Spent a quiet day recovering and sorting out photos as well as getting gear ready for the next part of our trip.The trip to TiriTiri Matangi was the best trip I've done to the island since I first went there. Helped by staying overnight on the island, but also by the number of birds now living on the island. An absolutely amazing place for the wildlife in New Zealand.
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| Lighthouse and resident island Rangers house. |
Keeping with my new Friday tradition, Ive decided on two beers for this evenings consumption. I’ve never tried either of them. First up the Red Baron Amber Ale and then another Tuatara beer, this time the Porter. The foreground in this shot is a few souvenirs from the supports shop on the Island, a couple of hand painted tiles.
So here’s the best of my photos from the two day’s spent on TiriTiri Matangi Island. We got to see most of the birds that live on the island as well as lots of Ganets fishing just of the rocky coast line.
The Takahe ( I think of them as monster mowing machines), real characters and easy to get close to most of the time, hence why they are endangered.
Yvonne got this shot of one cleaning it’s feathers… classic
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| What is it ... |
The North Island Kokako was a really nice surprise to see. I've only seen them once before as they skipped from tree to tree past me. This time we spent 15 minutes watching them, and they got close enough in clear view to take some shots.
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| North Island Kokako |
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| WhiteHead |
The little whiteheads were ridiculously fast and hard to photography on the forest floor,
Last time I was on Tiritiri only saw one Saddleback, this time I saw 50 odd. They were all over the place and would come within two meters of you if you stood still for a minute.
There were lots of Stitchbirds about feeding at the sugar water sites that the DOC guys put out for them, they are heaps of fun to photograph and made a hell of a racket.
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| Stitchbird |
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| Stitchbird high on sugar water |
Funnily enough I didn't really get alot of shots of Tui’s, and they are everywhere on the island. These shots Yvonne took.
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| Tui |
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| Tui |
The North Island Robin were fun to watch and we found one that was extremely happy for me to get so close I could have reached out and patted it.
Then Yvonne out did herself … and me by getting a photo of a Brown quail, the little zoomie birds are everywhere but they are normally super scatty and dive for the undergrowth at a mouse whisper. I had to do a bit of Photoshop work to bring up the exposure, but still a great shot of a very scatty bird.
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| Brown Quail |
The Bell Birds where also everywhere singing away nonstop.
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| Bell Bird |
The mighty Kereru or New Zealand Pigeon. Walking along the track and scared one off it's perch at about my head height, not sure who got the biggest fright, me or the bird. They camouflage so well.
The Red-crowned Parakeet or Kakariki was the hardest to get a shot of, we saw heaps of them but always to late as we scared them off since they blended into the bush so well.
Then finally, on the way back from the island some dolphins turned up for a show.
A stunning couple of days, I think the pictures say enough about the place,..amazing.
Stunning shot of the Dolphin, timing spot on
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