The adult black-backed gull (Larus dominicanus, right) had its foot on the food and made it quite clear to the juvenile that it wasn't planning to share this time.
 It was a total lunar eclipse ("Blood Moon") but we only saw the beginning of it.
 I had put some food into the rockpool. The fish (common triplefin, Forsterygion lapillum) were happily eating it when the octopus (Octopus tetricus) quietly reached out with an arm and took it. The fish followed the food as far as they could but weren't able to get it back. The fish showed no fear of the octopus and it showed no aggression towards them. It simply took advantage of the presence of food and benefited by being the larger animal.
 The same migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) that causes problems in some arid countries. In New Zealand it is fairly common in its "solitary phase" but it doesn't reach sufficient numbers to transition to the "gregarious phase" and swarm here.
 One of the rabbit family at home in the grassed area between the campground and the estuary. Wild European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
 A young bird that hasn't yet developed the distinctive black markings on the back of its head and neck (Himantopus leucocephalus).
 The belladonna lilies have beautiful flowers but their presence heralds the change of season.
 The baby sparrows had found the bread on the lawn but still needed a parent to come to feed it to them. House sparrows (Passer domesticus).
 I had seen advertising for blue lotus seeds, whilst also reading that blue colour does not exist in the sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera*. I thought about it for a while, and decided that the only way to know if the "blue" seeds were genuine was to buy some and see what happened. I germinated some in 2024 and this is the first flower. It's a small variety called a bowl lotus and is a nice compact plant that looks great in the collection, but as you can see, the flower is a normal lotus pink, not blue.
*There is a blue-flowered water lily that is commonly called Egyptian blue lotus. It is Nymphaea caerulea and is a totally unrelated plant. The similarity of the common names seems to cause a lot of confusion but I was clear about what I bought. It is Nelumbo and the seeds came with a promise that the flower would be blue.  I found this common Gisborne cockroach (Drymaplaneta semivitta) under a planter in the garden. It had obviously just shed its old exoskeleton and was hiding while waiting for its new soft "skin" to harden up. After a couple of hours it was showing some colour, and by the next day was back to normal and happy to be released back to the garden.
 Simba loves polystyrene. I thought that this packaging "bowl" was more Rani-sized, but Simba got there first.
 The next book in the New Zealand bird views series is complete. It covers Australian coots, banded rails, pukeko and weka and is now available for purchase.
The pukeko and its cousins / Raewyn Adams. New Zealand bird views series ISBN : 978-0-473-76754-9 Available from Lulu at this link. I had intended that it be made available through "global distribution" the same as the previous books, but the rules have changed and it wasn't eligible so is only available via the Lulu link above. The problem is the combination of quality paper to enhance the photos and paperback binding to keep the price down.  Rani was poking about in the back yard and found a plant pot exactly the right size.
 This one is the first flower from a seed I grew in 2021. It's a nice bright pink but was supposed to be white.
 Adult at right, juvenile at left. The young bird was searching for its own food to an extent but was still expecting the parent to feed it (Gymnorhina tibicen).
 These are mallards crossbred with domestic ducks (all Anas platyrhynchos).
 This is low tide at the reef that had all the swells over it on the 17th. It's about 900m from the beach
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AuthorThis page highlights one photo from each outing. The subjects will vary - it will be whatever caught my eye or was most special on that day. Categories |
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