More from Hamilton Zoo

Yesterday I was talking about being at the Hamilton Zoo. Today is more of the same, however it is focused totally on the birds and the large walk in aviary. While I was there one of the zoo keepers came in to refill the feeding stations and she saw me photographing one of the Kereru. She pointed out to me that he was a little ugly around the head because some time ago he had flown into the netting and damaged himself.  He is now perfectly healthy; however his head feathers never grew back the same. He was however very keen to pose for the camera!

 

The white-faced heron was also quite happy to pose for the camera, so long as there was a mouse for him at the end of it. After being given one treat (mouse) he followed the zoo keeper about in the hope of getting a second one that she was carrying around. Of course he succeeded. He was fun to watch as he grabbed the mouse and then ran down the walkway to eat it in peace.

There were lots of kakariki in the aviary, both red faced and green. They were a bit more stand offish but when there was fresh food to be had they didn’t seem to mind coming in a bit closer. It was about this time that my card was full on the camera and I was busy changing it as two kingfishers flew to the ground at my feet fighting each other. I did my best to get the camera back together in time to photograph them but alas they were too quick or I was too slow.

The light in the aviary was quite dark and I did struggle with this a bit. I missed some awesome photos by having the settings not quite right for the light. There was a pair of kokako flitting about in front of me and trust me when I tell you they move fast! I didn't get the shot I wanted but I did get one or two.

 All the while I was sitting there watching and photographing the birds, I had a pesky kaka trying his best to get on my shoulder. If I shooed him away once I did it a dozen times but he kept coming back. In the end, thankfully, he decided my husband’s shoulder was much more interesting and started smooching about in his beard. The kaka was happy, not sure about the husband!

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!