Tuesday 7 September 2010

Shots of the Day

A gloomy, mainly wet day today but it had its share of redeeming moments. Standing near the riverbank I captured a few frames of a passing Harrier. Not great on their own but a montage of three images made a pretty cool pic. The young hawks are dark chocolate coloured and get paler as they age so this one has a few years under its belt. The Kaka Beak is in flower at the moment and has been discovered by resident tui and bellbirds in the last week. I have been waiting for a fine day so I can photograph the irridescence in the plumage of the tui but the weather has not been co-operating.
Amazing colour in the Kaka Beak flowers!
The dude below could be easily mistaken for a sparrow, in fact it is often called a Hedge Sparrow. Technically it is a different family and more correctly termed a Dunnock.
In my last shot a female Blackbird hides among the Bluebells. I'm hanging out for the sun to come out again! Maybe tommorrow.

4 comments:

Bon said...

The photo of the Tui is stunning.

T'zignz Treasury said...

Beautiful photos as always Mandy. Didn't know about the "Dunnocks" though... they're not even in my NZ wildlife feildguide book! Lol! I'll have to keep an eye out for those little guys.

The sun has come out here today, after two days of horrible rain... I hope it has up there for you as well. :0)

Mandy said...

Thanks for your comments. Yes T'zignz we are blanketed by rainclouds and have been for a few days. Send us up some of that sunshine. My tui shots would have improved immensely with some better light. I have just realised the flowers in the dunnock and blackbird shots are grape hyacinths not bluebells. I just love them tho.

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