Frogs, Eels, Banded Rails & Spoonbills.

Last Tuesday I was on the stopbank by the skate park and heard frogs. I ventured down the boardwalk to the small pond behind the supermarket carpark and there, on a small log sat the most georgous brownish green frog, very fat and well camouflaged! I took some photos then realised there was another frog sitting on the other end of the log. A lovely green frog with intriguing patterns in its back - a face? I've always loved frogs & as a kid I kept many as pets. Disturbing to hear reports their numbers are in decline due to global warming or pollution so great to find these two!

Another creature I love is the eel and I often see them cruising the edge of the river. I know for a fact the herons love eels also although in a different capacity! I have more than once witnessed a shag or heron pull a young eel out of the water, the bird then faced with the difficulty of trying to swallow its catch while the eel has wrapped itself tightly around the birds bill! Catching them is the easy part - swallowing them presents a whole new set of difficulties.

I was amazed to spot a pair of banded rails down on the mudflat! Very timid birds and I got a couple of pics but only from a distance, they were quick to spot me and ran for cover.

AND the best news of the day was that the spoonbills are back. Well the first pair anyway. The most we had last winter was seven with a usual total of three or four. They arrive at least a month before the Kotuku and stay about a month longer. I am expecting a pair to stay in the area to breed before too long since they have begun to breed in other areas of the country rather than restrict themselves to Okarito. These two looked in wonderful condition with glossy white plumage.

Pacific Reef heron

Last week a couple of Reef Herons moved onto the mudflats. Actually there have been three in total but they are mainly solitary feeders so I have only once seen all three at a time. They are not common birds, their numbers having dropped in the last few decades due to humans encroaching into their nesting habitat (which is rocky coastlines.)

In the past whenever I have tried to photograph Reef Herons they have been exceptionally difficult to approach.

When I saw one last week it was perched on a dead tree surrounded by water on a very high tide. I remember a friend telling me she could get quite close to reef herons when she was on the water in her kayak. I thought it might be worth quietly wading out in the water with my camera. The heron watched me but began preening so very slowly I got closer and closer. Before long the bottom of my 3/4 length pants got perilously close to the water so I wound them up. The closer I got to the bird, the deeper the water became until very soon my pants were well and truly wet. Finally the heron dropped down into the water and began fishing.

By this stage my arms and shoulders were beginning to ache (big lens gets very heavy after a while) but the water was quietly receding so I dropped onto one knee and rested an elbow on it while I got some great shots of the bird in action. He fed very differently from the more common white faced heron, running after fish with wings sometimes outstretched. He was so entertaining I didnt realise my pants were in the tide almost up to my crotch! The bummer about my favourite birdwatching possie is that the stopbank runs right by it and all sorts of people walk past and wonder about this weirdo lurking in the mud up to her privates in the riverwater!

Honky the silly Goose.

Most of my bird photography is done on a small stretch of the Whakatane River above the Yacht Club building, a place called the Apanui Saltmarsh. Its a wonderful spot and the variety of birdlife is constantly surprising me especially considering how close it is to the main shopping centre of Whakatane.

So I spend a bit of time there when the weather, light and tides are right, oh and when there are birds about. (Now and then there aren't any.) Just lately there have been a number of Reef Herons on the river. I have seen at least three different individuals and they are not a bird you generally see often. But this blog is not about Reef Herons. (They will feature in my next blog.) This is about "Honky".

Honky has been a resident of the River here for years and is well known to the locals. He is a big white goose ( actually I'm just assuming his gender, he may be a she for all I know but I suspect he is a gander.) At first impression he appears a benevolent bird, especially cruising along in the early morning light....BUT don't let first impressions fool you. He believes he's the boss of the waterways and at times he is the bane of my life. Typically I am in sneak mode, making my way toward a rare photographic subject such as a Reef Heron or the Kotuku, my camera in hand and focusing on my target when, just as I am almost close enough for a decent shot that bloody goose will honk out a warning that would rival any foghorn! All the birds within a mile radius are alerted to my presence and the cocky little bugger swims up and down in front of me, all puffed up with his own importance.

Last week I stopped in first thing and the light was right, the tide was right, there was everything but the birds. I sat myself down on some driftwood to wait and let Honky get that confounded bugling out of his system. There was a shag feeding not far from me and I aimed my camera at him in the hope he would catch himself an eel or flounder. Suddenly Honky decided the shag was encroaching on his territory and flew at him. I was lucky enough to snap an action shot & apart from cropping the tips of his wings off I thought it made a great photo. Paybacks for all those shots you ruined for me you silly old Goose. Thanks Honky.

Little Blue Penguin in the Whakatane River

Oops, just realised this is my first blog for 2009 and its nearly March already! This summer I've been really busy helping with wedding photography, painting and taking photos of course. Enough with the excuses.....

Earlier on in the month I got a text from my Aunt who was walking along the river edge near the Whakatane Heads. She told me of a penguin swimming near the boat ramp. When I got there I was fascinated to watch a little blue penguin chasing small fish, moving quickly along about an inch or two below the water without breaking the surface. He would get in amongst a school of herrings and then swim tight circles around them until he could snatch one up in his beak. Wonderful to watch in the water! I had to rush off way before I was finished watching him. The Little Blue Penguin, smallest penguin species in the world is quite common around our coastline. The next day I went back and sure enough he was there again. I watched him for a while then he swam to the boat ramp and made his way up the edge but when he began to walk it was obvious things weren't as they should be. He was favouring one leg hardly putting any weight on it and then he just rested while two boats were launched only feet away. I realised he may need medical attention so I grabbed a trout landing net from the back of the car and leaning down off the pier popped it over his head. I took him to the local Department of Conservation office and turned him over to Mike Jones. We checked out the injury to his leg and realised it was not a really recent injury and he appeared to be on the mend. But obviously the boat ramp was not the greatest environment as it was not without a number of risks to a penguin so it was decided he would be relocated out to Motuhora (Whale Island).

One of the local fisherman told me the bird had been seen hanging out in the river for about a week and was even seen up as far as the bridge which is about a mile from the rivermouth. As far as I know he got a ride with the D.O.C. officers in a boat that afternoon. Bon Voyage Little Blue!

Tauranga National Art awards.

Its been a while since my last entry because November was a huge month for me. Things were going really well with my entry for the Tauranga National Art Awards. This was a painting that I was constantly challenging myself with. I put lots of research, thought, and emotion into it and felt that was coming through in the painting. It was an emotionally intense process and when I felt it was finally finished I was very happy with the result. (Most unusual!) I should have known it was too good to be true! When it came to varnishing it I had almost run out of the usual product so tried to get more but my supplier had none in stock so to cut a long story short I went with another varnish that proved far from satisfactory! I tried another product to try to get rid of a series of milky streaks but the two mediums were not compatible so I made it worse! It was ruined! Heres a photo of it before the varnish went on. At this point my mood had hit rock bottom. I was in mourning! And I had a party to organise for Troys Birthday feeling far from in a party mood. Saturday morning I prepared food and fussed around looking forward to being able to have a few wines later on. We had lots of family and friends around, had a lovely meal and then Troy said he wanted to make a speech. He asked me to stand next to him, thanked everyone, waffled on for a bit then went down on one knee and proposed to me!!! I'd had no idea this was coming. Of course I said yes! So that pulled me out of my melancholy over the painting and I went back to the studio on Tuesday mentally accepting that I would have no painting entered in the Tauranga Art Awards. Mum came to see me and spied a half finished piece leaning up in the corner. Always a source of encouragement she suggested I finish that painting for Tauranga.....the only problem was that the next day and day after were the delivery days. I had one day to complete it! I went home Tuesday night, planned the rest of the painting and put in twelve hours work on it onWednesday. I was actually really pleased with how it turned out, I must do well under pressure. We delivered it the next day and four days later I got a phone call to say it had won the Supreme Award!

Now I have commissions and a great Gallery wanting my work so lots of work to do! But as always I can find a few moments each morning to photograph my favourite birds on the saltmarsh. The whitebaiters are gone and the herons are reasserting their territorial boundaries. I took this photo which may appear to be part of an elaborate courtship ritual but is in fact a pair of males challenging each other over feeding grounds. One of them had his female mate nearby but despite this he lost to the bachelor heron. The pair were forced to retreat to the other side of the river to feed. The whole standoff lasted only seconds but I do I love this shot! The victor was the bird on the right with his head held highest.

The swallows have hatched their second brood of babies above my studio entrance which means they are twice as fierce protecting the nest! A day or so ago one of them dive bombed my head three times in quick succession and I actually felt it touch my hair. They screech and snap their beak at the moment of contact - amazing how something so tiny can become such an effective assailant! My hair stands on end and I seek shelter as fast as I can!