Paradise Shelducks, Autumn

Paradise Shelducks by Lake Dunstan. Central Otago, New Zealand. 23 April

Bright Sparks

Bright blooms I couldn't miss, I took these photos at Alexandra public garden on 29 January. It was a very sunny, summer day and a beautiful day to be there but challenging for taking photos! Loved all the bright colours and the variety of plants in all shapes and sizes. Plenty of bumblebee buzz. Central...

Busy Bee Visitors

This beautiful paeony put on a generous party, popular with the bees, and they were happily flying in for the feast. On our way to our mini-holiday in Cromwell we called into Alexandra gardens and found paeonies had begun to flower.. that made me happy! I have a few more paeony photos to share from...

Robes of Purest White

As mentioned in Plum Pigeon, we have a native-pigeon-couple spending courting time in our blossoming plum tree. Late on 11th September I noted their presence in the tree and managed to get out there with my cellphone camera. Today while considering this post I decided to search for poems about the New Zealand Pigeon and...

Struck Gold!

Happy to get this shot of a honeybee visiting a kōwhai flower at Dunedin Botanic Garden today in the native collection. I saw a bee enter a flower (and completely disappear up into the flower), got my camera focused and waited for it to back out again 😀 Part of a string of old seed...

You never know what’s around the corner

We were sitting in Filadelfio's pizza and pasta restaurant on 03 Feb when I decided to take a photo of the dinosaur we could see through the window - it's on the other side of the street. As usual I was struggling with the new cellphone camera and just as I was finally ready to...

Bee Feast

Pleased with myself getting this pic of a busy bee. Tiny flowers, and the bees would often land and take straight off again. Nearly gave up but took this one shot before I left. This was in a churchyard in Clyde, Central Otago, New Zealand. ~yesterday [detail pic is a crop]. If you know what...

Komodo National Park – Here Be Dragons…

Real-life first encounter with Komodo Dragons. Absolutely enthralling. When the action starts.. it’s explosive!

“The Komodo is a savage killing machine, fully equipped with the tools required to kill and butcher a meal whenever it chooses.”

Extremely well-written and very engaging but it IS a completely natural predator/prey interaction with a real victim so if you feel sensitive to this type of scenario.. well, you’ve been warned!

I haven’t used the Reblog function for a long time so let’s see how this goes. I’ll just reiterate – this is enthralling and full of action – I was fully engaged all the way through.. spellbound! –Liz 🙂

incidental naturalist

In 2007, a Komodo dragon killed an eight-year-old boy.  This was the first fatal attack on a human by one of the giant lizards in 33 years. “The Komodo bit him on his waist and tossed him viciously from side to side,” a national park spokesman, Heru Rudiharto, said.  “The boy died from massive bleeding half an hour later.”

This is the stuff of legends; huge reptiles capable of killing human beings, living on a remote Indonesian island. This may have been the first fatal attack for a while but it is just one of many attacks on people that have resulted in serious injury.

My childhood fascination with nature grew out of watching the behaviour of amphibians. Like many children, I learned about cycles of life by watching frog spawn become tadpoles and finally crawl out of the water on frogs’ legs. This interest naturally extended to the…

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Fading Beauty

I'm constantly inspired by the work of a myriad of different writers, photographers, artists, tweeters, and the folk who view and comment. This post is nothing to do with me apart from acting as curator.. Fading Beauty. Credits: Leaf skeleton images.. via twitter, from incidental naturalist @IncNaturalist. I was delighted to find David has an...

Grasp the Alligator

A fancy fountain from Dunedin Botanic Garden, New Zealand dating back to 1890 when it was "Erected and presented to the citizens of Dunedin by Wolf Harris Esq", not here but at Queens Gardens in the city. It was removed after WW1 in favour of the Cenotaph, then stored until it was resurrected for the...

Lord and Lady

This Paradise Duck pair were lording it over the Dunedin Botanic Garden main pond when I visited on a dull day on 19 May. These ducks are endemic to New Zealand and are the size of a large duck or small goose. There's no shortage of them, they're the second most common duck in NZ...

Lichen liking local lions

Out on the edge of town, two lions are loyal guardians of the owner's driveway, the same property that has a Colchicum field that I've featured in previous posts. I took these photos when I went for a local wander on 29 March, a lovely autumn day when I took way more photos than I'd...