I optimistically though the the rain might hold off. I got got up above the upper dam thinking that the weather didn't look too bad when suddenly it closed in and the heavy rain started.  By this time I had managed to photograph several hihi at one of the feeding stations and though I had seen and heard lots of saddleb …

The Pauatahanui wildlife reserve is becoming a great haven on Wellingtons doorstep for wetland birds. The pest eradication campaigns by DOC and Fores & Bird are showing great results which has enabled fernbirds to be translocated and established as well as other rare wetland birds such as the spotless crake and banded rail now turning up and moving in.I got the chance to spend a couple of mornings here during a recent visit to Wellington and though I didn't manage to see the spotless crakes or b …

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 managed to fit in a quick trip to Zealandia on a recent weekend visit to Wellington. I didn't have much time but Zealandia never disappoints. Apart from getting some wonderful sitings of rare native birds (tieke, hihi and kaka) the birdsong alone makes any visit to Zealandia worthwhile for me. I was very lucky to see a pair of tieke (saddleback) feeding their almost fully grown young.Just as the tieke moved off this tui came and landed right beside me in the flax.Then I had an amazing mom …