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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 …

Signs of spring, cherry in blossom and the first iris opening in the garden.Air Fragrant from cherry blossom The first iris opening Fresh spring colours Beauty unfolding Soul flowing out into the oceanThese images are taken using photostacking. I took approx 20 photos at different focal plains to cover teh full depth of field of the flower and then combined them using Zarene Photostacker. …

We managed to get away for a mid winter break to Rarotonga.  We struck gold with the weather getting a whole week of fine sunny days and had a really great holiday. We stayed in a beach front house in Titkaveka right next to one of the best reefs for snorkling so were very much spoilt being able to kayak or snorkle from our back door every day.  Beautiful clear days, great sunsets and some stunningly clear nights with great views of the milky way stretchig over the lagoon.We did a …

Yesterday, in the heavy rain I noticed a juvenile kahu or swamp harrier on our lawn apparantly trying to wait the rain out. By the time the rain stopped it looked pretty saturated and though it tried to spread its wings and shake the water out it appeared to be struggling and quite shaky.At one point an adult kahu came and landed beside it and then after a few minutes flew off again. The juvenile stayed on the lawn for another couple of hours every so often spreading its wings but obviously not …

I decided to go and look for the New Zealand dotterel or tuturiwhatu again at the Waiongana river mouth in the weekend and was lucky enough to find a pair hunting for food on the beach.  Dotterel are fiesty little birds and don't seem to be too fazed by the presence of humans.  These ones came up quite close to me, one of them to within a couple of meters getting inside the minimum focal length of my lense.The Waiongana river mouth is one of the few places along the Taranaki coast wher …