New Zealand
This is our beautiful New Zealand Pigeon which we're privileged to see quite often down south. We see them in both urban and rural areas where there is bush nearby. They like to perch on powerlines so we often see them from the road in places like The Catlins (rural) or Dunedin (city). It's also... Continue Reading →
As we walked down to the large ponds I spotted a couple supervising their quintuplets.. a black swan family out for a jaunt. The parent I assumed to be dad was at the rear and standing tall, on guard and alert, feathers ruffled. Mum was busy having a feed. I saw the cygnets hurrying along... Continue Reading →
Introducing you to Huffy Puffy the handsome white male turkey that inhabits an animal enclosure at Queens Park in Invercargill. I've only posted a Bum Photo of this delightful bird before but during our visit yesterday he again came over to us and showed us his fine plumage. He doesn't seem to have much luck... Continue Reading →
The aviary is part of Queens Park, Invercargill (Southland, New Zealand) but you feel like it's in a little world of its own. To enter you cross a bridge over water, creating distance from the rest of the gardens.. and inside there's magic if you want to find it. All photos by Nigel except the... Continue Reading →
This white male turkey was making every effort to court the white female turkey in the enclosure. He'd puffed up all his body feathers, raised his tail feathers, and was strutting quietly and attentively around her. Not so easily impressed, she walked off to a little hut and ignored him. Meanwhile I'd been watching from... Continue Reading →
I recently found Samuel Bloch on Twitter - he's been travelling in New Zealand and taking awesome photos. Samuel describes himself as a French birder and photographer. He has a WP blog Eiwawar which I follow. Today he published a particularly fine post with photos of scenery and birdlife that he encountered while travelling the... Continue Reading →
Without question this is the best boutique cafe that we've ever been to. Robin Stock the owner has been in New Zealand for over 20 years, well-travelled (has been a mural painter) and hails from London/Sussex (UK). This tiny cafe is in North Oamaru and Robin offers a hearty welcome, banter, and delicious food and... Continue Reading →
A small selection of blue images courtesy of Tracy who lives in Australia and blogs at Reflections of An Untidy Mind. She posted the images Aug 15, 2018 and I spotted the post yesterday when it appeared as a "related post". Blue for You -- I chose my favourite five photos from Tracy's post Blue... Continue Reading →
The colours, flowers, wildlife and landscapes of Australia draw me like a magnet. Through Twitter I found nature photos taken by Carol Probets and requested permission to share her lyrebird photo here on my blog. From Carol's tweets I learned that the name lyrebird comes from the tail's similarity to a lyre, an ancient type... Continue Reading →
Kakapo are a very special and endearing native New Zealand parrot of which there are few left (currently only 142 alive, plus 72 chicks that aren't included in the count until they're older). The Dunedin Wildlife Hospital has been caring for a lot of this season's chicks - today I found a great video about... Continue Reading →
The yellow-eyed penguin or hoiho is endemic to New Zealand and much effort is put into trying to look after and protect those that are left - their conservation status is Threatened - Nationally Endangered which means they are facing high risk of extinction in the short term. One bright winter's day in Dunedin we... Continue Reading →
Spotted shags and a single gull, found by Nigel yesterday when he visited the Kaka Point area in The Catlins. Looking at the photos last night, neither of us knew the identity of this shag but I'm confident from my online research that these are Spotted Shags. This is on the south coast of the... Continue Reading →
