Chaffinch with a sore head.

A couple of weeks ago I heard a noise that I instantly recognised as the sound of a bird hitting the window. It happens from time to time, sometimes the birds are just stunned, the sit a while, recover , then fly off. Other times they die instantly altho fortunately this hasn't happened very often. Upon investigation I found this chaffinch round the back of the house. I took some photos and played around with this shot in photoshop desaturating the background and manipulating a few different aspects. After a few minutes the bird flew up to alight on a fencepost where I got a few more photos before it flew off with hopefully no more than a splitting headache.

Bun Fight

It seems like months since my last post but I've been SO busy. I've been helping my parents move house from Opotiki to Whakatane, who knew they had so much stuff!!! Especially my Dad who had a whole basement full of...well, everything imaginable to do with fishing and model aeroplane making paraphernalia. I spent yesterday taking things out of boxes, turning them over in my hands and thinking "What the hell IS that?This is one of my favourite photos (taken by Troy.) Its of my Dad with a model WWI biplane called a Sopwith Pup which he built himself from scratch. My favourite plane of his is a much larger Ansaldo, also a WWI biplane which he built as a one quarter scale. I should get a photo of that one to post. It has a chainsaw motor in it and it flies like a dream!

Anyway once we get Dads garage sorted its time for me to do up the sleepout next to it which I am going to rent for my NEW STUDIO! I'm so excited because I can decorate it however I want and altho its only about a third of the size of my last one it'll be just brilliant!

The Folks new place backs on to the Whakatane river, its just over the fence so when its really hot I can swim during my lunch hour. I can walk along the stopbank to the saltmarsh to photograph herons etc & the other day Moko the dolphin was just a little way down the river swimming with the local kids!

During our morning coffee breaks we sit out on the deck and watch the birds fight over bread we put out on the bird feeder. Here are a couple of shots I took during the week of them. I like the action shots of their tussles over the best feeding spots, the little buggers can be quite brutal actually. Talk about survival of the fittest!