pukekos and paraponters.

I found a great spot in Tauranga to photograph Pukeko today. Theres a walkway around the saltmarsh in Matua so the birds there are quite used to people and not at all shy. The pukeko is a species you really have to admire for their resilience & adaptability despite the fact they have some rather distasteful habits (such as biting the heads off young ducklings!) There was some lovely orange rushes growing in this murky pond, not sure the correct name for these plants but they make for some nice reflections.

Troy and I walked around Mt Maunganui this afternoon. I was looking out for little blue penguins, or seals as I saw one last time I was there not long ago. Troy started taking photos of the paraponters that launch themselves off the Mount summit into the updraft. I took a couple of pics but mainly just watched in awe. I envy birds and the way they can navigate through the air... but would I have the guts to throw myself off a mountain with a parachute on my back?......HELL NO! I'll leave it to the experts.

Fantails and stuff

I knew I couldn't go straight to my studio this morning without going to the park again to look for the falcon! But when I got there I saw heaps of blackbirds on the grass and sparrows in the trees so I knew there were no falcons around. But I still couldn't go without my photo fix for the day so I got this pic of a fantail. I have literally hundreds of photos of fantails but it is surprisingly difficult to photograph them with their tails spread out. Thats why I like this shot. I am fascinated by how they fly, they are so agile and quick in the air.

Got more work done on the Huia painting. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don't. Mostly I like it. Actually there are very few paintings I am ever satisfied with. And I haven't taken the perfect photo yet....but thats good or else I'd give up I guess. I wore a white T-shirt and a brown vest today. I spilled brown paint on my white T-shirt and white paint on my brown vest........go figure!

Went to Opotiki this afternoon to photograph Shellys art work for her exhibition opening on the 8th of next month. Wickedly cool art, very quirky and an awesome venue in the old plunket rooms/public toilets!

Going to Te Puke tomorrow to help set up the Opotiki stand at the Bay Arts exhibition. Will go on to Tauranga for the weekend....wonder what birds I can find there....

Falcon in the park!

I went to the park this morning, it was sunny and I was thinking I might get some more blackbird photos on the way to my studio. When I got there I scanned the vast expanse of green and not one blackbird could I see. Strange! Then I looked up in the elms an there was a large brown bird that resembled a small hawk. I got closer and it appeared to be a falcon but who would believe there'd be a falcon in the middle of a suburban park. Through my zoom I decided it most definitely WAS a falcon. Small and not as brightly coloured as others I've seen but it had the right shape and distinctive dark eye bands. It seemed quite relaxed and not at all worried by me. Something caught its eye and it swooped silently down and landed in the middle of the park near some bushes. Maybe there was a mouse in there but it circled on the ground peering into the dry leaves. I got quite close and it still didn't seem phased. It flew into a nearby silver birch where it began preening. It was only about fifteen feet above the ground and I got some cool photos before I filled my memory card. Damn. Ran back to the car, grabbed a new card and returned to take two more pics before it flew silently away. After talking to a friend who lives nearby I found out there have been three resident falcons during the last couple of years. He thought them to be two adults and one offspring. If thats the case I think it was the younger one I saw today.

My Huia painting is coming on ok. Still a fair way to go with it but its an enjoyable piece to work on.

Blackbirds in the park & new painting "huias"

After the fiasco with the couriers I went to the park to de-stress.....a great place to unwind. Some spring flowers out, daffodils etc, deep breaths, deep breaths. (See Blog below to understand why I'm a nervous wreck.) There are lots of tuis there, one in his favourite perch in a big tree with white berries. He sits there overlooking four cherry trees. Now and then he lands in the cherries to sip nectar from the blossoms but otherwise he sits in the big tree and now and then swoops down to chase a sparrow out of "his" cherry trees. Silly bird, the sparrows don't even steal his nectar. He just likes those trees all to himself.

There are lots of blackbirds around. They spend most of their time on the ground eating worms which somehow they hear in the ground. You can see them listening with their heads on the side before hopping a few steps then stabbing their beaks into the ground to pull the worm out of the moist soil. A fight broke out between two of them over territory I guess and as I had my camera I took some photos.

This afternoon I started another painting. For some reason I seem to go along with a certain style or theme or size and then all of a sudden I need to paint something the opposite of what I have been doing. For instance my huge kotuku painting I began after I'd been doing some really small canvases. So the one I just started is very dark, very bold and very stylised. I will post this pic and update as I go along. At this stage its far from finished and will change lots as it evolves. I think it will anyway. The photo came out pretty dark but never mind.

The bird on the left looks like it has sunglasses on but thats just where I started to paint in the black head. The Huia was a unique species in that the male and female both had very different shaped beaks. I have exaggerated this a bit. This will not be a realist painting anyway. I'll be interested to see how it looks when I've finished!

Couriers...aaargh!

What a crap day! Put ANOTHER three metres of corrugated cardboard on my big Kotuku painting, half a roll of tape and sh*%#loads of string until finally it looked secure....can never be too careful with a $3,000 painting. Went to phone the courier and the conversation went like this....(A much shortened version!)
"I'd like to send a large package to Auckland please"
"Sure, do you have prepaid tickets on it?"
"No."
"We can't pick up unless it has pre-pay tickets on it. You'll have to buy them from the post office."
"Do you charge by weight or size?"
"We charge by weight."
"Well I have no idea what it weighs and I have no way to weigh it."
"You could always take it down to the depot and send it from there."
"OK, Thanks."
I hang up remembering that it doesn't fit in the car. Phone Troy....HELP ME?!!!
Troy calls in and carries my beloved Kotuku painting down the stairs for me and SOMEHOW squeezes it in the car for me. He follows me to the Mail Centre and we both wriggle and struggle to get it out. He leaves me to it, I ring the bell and wait for help. A lady arrives and when I tell her I need to send this to Auckland she says I have the wrong place and points to another warehouse about two hundred metres away. Perhaps she senses I'm about to lose it so grabs a large trolley and the two of us get my Kotuku painting down to the right warehouse. I tell the man I want to send it to Auckland and he says "Oh then you'll need some pre-paid tickets." Apparently they sell them down the Post Office. (No Shit!) "You'll need a seven dollar ticket and two excess tickets." (Whatever an excess ticket is!) I head off to the Post Office where there is a large queue. Up at the counter I ask for a seven dollar courier pre-paid ticket and two excess tickets. The lady says "We only have five or fifteen dollar tickets."
"So just sell me enough tickets to get a seven kilo package to Auckland please."
"But that will be forty dollars!" She looks disbelievingly at me.
"I really don't care HOW MUCH JUST GIVE ME THE TICKETS!!!!.............please."
I get back to the mail centre and realise she has given me a FIVE dollar courier ticket and two excess tickets. (Whatever an excess ticket is.) The man has gone but the lady says she will give him the tickets. I hope the five dollar ticket will get my bloody kotuku painting there! Oh, and not forgetting the two excess tickets,...(whatever the hell they are!)