Heretaunga Park

Spring is definitely in the air at Heretaunga Park right now. Everywhere you look there are ducklings. They were happy to sit around near the children playing in the park and happy to have me photograph them. It wasn't until a dog came bounding past that they decided that being out in the water with mum and dad was the best place to be.

I was quite delighted to see these little black and white ducklings. This family of ducks are Putangitangi, or Paradise Shelducks and the ducklings are just gorgeous. They were a little more skittish than the others but with a dog on the other side of the stream they decided that I was the lessor of the two evils. Both parent birds were extremely protective of their young.

Heretaunga Park

After surviving the crowds at the Boxing Day sales in Lower Hutt, we headed out for a quiet walk at Heretaunga Park with the camera. It seemed at first as if even the birds had headed into town to go shopping as they were nowhere to be seen when we first arrived. However having realised we didn't have a dog with us, one by one they eventually came out of hiding and back into view of the camera.

The pukeko had their young in tow and were constantly calling to each other. The young birds didn't have the bright red on their heads like their parents, I assume that comes later with maturity. I will have to do some research on it and let you now at a later date. I am kicking myself for not going to the park earlier in the month when the chicks would have been smaller but I have to admit I completely forgot about them. Oh well, next year.

We sat for a while and watched the ducks - which don't usually excite me enough to photograph them but as they got used to the fact that we were not going to feed them they started actually more natural in their environment and I managed to get a few shots that I am quite happy with.

It was about the time I was looking at the duck images that I realised that my monitor is displaying the photos as being soft of slightly out of focus but when we moved them onto the second monitor they were sharp as. I thought my eyesight was going but it was the monitor at fault, not old age. I have probably been over-sharpening some of my images and it does explain why my soft photos all print out perfectly sharp! So while I am writing this I am also busy downloading driver updates to see if we can improve the display somewhat. Wish me luck!

 

 

Pukeko at Heretaunga Park

Just down the road from where we live is Heretaunga Park. I have only recently started exploring this small park and so far I am enjoying the birdlife living there. There are ducks everywhere you look but I think that is mainly because of the amount of people who feed them there. There are also a large number of pukeko living there.

I followed the pukeko along the riverbank trying to get a clear shot of them and they were very clever at putting themselves between obstacles and me. Clearly they have learned to keep a healthy distance between themselves and anyone or anything else.

One of the houses that backed onto the park had put up a bird feeding station. We saw waxeyes, sparrows and even tui flying to and from the feeding station. There were also fantails flitting about teasing me as they do and I still don't have a good shot of them - all the more reason to go back again.