New Zealand: Muriwai and the Gannet Colony

Each year I go and visit my parents, I like to go and spend a few hours at Muriwai Beach and see the Gannet Colony.  To have a land based Gannet Colony so close to where I used to live is fabulous and it is always good to see them and their young even though it is towards the end of their breeding season.

I picked a good day for it!  Not a cloud in the sky.  Many days were actually as good as this.  You can see for absolutely miles the air is so clear.

They have a couple of points where they nest.  This one is obviously not so close.

The Gannets were continually flying in and out and soaring in the sky.

The darker one is one of the young that will soon be ready to leave.

Looking back at the beach.

Coming in to land.

This white fluffy one is much younger.  I hope it reaches the age it needs to be before it flies off.

Feed me!  

New Zealand Bird Life: Fantail & White Eye

There is an abundance of bird life at my Mum & Dad's property in NZ.  I always try to capture some on film while I am there.  Two of my favourites are the Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) or Piwakawaka and the White-Eye/Waxeye/Silvereye (Zosterops lateralis).  These birds are always busy and very rarely keep still so it can be hard to get a decent photograph of them.  Patience paid off though and I am quite pleased with the photos I managed to get (although hope one day to get a lens more suited to bird photography).  

My Dad and I had planned to spend a day over at Tiri Tiri Matangi Island to see the bird life there, but unfortunately due to the dangerous driving of some woman who crossed over a very wide and raised median barrier and hit him head on, putting him in hospital for a week with extensive bruising, cracked ribs and a damaged heart, this didn't happen.  So we contented ourselves by sitting on the sunny side of the house, talking, reading and watching and listening to birds. It will take sometime for Dad to heal to full health again.  

These little birds can be quite friendly and inquisitive and often flitted in quite close.  Always on the alert for little insects.

These little birds are a lot more cautious and don't get too close or stick around in the same spot for long.  They seem to go round in little groups.  

Eating a pear!

I spy two!

One morning in late April I spotted quite a group of White-eyes on the grass.  Amongst them was also a Chaffinch.

Not the best photos as they were some distance away, but it was amazing to see so many on the ground together.  You usually only see them flitting from tree to tree.