Nga Manu Nature Reserve

Not every photoshoot goes to plan and today's one most definitely didn't. The thing is to look for the positives and not dwell on the fact that most of my shots were blurred. The elusive fantail teased me constantly throughout the morning and I still don't have a good fantail image. They are so quick to flit from place to place there's just no time to focus before they are gone again.

This tree (to the left) facinated me with the plants attached to it. It looks like little bears crawling up the tree trunk - very cute. This was shot not long after I had fallen into a hole and got a shoe full of water. I am glad I wasn't on my own because getting out required some tugging. Leaving the track when walking in New Zealand bush is not recommended, even if it is only a couple of steps away.












The next image is a branch of dried seed heads. The bush was covered in them. I didn't notice all the cobwebs over it until I started looking at the photos at home.

There was a lot of fungi about in the bush, it had recently rained and everything was damp. The conditions were good for the fungi to sprout. We came across one of the park staff photographing a fungi on the side of a tree. He took the time to talk to us about what he was doing and why. It was facinating.

I had some fun photographing one bird. To start with he was just standing there watching us, nothing special at all. Then he decided to put on a display for us - I am assuming it was for us because I didn't see another bird there to int erest him in such a way. Perhaps he was just warning us that it was his space and we were intruding, I don't know but it was cute to watch. I am trying to find out what type of bird he is and will update this post when I find it.