Spring is here (it officially starts on September 1st) and Noreen has returned with the camera. We'll put up some of her pictures from Europe when she recovers from jet lag but in the meantime I thought I'd take a few around the garden as it it starting to show signs of life. Here are some of the daffodils and violets
and our
daphne bush.
I have been planting
coprosma up the bank. Here are specimens of two differnt coloured species (yellow-green in the foreground and red in the centre).
We went for a walk down to the Botanic Gardens. Here are Noreen, Nico and Jenny with her new camera taking a photo of me taking a photo ...
We have a fair number of birds in our garden.
Tui love to perch up in the tall trees. I shot this against the light and used some fancy processing to get some contrast in the image.
We saw this one in the Botanic Garden and are not sure exactly what it is. Our best guess is a
ruru (scroll down to the bottom of that document) or possibly a juvenile
New Zealand Falcon (Karearea) but it seems a funny time of year for that.
[Update: it appears it is a karearea - see the comments]
and our daphne bush.
I have been planting coprosma up the bank. Here are specimens of two differnt coloured species (yellow-green in the foreground and red in the centre).
We went for a walk down to the Botanic Gardens. Here are Noreen, Nico and Jenny with her new camera taking a photo of me taking a photo ...
We have a fair number of birds in our garden. Tui love to perch up in the tall trees. I shot this against the light and used some fancy processing to get some contrast in the image.
We saw this one in the Botanic Garden and are not sure exactly what it is. Our best guess is a ruru (scroll down to the bottom of that document) or possibly a juvenile New Zealand Falcon (Karearea) but it seems a funny time of year for that. [Update: it appears it is a karearea - see the comments]
2 comments:
Jenny e-mailled the Wingspan Trust - this is their response
From: Jen Jewell
To: Daddy Dyk Work
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 12:14 PM
Subject: Fwd: Falcon sighting
Cool! We see'd a falcon!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Noel Hyde & Debbie Stewart Date: Sep 3, 2007 5:38 PM
Subject: RE: Falcon sighting
To: Jen Jewell
Hi Jen,
Thank you for your report about NZ falcon – lucky you!!! Without doubt the photo you sent through is Karearea, and I can add that it is an adult male. The males are much smaller than the females, and as adults - the tell tale signs of yellow legs, eye rings and cere.
I will add the information to the database.
Thanking you, it will be very useful for our records.
Regards
Debbie
Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust
P.O.Box 993,
ROTORUA 3040
1164 Paradise Valley Rd
ROTORUA 3072
NEW ZEALAND
Wingspan Office (64) 07 357 4469
Debbie Stewart 027 338 3021
Noel Hyde 021 1443154
Website; www.wingspan.co.nz
E-mail; wingspan@xtra.co.nz
-----Original Message-----
From: Jen Jewell Sent: Sunday, 2 September 2007 5:03 p.m.
To: wingspan@xtra.co.nz
Subject: Falcon sighting
We think we saw a falcon at the Wellington Botanic Gardens this afternoon - we couldn't see it too clearly but have attached photos. I can't supply a map / GPS reference, and we only saw it for a few moments as it flew over our heads and then perched on a nearby branch for a few moments before flying off again. It was alone, not calling or hunting as far as we could tell, sitting in a pine tree. It was quite small, so we wondered if it might be a juvenile, despite the time of year.
Anyway, hope this is of some help in tracking the populations.
Jennyfer.
I said it was a falcon all along! Much too falcon-y to be a morepork! Plus moreporks are nocturnal, and this one was clearly diurnal. :p And it didn't say 'more-pork' like a morepork would've done. Vain birdies, always calling out their own names...
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