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.

Kaka Beak

I just realised its been a while since I posted any of my paintings. Mainly because I have been working on another large painting for the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Awards in January and its taking me a while. Paintings for awards are created a whole lot differently from paintings for galleries as you only need to impress one person, namely the judge and they will be someone who appreciates originality & anything goes. Thats why my current painting includes a goat skull. But I seem to be collecting "weird" paintings that I have done for competitions but no-one wants to hang on their wall. Too bad, they're the ones I like the most.

The above painting is one that has been very poular with the public and I like it too. Its called "Kaka Beak" after the red native flowers named for their shape. The bird in it (obviously) is a Kaka, our native forest parrot. Now and then in early spring one or two kaka visit certain trees in the Whakatane township to feed.
This painting will hang in the upcoming exhibition by the Opotiki Art Society opening on the 27th November, 13 King St, Opotiki. Oh and I've also just hung four works in the Whakatane Museum Foyer for a month. Below is a kaka I photographed at Mt Bruce a year or so ago. One of my favourite pics, think I've posted it before.