Blog

One of my favourite coastal walks is to head north from Bell Block beach and walk along under the cliffs until you get to the Waiongana river mouth. It's a low tide walk and takes about an hour to get to the Waiongana river. Near the rover, you get fantastic views of Taranaki apprearing above the breaking surf and the coastal cliffs. Typically, I also see a lot of birdlife along this section of coast and frequently see both New Zealand and banded dotterels around the Waiongana river mouth where …

One of my favourite places to photograph kotare (the NZ sacred kingfisher) is the West End beach rock pools. From early Autumn the kotare migrate to the coast looking for food in the rock pools and can be seen in reasonable numbers at low tide. I often see ten or more of them foraging in the rock pools just along from West End beach. The best time to go is when low tide occurs at sunrise so you get the kotare lit up by the beautiful warm tones of the morning sun. And of course its also a good pl …

Piwakawaka or fantail have always been one of my favourite native birds. I have many memories as a child of sitting under the trees in my grandparents garden watching the fantails flitting about. We have fantail in our garden most of the time often coming around and investigating when I'm gardening but mysteriously disappearing when I go outside with a camera.  They are tricky little birds to get good photos of because they are always on the move and rarely sit still for more than a fe …

It's that time of year when we get some spectacular sunsets in New Plymouth with the sun setting behind the Sugarloaf Islands. I'm very fortunate that I work close to the foreshore and on most evenings I get to watch the sun set over the sea as I leave work. These photos are all taken from the foreshore rocks by the coastal walkway. …

In New Plymouth, the foreshore rock pools are a great place to see kingfisher (New Zealand Sacred Kingfisher or Kotare) during Autumn and winter. The kingfisher tend to congregate along the coast during winter months as it gets harder to find food inland over this period. For the last couple of days, low tide has been at sunrise making it ideal conditions to get photos of the kingfisher among the rock pools lit up by the warm tones of the morning sun.West end beach has been my favourite palce to …