Aisatsu

Aisatsu

This blog is for family and friends, to share my feelings and photos with and for myself, to support my fading memory. Readers who have my site translated automatically, please refer to the original if necessary. Especially when it comes to identification. Any comments, anonymous or by email name are always welcome!.

Tuesday 31 January 2012

New Zealand 9


One early morning we drove to Ngurunguru. While Jaap ran a few km, I strolled along the beach.

Greenshanks, waiting for the sun to rise.

With their slightly up-curved bills they seem to look the same as ours


Paradise Shellducks flying overhead


  
Also on the beach: this bird that acts like a wagtail: New Zealand Pipit?


 
One of many wild flowers: Foxglove


  
On farmland at Kiripaka: Feral Geese and a Muscovian Duck


More ducks, in the town basin of Whangarei. I took this photo for the light on a bright sunny day. The ducks just happened to be there.


a nose-diving Welcome Swallow; nice name


An outburst of color in an all green Glenbervie Forest: Eastern Rosella


 
  
Beach kill: Left a shearwater, right a Little Blue Penguin.
What did they die of? Old age?
Too bad I could not see them alive.


New Zealand 8



A little bit of everything:


First the Song Thrush, my favorite.


Shining Cuckoos are difficult to distinguish with their green coloring


Another Shining Cuckoo in the bamboo


Finches of all kinds, here the Yellow Hammer


and a distant Goldfinch


  
Raptors of course, probably Australasian Harriers




Skylarks singing high up in the sky


  
 or scaling a steep mudwall, looking for insects.


And  –  another Pohutukawa, this majestious tree just one of many.



Wednesday 25 January 2012

New Zealand 7


Always enticing me to follow them, the California Quails.

male

female







They seem to think the world belongs to them, muttering about in gardens, taking the chicks for a walk on the driveway



  

Fluttering up to take place on a post, treetop or L&M’s new sophisticated garden umbrella to get a better view.


Lining the road towards town, ever so pretty Agapanthus


  



The Spurred-winged Plovers are self-introduced Lapwings from Australia.



They use their nail-like spurs like weapons
It gives these birds an unfriendly, vicious image.

Extended spurs before landing


Another Pohutukawa shot, this time with a House Sparrow. 











Monday 23 January 2012

New Zealand 6

No beach without a Dotterel







 


Once more at Mimiwhangata.



 
'hiding' between the pebbles



The question is: Are they all the New Zealand Dotterels?


the beach at Mimiwhangata. (see those mussles on the rocks? Scroll to the right)


 
The NZ White-eye is called Silver-eye





 
Marleen told me they hardly ever visit the Pohutukawa's, so I guess this is a lucky shot.





  

A piece of dried what? Kelp? Sjaak picked up from the beach.


Wild roses flowering in December