Pukeko, Waxeye and Fungi at Nga Manu

We walked around the bush at Nga Manu, up to the lookout tower, past the eel feeding station and while we saw lots of birds flying about, the opportunity to photograph them just wasn't there. I surprised at the amount of fungi still about in the bush though and did take the time to capture that. There were some interesting fungi that I don't often see. The basket fungi is one I haven't see for about 6 years now, so I was rather excited not only to see it but to recognise what it was. The first time I saw it I had no idea and had to look it up when I got home. Unfortunately there wasn't a good example of the full basket, many of them were past their best by the time we got there and several others were still to appear from their buds.

There are plenty of pukeko at Nga Manu but none of them were keen to pose for me - that is until we entered the Kea enclosure and found a Pukeko. Funniest looking Kea I ever did see! I don't know why he was in there but he had no plans on moving from where he was so of course I took advantage of that. The sun was shining down through the trees on to him and he was soaking it up.

Just as we were about to leave the reserve, we passed a bird feeding station where there was a flock of Waxeyes (or Silvereyes). They were darting about so fast that I had to focus on the tree branch and just wait in the hope that one would land on it. I was lucky a few times thankfully.

This time next week I will be heading out to Tiritiri Matangi. I hope the weather is as good then as it is today.

Kereru and Kea at Nga Manu

The sun came out to play for a few hours yesterday so we hopped in the car and headed out to make the most of it. A visit to Nga Manu in Waikanae was just the thing for a sunny Sunday morning. Spring is obviously just around the corner because there were new lambs in the paddocks on the way there and once there the tuis were busy flitting about singing to each other in a way to attract each other. It's amazing just fast they get about being such big birds in the dense bush.

We saw a few fantails but I didn't manage to get focused on them fast enough to get a good image - that is still a goal of mine - maybe at Tiritiri. The keas were very active too. A couple of them were chasing each other round the enclosure, one was posing on a branch and the other was trying to untie my shoe laces! He had no fear of humans and was not concerned about the fact that I was in his space.

The highlight of the day ( for my husband anyway) was the kereru. It was looking very healthy (read that as fat and heavy!) and it decided that my head was a good spot to fly to. It landed with a thud on my head and clawed in to stay there. I was not very impressed and had a headache for sometime afterwards but that didn't stop me getting some great shots of it before we left.

 I haven't processed all the photos that I took yet, these are just a few of them. I will add some more in the next few days. Enjoy!

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.