Blog

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 …

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 …

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 some photos of some beautiful little silvereye (tauhou) in our garden drinking nectar from the hebe flowers.  The silvereye are frequent visitors to these hebe frequently arriving in a small flock and filing it with movement as they not only feed on the nectar but also pick it clean of insect pests and caterpillars. Silvereye are very versatile little birds with a wide range of diet feeding on nectar, berries, seeds, fruit insects and caterpillars. They've been very successful at ada …