Hot Sunday

On the hottest day for I can't remember how long my better half decided to go for a mountain bike ride. Why?....well I have no idea but somehow I was talked into going along and walking the track. (I sold my bike after getting a wickedly sore butt from riding it despite all the built in padding I carry.) The track was through the bush near Lake Rotoma and I decided I would leave the camera in the car and get some brisk excercise while Troy did the loop on his bike. I had hardly gone a hundred metres before I had to turn back and grab the Canon as there was a little male Tomtit checking me out but when I returned he had disappeared of course. Wandering on I found this Bush Giant Dragonfly. Apparently it can eat 20 houseflies in an hour and can eat insects as large as cicadas.*

Speaking of cicadas, I found this golden coloured specimen entangled in a spiders web. I have no idea which species - New Zealand has 40 species but there are 2500 species worldwide.

What was supposed to be a vigorous excercise session turned out to be a slow meandering journey of discovery as I wove my way through the forest enjoying its cool and quiet wonders. Then we went home where it was exceptionally hot so we stripped off our clothes and flopped into our little blow up swimming pool. Lucky we have no close neighbours.

*Insect info from the book "Which New Zealand Insect?" by Andrew Crowe.

frogs for breakfast?

Recently I was just thinking how long its been since I've seen the herons fishing on the mudflats. They were absent again this morning so I went for a walk and discovered one at the dyers pool.

I have been hearing a loud chorus from the resident frogs in this pond on many a morning visit so perhaps the heron had been hunting them. A big fat frog would make a nice breakfast for a heron.

And he had the perfect perch!

When a cicada landed on the herons perch it almost became a snack but luckily for the cicada the birds neck wasn't quite long enough.

Whale Island Seal Census

On our second trip to Whale Island/Moutuhora for the seal count the weather was much more favourable. I was surprised to spot this female sunbathing on a dead tree - who knew seals climb trees?

The big male below had a face to die for.

This female was a mum with a pup about six weeks old, one of six we found on the island.

And just check out the baby......how cute is that!!!All in all it was a lovely afternoon with some good results. However I would have given anything to have been on the morning charter when Phil our diveworks Skipper had taken a group out to sea. They had come across a small group of dolphin and one of the females had just given birth. All those aboard had been delighted to watch the Mum hold her newborn baby up to the surface to breathe, at times carrying her tiny infant on her back! Imagine the photos I could have taken......... sigh!!!

Miles Art Award

In December I won the Miles Art Award in Tauranga with my painting "Mackerel in Tomato Sauce." I felt very honoured to win the award especially after seeing the exhibition in the Tauranga Art Gallery. The exhibition finishes on the 27th February 2011.

Seal census White Island

Recently I have been very lucky to have been asked out on a number of boat trips to count seals on our two offshore Islands of Whale Island/Moutuhora and White Island/Whakaari. The census is part of the work done by the Department of Conservation and is undertaken by Rosemary Tully of Whakatane Bird Rescue and Phil van Dusschoten who is our skipper and is from Diveworks Charters.

The first trip was to Whale Island and it was a dark drizzly day, not good conditions for photography. The next was to White Island, our local offshore active volcano and the day was a cracker! The sea was as flat as a mill pond and the closer we got to the island the more seabirds we saw. Because it was so smooth I was able to lean over the side of the boat and snap the birds as they flew alongside us. The Bullers Shearwaters were my favourites and I was amazed at how they soared so low over the water that their wingtips skimmed the surface!

This is a Sooty Shearwater or Muttonbird which is a dark chocolate brown.

The gannet with its distinctive yellow head breeds on White Island so there were plenty of these about.

Once at the Island we had lunch floating above a clear garden of kelp and fish while gannets circled to land at their rookery on the cliff above us. Finally we set off in search of seals. Phils boat was perfectly suited to the task as we could get very close to the rocky shore and navigate around rocky outcrops.

We found a lone male but he was to prove the only seal spotted all day so our tally was a grand total of one!

There was plenty of action in the crater with plumes of steam rising from the arid volcanic landscape. Its such a spectacular Island and I was constantly amazed at the clour and movement in the geology of the coastline. All too soon we were done and the Island was slowly shrinking into the distance as we motored home. There was more excitement to come however when Phil spotted a Mako shark jumping. Fortunately I still had my camera around my neck and switched on so I instinctively focused on the spot where the shark had jumped knowing they usually jumped two or three times. (Phil had told me that piece of intormation on the way out when I had seen another mako jump in the distance.) Sure enough it came up again and I quickly snapped this series of three shots which were later published in the New Zealand Herald.
All in all it was a fantastic day, the ocean couldn't have been better and there was never a shortage of things to see.....unless you count the seals of which there was only one!

For more info on a charter of your own visit www.whaleislandtours.com