Blog

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 …

Last year nikon released a new 500mm lense using phase fresnel technology to create a more compact telephoto lense. It had good reviews so I ordered one at the beginning of October 2018. Five months later it has finally turned up after a long wait as worldwide demand immediately outstripped supply.  Naturally I've immediately been out to see how it performs and must say I'm really impressed by the results.  It's light weight and compact and fast to lock onto its focus. I'm pretty pleas …

One of my favourite locations for bird photography around New Plymouth is the Waiwhakaio river mouth. It's only a small wetland area but we get a good variety of birds here. Unfortunately the New Plymouth District Council are currently threatening to revoke the reserve status of some of this land and sell it off for housing development. Further urban encroachment will directly impact on the bird populations in this fragile area so if you live in New Plymouth I would encourage you to make a su …