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After several days of blustery stormy weather, this morning dawned fine and clear in New Plymouth with Taranaki standing bold and clear on the horizon with a fresh dusting of spring snow. I headed out early to get some dawn photos of the mountain and then see what bird life might be about at the Waiwhakaio river mouth, one of the best spots near New Plymouth to see a wide variety of bird life.The sand dunes, with regeneratng natives, and clumps of boxthorn seems to provide great habitat for smal …

Sunday morning was a great morning for photography. I woke early , around 4:30am, and saw that the mountain was standing clear with the moon close to setting so I set off to do some early morning photography. First stop was Port Taranaki to get some  early dawn/night shots of the mountain rising above the harbour and the coastal city lights. It was a cold spring morning but stunningly beautiful. Then I headed out to the Waiwhakaio river mouth to see what birdlife was about getting some grea …

It's still officially winter, but the cherries have blossomed early and it seems like spring. The garden is full of birds with 30 or 40 tui in the cherry trees drinking nectar and chasing each other around. The tui are very territorial and defend the cherry trees chasing other birds out. A game of chase has developed between the tui and the silvereye.The tui tend to feed in the top of the tree and the silvereye keep sneaking into the bottom branches until the tui spot them and chase them out. Th …

We've got plenty of small birds in the garden at the moment. There always seems to be a flock of silvereye (tauhou) around somewhere either in the trees or in the hebes and there's always a couple of fantails (piwakawaka) flitting around.  More elusive are the grey warbler (riroriro) which I often see flitting around in the shadows but are much more difficult to photograph.  I always get a thrill when I get a good shot of a grey warbler, they never sit still and at best you get two sec …

Here's a collection of birds spotted in our garden this week. The eastern rosellas are getting easier to spot now that the leaves have fallen. During summer we see them flying between trees and then just here them chattering away out of site so I was really pleased to get these shots of them in the top of our golden elm.  The pheasant has been particularly difficult to photograph. He's very wary, any hint of a movement to pick up a camera and he's off so I was really thrilled when I got thi …